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

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Just this

It will be a problem if everybody starts doing it then we'll be living in a smog and we won't be able to breath.

Because this government hasn't funded or prioritised solar panels, heat pumps, renewables etc.

People need to be warm. Don't blame them, blame the anti-woke numpties who still insist we rely on fossil fuels.

Weird to defend them on grounds of being better than smoking, pretty low bench mark.

This thread shows people do generally know they are very unhealthy, but are not that arsed.

All the reasons given above. Plus, we can boil a kettle, and cook on it, if needed.

It wouldn’t surprise me if some of it is down to wanting to control one’s own supply.

We have learned in Britain that we can no longer trust centralised services: fairness and trust has gone. Public services have gone. In place we have international companies and a system of obscene profit making.

If I had the option of a local wood supply which I could manage sustainably I would most definitely take it right now. Unfortunately like most working people with no inheritance I am trapped in a system designed to do exactly that, trap working people into exploitative work to enrich a few beyond belief.

The thread was literally asking why people used woodburners, hence people coming on and saying why they used them. Noones mentioned their social class.
Bit of an odd thread really at a time when many cannot afford to put central heating on, and being freezing is also bad for health.

I think there is a strong nostalgia element to it. UK is full of people desperate to delay the future!

They aren't.

They use non-fossil fuels and in the right environment, a well maintained log burner is the best option.

I live rurally, there is no gas in our village and I have a large garden. I prune and stack my own wood all year in a wood shed so come November, it is dry and good to burn.

It involves no fuel miles, no carbon footprint at all. And it's free. It I didn't stack it, I'd have to drive it to the tip using diesel to get there, or I'd have a bonfire producing the same amount of smoke but benefitting no-one and meaning I still need another fuel for winter.

My nearest neighbour is 40 yards away. I can't smell their log burner and they can't smell mine.

Environmentally they are as sound as it is possible to be. Your views may be related to the particles of smoke perhaps in a town or city, particles that can be harmful to human health not the environment. But out here in a low populated (and very exposed) area, they do no harm, and are returned to the soil with the next fall of rain.

As PPs have said, environmental issues aside, it doesn’t appear people take the lung damage/ risk to health seriously. They didn’t with cigarettes at first either.

We are about to install a new fireplace and DP is keen on a wood burning stove but I’m trying to steer him towards biofuel.

We use 2 because they are the only method of heating our home and water.

I confess also to being a bit suspicious about the claims that they are so bad for lungs and health. I haven’t researched it and would only do so if I found myself in that fortunate position of having options. However people have burned wood in the northern hemisphere for tens of thousands of years.

As I said, trust in a system built to benefit rich shareholders has utterly gone.

There’s a recent Guardian opinion piece here which is also worth a read: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/27/wood-burning-stove-environment-home-toxins

There was an open fire here. I installed a wood burner because it's more efficient than a fire.

I need a back up source of heat. I am hoping to get solar panels in the next year or so with battery back up. But at the time I put the wood burner in (5/6 years ago) I couldn't afford solar panels.

biofuel

a definite environment nasty

but clean air in the house,

People have lived with open fires and log burners in their houses for literally thousands of years (open fires at least). I live in a 300 year old house and have both, use all our own seasoned wood. I might be a bit in denial but surely you'd have soaring rates of throat and lung cancer after all this time? I live rurally too so pollution not as bad in terms of others. Burning oil and gas is pretty dreadful too, being human is damaging full stop unfortunately

I think it is due to the running coat being low. Plus wood is a renewable resource, so technically environmentally friendly.

We're thinking of having one fitted.
My gas per month is astronomical so anything that can help us cut down on that cost is being considered.

My parents built an open fire (not a stove) on to their house after the winter of 1982, when we were snowed in for a week with no electricity and therefore no heating. It’s cheap and efficient and reliable.

A few years ago, now well into retirement, they closed it up, because they were getting a bit old for the cleanin, chopping and carrying.

This winter they couldn’t afford the oil for their central heating (especially as no support funding for oil has yet been provided, despite government promises). So they have reopened the fireplace and are burning kiln dried logs at a much lower cost, and no longer risking health problems from being cold and damp, especially important as they have health conditions which make them vulnerable to the cold.

So for some people it’s the difference between having heating or not. I would rather they were alive and well now, than get worked up over future concerns. Humans have been burning wood for millennia, it’s a renewable resource and orders of magnitude less damaging than fossil fuels.

People have lived with open fires and log burners in their houses for literally thousands of years (open fires at least).

and did they live long enough to die of lung diseases? Did they die of heart attacks or dementia? Was this caused by the fire?

I love mine. I swear it's helping my mental health this winter. I'm in front of it now, toasty warm and cosy after a morning outside feeding animals. We have no neighbours and burn local seasoned wood. I'll never get rid of it,in fact I'm about to install a second one in another room.

People have lived with open fires and log burners in their houses for literally thousands of years (open fires at least

They just used be called stoves. “Log burner” and “wood burner” are relatively recent terms.

Somebody commented on early adopters moving on. Just how old are these early adopters?

My open fire is really inefficient. Doesn't throw out enough heat. I'm putting a small stove there instead.

Not everyone lives in an urban area with underground cables. Power cuts are a way of life for people in rural areas. Solid fuel heating is a life saver

This. And the village has no gas. And we don't have central heating. And the chimney breast goes up through the bedrooms and warms them as well.

the options for heating my house are oil or Woodburner, both pretty shit for the envrioment tbf, wood is a hell of a lot cheaper though an I don't have to buy a huge tank at once like with the oil, so wood it is this winter for cost purposes.