Banning wood/coal burning in homes.

[justasking111]

Well living somewhere where we cannot get gas so use oil which is to be banned so they say, using a log burner to augment heating our home for economic reasons. What is everyone going to do now. Electric is so expensive.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51581817

that's what I thought! Who is going to police this outside London, anyway? I doubt the dumbos in my village who burn any tatty old pallet will stop.

Those of us who are not dumbos only burn wood at least two years old, and dry. Otherwise you get less heat and damage the chimney.

it should stop the sales of damp sticks from garages, at least. Another piece of idiot bait as that is a really expensive way of buying wood.

coal ban outside cities - not good. Another case of London bubble. And if you city types think windfarm electricity is renewable, you need to do some reading.

Just buy a moisture content meter. They cost about a fiver. If you're burning wet wood you're asking for trouble anyway.

The ban is on selling wet wood, not on burning it anyway. This will make wood far more expensive though. Kiln dried wood is far more expensive than unseasoned wood.

We do cut and stack the wood from our own land. However, how will we know if it is dried enough to burn to satisfy the government.

You won't have to. The new legislation only applies to firewood sold in quantities under 2 cubic metres.

But surely if you cut and use wood from your land you check the water content first anyway?

We do the same since our entire house is wood fuelled with a log gasification furnace. Every log gets checked though for water content before burning it otherwise its an inefficient burn plus it will tar up the system.

I’m surprises old pallets aren’t dry enough...goes off on a tangent.

@Lexilooo storage heaters make it difficult to control temperature though. We have them and I really loathe them.

Did you not read the article? They are not banning wood burners. Just buy a moisture meter to test your wood, they are only a few quid. You should be doing it any way, burning wet wood clogs up your chimney with residue and risks fire. It also bloody stinks.

Or buy seasoned wood. It’s not difficult.

old pallets may be dry if they have been correctly stored. The buggers round here burn painted/treated ones, wet or dry, as well as chipboard and loads of other shit. Not good.

Chemically fuel is not a good idea, but I think when they say “wet” they mean with sap NOT rain/water. It’s about how “mature” the wood is. Not that burning sodden wood is a good idea I just don’t think that’s what it means.

@ReginaBambina

I am off the gas grid and have electric heating only. Traditional storage heaters do lack controllability and are often undersized and used incorrectly leading to people being unable to keep their home warm. However it is possible to use storage heaters effectively with a bit of planning and the newer ones have much better controls. Look at the dimplex quantum storage heater.

Personally I use my storage heaters to give background heat then use ordinary panel or fan heaters to top up if it is a bit chilly. It works fine but you can't just programme it and forget it like you can with gas central heating.

Wet is wet. You can however have seasoned wood that gets a bit wet in the rain and it doesn't affect it badly. it would still need to dry out again though before being used

I cut and stack like you, op. I start with prunings in March and stack along the shed wall. In November the March wood is dry.

Beyond that, I wouldn’t worry.

The ban of coal is really going to hit my DP and some of my friends quite hard - we live in the North East - and use fires as a main heat source.

Anyone who actually uses fires as their main source of heat knows how much of a difference there is between burning coal and wood - coal gives of 10 times the amount of heat than wood.

They're not banning burning wet wood (as you say, how would they/you know) but banning selling it as fuel.

Personally I can't believe it's taken so long. We had smokeless zones decades ago to deal with smog then everyone seemed to forget what happens when you don't.

I dont know how they can police it.We get our wood for free as dh is allowed to take home pallets,wooden posts etc from the sites hes on for work.They charge a fortune for wood burning logs etc so using left over wood is making use of the stuff that would be thrown away plus it doesnt cost is a penny.We only burn dry wood though.

"wet"wood feels heavier and has a slightly damp smell .Have you got somewhere you can put it to dry at all? (Shed /outhouse ) Wet wood never catches well I find

Smokeless pellets will be permitted I expect, it's cheap "house coal" which is rightly being phased out. This does feel like the passing of an era I guess especially in ex mining areas where a lot of people used to get the free coal.

Totally pandering to popularist perspectives without thinking through the detail. We do need to protect the environment but banning the burning of green wood isn't going to work outside of Hampstead and Holland Park. Meanwhile people jet off on holiday and we breed lots of cows.

Local rural communities are often self sufficient in wood. Most is seasoned over a year. Its probably less damaging to.the environment than additional oil deliveries. Probably less damaging than fracked gas or producing and transporting calor.

Impossible to police. Impossible for many rural poor to replace. Supports local economy and tops up farm workers income.

I dont know how they can police it.We get our wood for free

Then you won't be affected. There is nothing to police. The ban is on selling unseasoned firewood.

Do be aware that often fence posts, fencing and pallets are treated with preservative which gives off very nasty fumes when burnt.

coal gives of 10 times the amount of heat than wood

It's actually only about twice as much...

Log wood (stacked - air dry: 20% MC): 4.1 kWh/kg
Wood (solid - oven dry): 5.3 kWh/kg
House coal: 7.5-8.6 kWh/kg

@PhoneLock - that's still a heck of a lot.
And it ignores burning time / sitting time - you can leave coal sitting without adding anything to it for hours, without worrying about it going out (unlike wood) and it will still give off masses of heat.

Also, because of the way it burns, the heat doesn't escape up the chimney as much - it is a less 'immediate' heat source.

Also - if you worked out that as a volume - think how much more wood you'd need (volume wise) to create the same amount of heat as coal.

Don't get me wrong - I am an environmentalist and I'm all in favour of people adding a couple of solar-thermal panels to heat their houses instead. Or an Air-source-heat-pump. But I feel like this is a policy which has been written by rich city southeners, who see fires as an aesthetic luxury. I bet some are so out-of-touch that they don't realise that it's an essential method of heating for some of the poorer people in the country.

ICECREAMDIVA, peat briquettes, ? that’s terrible. Peat bogs hold tonnes of carbon. Anyway yes I too have a log burner, just finished paying for it as well

I burn oak. It doesn't go out, not even in an open fire. The fire is usually still in the next morning after being left unattended all night.

We gave up burning stinky, expensive house coal years ago. Our old coal bunker is full of kindling.

Space isn't a problem for us. We have got enough stored at the moment to last a couple of years and my husband has another oak to cut up next weekend.

Chemically fuel is not a good idea, but I think when they say “wet” they mean with sap NOT rain/water

Yes, it’s also water, it’s moisture, from whatever, and needs to be below 20 percent.

Wet wood is also a bastard to burn, unless it’s full of Sap then it burns immediately and is pointless.

We are self sufficient in wood and it’s generally about 14 percent moisture content when burned.