Wood burning stoves are annoying and OVERRATED and now I've read they cause THREE TIMES more air pollution than road traffic!

[flashbac]

I have one (came with the house) and it's such a high maintenance beast. Wood isn't cheap either. It makes a mess too. So overrated and harmful to the environment.

Globally, indoor air pollution causes more years of lost female lifespan than anything else, apparently. I wouldn't trust even a well designed modern wood stove.

Half the housing stock in the UK is over 100 years old. Most of those houses still have chimneys and fireplaces. How are you going to ban people from having log fires, especially if they have no alternative source of heat?

Some urban areas may choose to go smokeless but banning log fires would leave a lot of rural communities incredibly vulnerable. The govt would have to provide an alternative which they cannot afford.

OP, you are in an urban area and a log burner doesn't suit you. Just add an alternative heat source. Oil filled radiators can be good depending on the size of the room.

I really think it should be possible to draft legislation which recognizes and permits wood fires in particular circumstances, like when there are hardships or emergency situations. I can see why rural areas might like a backup option, but daily use looks well dodgy from a health POV.

Hideous things , I have small vessel lung disease and find it difficult to breathe when walking my dog if people have wood burners alight .

Mine is actually a pellet stove, the wood pellets are by-products of the lumber industry. So no extra trees are cut down for me to burn. These are essentially compressed sawdust that would otherwise be polluting some water way or put in a landfill. It has filter installed at the top of chimney to remove any particulates. The mechanism has a fan to circulate heated air, without any air from inside the stove going into my living room...so zero indoor or outdoor air pollution.

No worse than using a fossil fuel like natural gas to create heat..

I don’t think they’ll be banned, just updated to be environmentally friendly like mine is.

They are just dreadful for people's health. Obviously they are preferable to freezing if there is no alternative source of heat in winter but I wouldn't be firing it up for hygge vibes.

Are you setting up your log pile correctly? DH does ours (open fire) and if he uses wood it will still burn for hours without intervention. We are intending on getting rid of our gas fire for a proper duel fuel stove. We are not on mains gas just electric and the storage heaters are ridiculous and extremely expensive whereas the fire costs buttons in comparison.

And yeah just don’t use it if you don’t like it.

I am another who had to rely on it for heat for 4 days and nights after Arwen.
Not understanding the high maintenance comment - emptying ash is hardly onerous, having the flue swept once a year …
If it’s older it is worth having an installation company look at it to determine whether it can be overhauled to fit filters which reduce pollution. We did that with ours . It’s certainly not used daily but is often on at the weekends and we burn properly dried wood.

And yeah just don’t use it if you don’t like it.

Well the effects aren't limited to indoor pollution.

We have a wood burner. I don’t have any of the issues you mention about not being able to pop out etc…

Re the environment, well yes it seems that they aren’t great :( Even though I am unsure if they are talking about people using wood, coal, smokeless coal etc…

We got ours years and years ago before they really started to talk about it. We actually thought that as wood would be grown again it was a good choice of fuel (plus we have been using a lot of wood from my parents and PIL garden/farm Aka trees that needed to be fell down).

For us, this is still the cheapest way we have to warm the house.

Love ours. But when I just want it to stay lit without frequent attention I'll fire it with smokeless fuel. With the right fuel it only needs topping up 2-3 time a day, and the ash emptied morning and evening. We'll burn wood is for effect, or autumn/spring when we just want it on for a few hours in the evening.

I've lit it this afternoon, and there's a very good chance it'll now remain lit until next year. Once it's warmed up the brickwork it'll keep the room toasty.

@VestaTilley

YANBU. They’ll be banned before long - a major health hazard to you too, unless you have a ginormous sitting room.

I have wondered if it's the cause of headaches since moving in. Carbon monoxide detector isn't going off so its not that.

@2pinkginsplease

One of our neighbours have one and as soon as they use it we have to shit our windows and bring in our washing as its stinking. Goodness knows what they are burning in it.

You have to what your windows? Thar wood burner must be REALLY dirty...

(I know it's autocorrect and it gets us all, especially me. Sorry, that was just such a funny one...and tells us about your texting preferences! 🤣)

Well I was due a gas delivery by caorr on the 9th December, it did not arrive, on the 12th December I completely ran out. Thank fuck I had my log burner as my gas was not delivered until this morning.

*Calor

Of course you can go out for a long walk. You are doing something wrong if your lit stove is going out in this time.
I also endured a 70 hr no power cut during storm Arwen, I only had the stove for warmth.

@VestaTilley they might ban the sale of wood burner but they can’t ban the use of them.
Some houses are simply running on that and that only.

My PIL only have their wood burner and Aga to warm the house. That’s it. A lot of the cooking I still done on the Aga.
They are nit the only ones who live in a old house with restricted access to gas

Are you maybe not sure how to use it, just reduce the air flow, you shouldn’t have to be chucking logs on it all the time, just keep them burining slowly and steadily. And you should be able to go out, gosh we went to bed last night, let ours die out and it burst back into life At about 10 this morning so I chucked another log on.

We are self sufficient in wood, but I do know seasoned wood is expensive to buy, so your wood costs need to be compared to your energy bills.

@Bluntness100

Are you maybe not sure how to use it, just reduce the air flow, you shouldn’t have to be chucking logs on it all the time, just keep them burining slowly and steadily. And you should be able to go out, gosh we went to bed last night, let ours die out and it burst back into life At about 10 this morning so I chucked another log on.

We are self sufficient in wood, but I do know seasoned wood is expensive to buy, so your wood costs need to be compared to your energy bills.

Your fire burst back to life after all that time? I do close the vents but maybe I'm tight with the wood hence it goes out. I only use one piece at a time.

Same here @Bluntness100

@Kokeshi123

I really think it should be possible to draft legislation which recognizes and permits wood fires in particular circumstances, like when there are hardships or emergency situations. I can see why rural areas might like a backup option, but daily use looks well dodgy from a health POV.

They're useless in emergency situations unless they're regularly used and maintained, and you have a decent store of seasoned wood.

You can't just turn them on and off like a light.

Yes, one totally. There was about half an unburned log in there this morning and it relit itself. That’s very normal. Generally I have two or three logs in at a time, once it’s burning fast, I turn the air down low, but not off, so it wasn’t off this morning, and just let it ember away.

I think you’re issue is you’re not using it properly. Get it burning fast and hot, then turn your air down to low but not off, and it should continue to burn slowly giving off plenty of heat, your logs last longer this way too.

Mine now, air down very low, three logs in, take ages to slowly burn down. I just top it up now and again.

Yanbu OP. People on here love them and you will hear complaints from the (massively overrepresented on MN) rural crowd but the fact of the matter is they cause huge amounts of air pollution and are terrible for your own respiratory health. I would never use one myself.

Don't use it then. It sounds like there isn't an alternative in the room it's in though?

They do contribute to decreased air quality, which is why you can't install them in areas with poor air quality as determined by the local authority.