Why does everyone install wood burners knowing how terrible they are for the environment?

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Just this

The same reason that people buy diesel cars, eat meat or own a dog.

Because they can.

Same here.

We live very rurally in an extremely old, smallish detached property with thick stone walls. We have also added insulation where possible, some double glazing and have thick, interlined curtains.

No gas in the area although we do have oil but find it's far more affordable to use our own supply of seasoned timber in our two wood burners that comply with all the latest regulations. Because of the cost of oil we've only used our central heating once this winter and without the wood burners we'd freeze.

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To save on heating costs/preserve wood supplies during the day (as we won't light a wood burner till my OH gets home from the office), I'm currently in bed with my work. I have a 13.5 tog duvet, fleece blanket and additional throw, am fully dressed (including fingerless gloves) and have a hot water bottle strapped to me. I'm just about toasty!

I’ve already been blue lighted to hospital once from the smoke and fumes entering my house

wow. That’s horrendous, but with a house so draughty this can occur , it must be impossible to heat. If smoke and fumes can come in to the huge extent you’re hospitalised, the warm air must go out at rhe same rate

how are the neighbours. Even the healthiest person couldn’t cope in what you’re describing, I assume they are also hospitalised but much more regularly?

That's precisely why we got one when our children were young. As well as boiling kettles, you can heat soup, make toast, bake potatoes and even fry eggs/bacon/sausages on the top! It's called self sufficiency and survival.

I grew up in London in the 60s and never saw any smog.

Might just be your memory, it was definitely there. Less than before as the Clean Air Act was 1956.

Government asked people not to light stoves yesterday due to the smog issue.

Example 1960s London smog event
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_London_smog

I didn’t live in London and I wasn’t alive in the 60s and I still know there were huge problems with smog around then.

I think your memory might be a bit foggy

It was a massive public health issue

Likely to end up outlawed in a few years anyway.

Most people had multiple coal fires that were really inefficient. Most power generation was from coal, again really polluting. Burning coal is just about the worst thing for the environment. I firmly believe woodburners should be banned from urban and suburban areas but they really can not be compared to woodburners.

And that was the last big smog event. London just wasn't covered with smog throughout the 60s as the poster suggested.

People talking about smog being a regular problem in London are talking about the 50s and earlier.

I grew up in London during the 60s and the pollution wasn’t only from the coal fires, but also from the factories that were everywhere. London was an industrial city in those days, most areas would have small manufacturing industries in the back streets, where if the machines weren’t driven by coal/ diesel fulled generators then there would be some sort of coal coiled for heat.
London Transport busses were run on diesel and if you lived near a bus depot ( most areas had one) then the diesel fumes hung in the air.
I lived in Birmingham for a short time in the 70s and the pollution was just as bad then.

Fuelled boiler

Am astonished by people saying ‘well it’s never hurt my health’. Don’t you understand that these are slow cumulative health consequences, that usually hit later in life?!

They look pretty
they are essential for a few (w no other heating)
but in villages and town and cities they are just so so selfish.

(Almost all) folks who have them need to own up to being selfish and sit w that!

I really really mind them on the canal boats near us. The canal is one of the few peaceful car free places we have, and it’s made repulsive by solid fuel burning and generator use. And yes, there are now lots of electric hookups. This isn’t essential!

You realise that's true of most things, right? The food and drink we eat, how much we drive, where we live, the medication we take throughout life, how much we exercise etc.

No-one lives forever. And as I said in a previous post, I'd rather die at 75 having lived a comfortable warm life than live til 95 freezing my tits off.

I need to drive. Therefore that’s a calculated risk.

The fact that unseen particles can build up inside you and cause lung damage means I don’t NEED a log burner. Or want to risk that for my children. Even the hint of a risk for something that is not a necessity.

It’s not the same as eating the odd bacon sandwich.

I understand if you can’t afford heating it’s more of a balanced risk. But the pretty/cosy argument doesn’t stand up.

I was in our local stove supplier’s showroom on Sat, buying natural fire lighters. The manager was chatting to me and said they’re having the busiest winter they’ve ever had for new stoves and installations. Definitely connected to cost of gas/electricity.

Delatron using a tumble drier releases microplastics into the atmosphere and our bodies. I imagine there’s more tumble driers in use in houses than wood burning stoves.

Also the chance of power cuts. If there is no electricity, then most people's central heating boilers won't work, leaving them without heat any heat.

My log burner provides heat, a way to heat a meal and boil water.

I don’t sit in front of a tumble dryer for hours in the same room as it…

No but you are releasing microplastics into the atmosphere and water system which can adversely affect the environment and other people's health.
So is everyone who doesn't use ecological detergents and is happily flushing harsh chemicals down their toilet and drains.
Is that not also selfish?

And yes, there are now lots of electric hookups. This isn’t essential!

Neither are foreign holidays. Do you do those?