Log burner safe?

[Bobbingcat]

Linked to recent thread on here- are log burners safe? Does anyone use an air purifier with theirs?

That’s interesting @BankseyVest
i think im leaning towards continuing to use my log burner but getting a purifier!

My neighbour has 3. He unknowingly breathed in so much particulate matter over the years that when he got covid his lungs were seriously fucked and he ended up on a ventilator for months. Before that he was the fittest chap around. Particulate matter is definitely an issue.

I have log burners and would love to see an unflawed statistical study. I hate the bad science floating around about them and people believing them without question.

It's like the cloth nappies which claimed they were no more eco than disposables. When looked into this was based on something ridiculous like each nappy being washed individually at 90 degrees and tumbled dried plus ignoring lots of other environmentally damaging aspects of disposables like water retention and methane generation. But people still reference it to knock cloth nappies.

As people have said the studies on log burners usually lump together old ones, open fires and all sorts of fuel being used. The air quality was measured when the door was opened for refuelling and there is no proper comparison to gas appliances, boilers and other household pollutants. I'd love to see a comparison with air fresheners which exacerbate my asthma.

For their green credentials you also have to take into account that most people will be using local fuel sources and compare this with the environmental carnage caused by gas extraction and fuel stations.

Exactly!

My Aunts and Uncles all had coal fires as they lived in a (then) small village with no gas. We had coal too, even though we lived in a small city.
Big roaring open fires which my dad taught me to lay when I was 4 or 5.
I just wish I'd bought a house with a chimney 😢 as I'd have a log burner in the blink of an eye.

Some lichens thrive in polluted air, which species do you have bozzabollix?

I'm loving these lists of air pollution risks, its not an either\or situation. Wood burning adds to particulate air pollution, so especially in urban areas increases the health risk to the general population, ie when the smoke comes out of your chimney & joins all the other pollution esp NOx from vehicles. It's not about granny having an asthma attack in the house when you light the fire.
Sadly the situation is that urban living means people are exposed to polluted air. Log burners are an issue in densely populated areas, especially when poorly maintained, burned inefficiently on poor quality fuel. But you will find it difficult to see the impact of your log burner on general health trends, same with your car or your proportion of agricultural emissions.
It's why public health is such a wicked problem.
I have a log burner & drive a diesel, I too am part of the problem. I am a hypocrite.

Someone linked to a study from Athens.

No offence to any Greek people on here, but the Greek people I used to know were very much of the 'burn everything' mentality. They'd chuck rubbish, plastic or paper, treated and green wood on their fire.

And it's a city. When I'm in London I can taste the pollution from cars and trucks in my mouth when I breathe.

I live rurally. No mains gas. No neighbours for about half a mile. We have a woodburner. Yes- there might be some pollution from it to outside- far less than living in a city.

And quite a few of the studies I've seen about internal particulates were based around the opening and refuelling- which they weren't doing carefully, and were often leaving the door open during burning.

I don't use air freshener, rarely use many chemicals in my home. People who cook on gas are releasing particulates into their homes. I don't do that. I'm happy with the 'risk' of the woodburner.

Surely they are safer than the open fires that the majority of older people grew up with?

Grew up in a house with open fires/wood burner and so did my partner. No health problems.

When we had a open fire, coal was cheap and readily available.

There's a huge demand for wood burner fuel. I can't get wood cat litrer because of the shortages.

My biggest concern is what's gonna get thrown in these wood burners when the safe fuel isn't available or too expensive

Plenty of people were seriously affected by covid who didn't have log burners!

@Itloggedmeoutagain I'd hazard a guess that the reverse is true as covid disproportionately affected poorer, urban dwellers and people with disabilities who were probably also less likely to own woodburners. In fact there could be a link drawn between woodburners and surviving covid which would be as bad science as the studies condemning them.

@SuspiciousHedgehog There has always been the risk of burning unsafe things. Growing up, people used to burn vegetable peelings and wet wood. I still burn coal on ours.

I think the biggest problem will be people trying to save money and not getting them swept. Chimneys not swept will cause more problems than well maintained fires. They can cause house fires and ive always been told not having it swept can invalidate house insurance.

Yep. And where are all these chimney sweeps going to come from?

We have a new one that’s compliant to 2022 legislation, so as long as we burn kiln-dried wood, we won’t be polluting inside or out.

The problems start when people put any old wood on to burn - it’s important to avoid wood that has been chemically treated, or is “green” or pine, because chemicals and sap both give off polluting gases inside and out and can also damage the chimney lining.
If you are able to use the correct fuel, log burners are safe…

There are still Chimney Sweeps. We get our chimney swept (and need to again). It isn’t an extinct job.

Well obviously, because there's always people with fires, but given, you know, the new trend in log burners, I'm guessing there's going to be a huge demand for a small number of experienced chimney sweeps

It’s not a new trend, it’s a trend that’s been about for years.

But if you’re worried about lack of supply then you could become one
nacs.org.uk

They're also bad for asthma sufferers

Really? I have pretty bad asthma and never have problems with log burners. The smoke goes up the chimney you know?

I’m asthmatic and it’s triggered by cold, damp air and mold spores.

Same, asthma is much worse in an unheated house.

The person I knew who was killed by carbon monoxide, and the other couple who very nearly were, it was due to gas fires, not wood burners.

I have three, all modern Swedish built, and we only burn kiln dried wood. I absolutely love them, cheap to run, warm the whole house, and beautiful to look at.

@SuspiciousHedgehog There are loads of them. Who do you think install the wood burners? We phoned ours up last month and had him sweep it the following week.

Yep. And where are all these chimney sweeps going to come from?

There are still loads of chimney sweeps about!

Chimney sweeps didn't die out with Dickens you know! Wood burners are not some new fangled idea! How do you think humans have kept warm through most of our history??

It makes me laugh when people post about how pretty a log burner when they use it at the weekend Do town dwellers not realise that some of us don’t have gas piped to our home , but have to use locally sourced well dried logs in a British made log burner to heat our whole house.

You’ll get loads of opinions on here from people who haven’t got one and never used one.

Really the biggest thing you can do it control what you burn.

make sure wood is well seasoned and choose something like ash, blackthorn, hawthorn, oak, or birch.

the problems come when people burn things like elder, larch or poplar “because they had a tree down”.

I inherited one with my house and used it a couple of times but couldn't be arsed with buying logs, sweeping it out etc when I can just hit the switch and have my heating on. My neighbour has one and goodness knows what he burns in his as there's black stinking smoke pouring out of his chimney, polluting the whole neighbourhood.

I haven't used mine for years and would never get another one.

@SarahSissions could you share what’s wrong with poplar etc if it’s well seasoned? I’d genuinely cut up fallen trees and season them without thinking what type they were, I didn’t know it made such a difference?
Love our burner, we get it professionally swept but also have a home kit to use between professional sweeps and services.