NDN's wood burner

[AriettyHomily]

I live in London zone 4, victorian terrace. NDN has a wood burner. It's on 24/7 from what I can tell. It stinks, it's causing issues for my asthmatic kids, it's making my washing smell like smoke. What's acceptable in this situation? Are they burning the wrong stuff? We're in a smoke free area apparently

Report them to the council for nuisance.

15 years ago when I lived in London we were only allowed to burn 'smokeless coal' in our fireplace - burning wood wasn't allowed.

Not that we used it much, but that was the rule I think.

Actually make that more like 10 years ago (that was when we got the chimney lined - before that I wouldn't have bothered investigating the regs)

I don’t know what the regulations are for London. But it might be they don’t have a clean flue, or are burning the wrong fuel or it’s wet wood or wet bags of the right fuel. Perhaps they aren’t using the stove correctly and getting up to an efficient burn temperature and instead are allowing to tick over. The stove itself may need maintenance or be an older non eco (sorry can’t remember the correct term) modern type.

Most of London is smoke free. The problem is every other person thinks their open fire is beautiful and not part of the problem. Agree contact the council or Mayor of London

Something isnt right there. That sounds a real nuisance

Oh no,that must be grim and very worrying.

my ndn also have a wood burner but I can’t smell it whatsoever so something is not right.

A complaint to the council sounds like a good idea.

Sounds like damp wood being used. Dry wood doesn't create much smell and it tends to burn hotter with less fumes snd ash

Contact environmental health for advice. We did when we had issues with our neighbours log burner. Also, make sure you have working CO detectors.

This.

Or they may not have had their chimney swept but generally flues are lined when log burners are installed. How many years have they had it?

Both myself and a near neighbour have wood burners and even when they are both on full blast you can only get a slight whiff - but I never burn anything that has a moisture content higher than 20% and generally considerably less. They must be burning green wood or else their chimney needs sweeping. They should be swept annually and green wood is an absolute no-no.

Dry wood burns with hardly any smoke. Report to council.

Research the advice and regulations for your area. Print it off. Put it together with a very gently worded letter about the effect it is having on you and your children have asthma and see if that works first. They may be unaware. If that doesn't work you can report them

Not to alarm you but I know of three people that had house fires, two of which lost everything due to chimneys not being swept. Make sure your fire alarms are working really well and checked every week.

I can't even smell my own wood burner in the house, something isn't right if you can smell the neighbours one!

My next door neighbour burns all his garden clippings on his open fire. He cut a huge rose bush down the other day. It fills the village with loads of smoke. My guess is that your neighbour is burning green wood. Have you spoken to them?

I love the smell of coal burning but you hardly ever smell it these days.

Before you report them. Have you actually spoken to them?

Just pop round and have a word with them, they might not even be aware there’s an issue

@AriettyHomily what are they burning? Is it stored outside?

uk-air.defra.gov.uk/assets/documents/reports/cat07/1901291328_Smoke_Control_Web.pdf

www.gov.uk/smoke-control-area-rules