To be surprised people think wood burning stoves are environmentally friendly?

[Olympiathequeen]

I’ve been scratching my head for years as these stoves increased in popularity and belch out woodsmoke.

The folksy, homely image of these stoves has been pushed despite the fact they are clearly burning a polluting substance.

Hollow laugh as London is now talking about the polluting effect of the burned particulates.

What did they think a wood burning stove produced? Fairy dust?

New iPad keyboard ....

The largest wood burner in the country is Drax power station in Yorkshire, which burns around 10m tons of wood a year, emits more carbon dioxide and pollutants except sulphur dioxide than an equivalent-output coal fired power station, sucks up £1.5m a day in subsidies, produces electricity at a higher price than all sources except the also heavily subsidised wind and solar and leaves large tracts of land e.g. in North Carolina looking like bomb sites. But it's OK, because they (eventually) plant new trees, it counts as 'sustainable'.

I think anything that ‘burns’ isn’t good news.

There is a place for these stoves, but not on the side of the house next door situated 3 metres from my daughters window, which despite it being the recommended height, blows smoke directly into their room! The room sticks, their clothes stink, it must be harmful breathing it in, yet there is naf all we can do about it!
Don’t get me wrong if I lived in a little country cottages I’d love to spend the winter nights sat round the stove, but when this was added next door last year to a house in a crowded estate I was less than impressed!

We live rurally (no mains gas available), and have oil powered central heating which we use only in very cold weather. The rest of the time we use a large wood burning stove- much more environmentally friendly than the oil, particularly as almost all the wood we burn comes of our own trees.

They obviously didn't pick anything up in history either (massive deforestation in Europe for fuel). It's a massive backward step.

Having a wood burner means our central heating use has been cut down by at least two months a year, and the temperature is set much lower when it is on. We get our fuel from a Co-operative who form it into compressed logs using waste wood products. Our stove is a clean burn one, made in this country. Chimney checked and swept every year. Walls and attic totally full of insulation.
I don’t think we could do any more than this to lower our heating footprint. Polishing halo as I type 😇
( We also walk everywhere we possibly can, including to do our food shopping, although I then have to breathe in all the exhaust from everyone else’s often unnecessary car journeys.)

Insulation isn't necessarily polystyrene or rockwool. Our house is insulated with sheep wool, and it's toasty warm. We heat the house with a biomass boiler which burns wood: but it's a gasifcation boiler, which burns so hot that there are very few emissions from it.

Not all woodburners are the same, just as not all insulation is the same.

yes london is 'smokeless' area.
but whatever my neighbours burn certainly isn't smokeless!

Sorry I should have said 'other insulation materials are available' with sheep wool a good one as you can eat the sheep too although death is not necessary to harvest the wool of course.
Transmitting electricity over large distances wastes a significant amount of energy. With this in mind they should reopen the power station in (relatively) central London to avoid the waste, chuck on a few paintings to get it started perhaps. This way Londoners can appreciate the people outside of London who have to put up with generating the electricity for them.

Actually, rebuild Battersea power station as a nuclear powered type then there will be hardly any emissions, PLENTY of hot water for distributed heating and only a few trains carrying spent fuel rods a year. Job sorted!

Our burner wood is mostly scavenged. Every time a neighbour replaces their fences I'm there charming them away... blown down branches in the lane, budleia cuttings, etc.

lljkk please don’t burn old fencing - it is likely treated with all sorts of nasties! Same goes for any old or reclaimed building wood etc

I second what pseudobadger wrote. You also need to check the moisture content of the wood and that it's seasoned.

It should serve as a reminder that 'environmentally friendly' isn't a one-dimensional thing. It's the same as how after about a decade of promoting diesel cars we're suddenly looking at an about-face. We focused heavily on carbon dioxide that has a long-term global effect and neglected the local and immediate impact of particulates, nitrogen oxides, and so on.

As for sustainability, we'll see renewable gas soon enough too (we'll have to, because natural gas reserves are limited). There are a few ways to do it - it can be made from wood, or food waste, or with water and CO2 and lots of electricity.

And as mentioned, for those not collecting their wood locally, you have to consider the pollution caused by transporting it to you.

You definitely shouldn't be burning old fences
They have been tested with all sorts of chemicals that are released into the atmosphere
If you have a wood burner you should only burn seasoned logs

Horrible things.
It's not just the pollution, it's the CO2 they produce.
This year Scotland produced 118% of its electricity from renewable sources.

www.dw.com/en/wood-burning-stoves-ruining-germanys-air/a-17100192

I'm a bit shocked you live rurally OP and are shocked by people burning wood and coal!

I grew up rurally and it was normal, when I go to visit DM it's still normal. The only dwellings in her village without an open fire or wood stove is a block of flats built for retirees. The only option apart from wood or coal is oil or electric storage heaters both of which are more expensive to run and not any better for the environment. Almost all houses have oil or electric central heating installed but use their open fire or wood burner to supplement it. Do you know anything about fuel poverty OP?

When I moved into a town I was delighted to find myself with a gas combi boiler. Unlimited hot water and 24/7 heat for the first time in my life. So bloody cheap too, compared to electric+coal. Total luxury.

"Our neighbour actually threw plastic in her stove and the smell was horrendous. We live in a rural area and people just go into woods and collect chunks of wood, or buy it from a man who cuts down surplus trees and sells them when they are dry. He doesn’t treat them in any other way."

Your problem isn't wood-burning stoves, in that case. Your problem is idiots.

to live in a well insulated house would typically requite insulation made of polystyrene (oil product) or glass wool, huge environmental impact

Not necessarily. I live in a wooden house, built in the 40s, and insulated with sheep's wool and sawdust and that insulation works really well. We recently had to blow in some new insulation in one part of the house after a pipe leaked and we used Ecovilla which is made from recycled paper.

OP “So much so that the Major of London is talking about banning them.”

That is not true!

I heard him speaking about this on Radio 4, yesterday morning. He said he had no intention whatsoever to ban wood burners. He said, as others have said on this thread, that woodburners are not a problem. It is what people put in them and how well maintained they are. He explained that they should be swept regularly and only *dry, seasoned wood” should be burnt in them.

I know people who burn absolute rubbish in their woodburners and it really annoys me. Going about scavenging for bits of wood, including skips is irresponsible. But people who burn dried wood and have their stove serviced regularly, are being environmentally friendly.

Most wood burning stoves now are made to comply with clean air acts.

Horrible things.
It's not just the pollution, it's the CO2 they produce.

The wood burns, produces CO2, then new trees grow and takes it up again. That's why they're sustainable.

Coal and gas aren't sustainable, because they release CO2 which has been locked away for millennia, and which won't be replaced by new coal any time soon.