Or does every small town stink of smoke?

[Flamingnuisance]

I drive for a living and I have noticed that as I enter smallish towns and villages the smell of wood smoke hits me and when I exit the vehicle I then stink of bonfire. It’s not bonfire it’s wood burners in peoples homes. When did people think it was a good idea to go back to the old days of smog and smoke? What’s it doing to our health and our children? It’s getting worse now with the energy crisis but these things are thousands to install and when do you even recoup the money? I just don’t get it. And yes I think it’s mighty selfish to use one. And these people act like they give a shit about the environment.

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how on earth do you know people arent having their chimneys swept

what a ridiculous holier than thou statement!

No point in denying that a) people are burning more stuff everywhere and b) that it's not having an impact on health and the environment. I was at my parents house close to a small town in February and it was clear that it wasn't 2 year dried wood being burned. Where I am in a city the smell of wood smoke is obvious now too, mostly a pleasant smell but half the time the smell is of stuff that shouldn't be burned for heating. People don't care.

We're still using gas at the moment but are in the process of installing a heat pump, and have already done a lot of insulation work. Not cheap but how much do woodburners, fuel and proper maintenance cost? Not to mention the long term repercussions.

In my village a lot of the houses have open fires. They burn wood or coal (the coalman delivers every week).

I think it smells and the house directly behind me has thickish dark smoke coming from the chimney which stinks

Most log burners will have a glass door on them, and the smoke will go up the chimney.

Think my new neighbour have just installed one. My house stinks. The first few times we checked all over for something burning.

I don't think that should be happening. Maybe have a word with your neighbours, might be a ventilation problem.

How would you like me to heat my house, OP?

I live in a small rural village with fairly frequent power cuts.

We have a wood burner. It's used when the weather gets really bad to supplement the heating as there are usually a days in February when the ice comes when you wouldn't think the radiators were on (and we have cavity wall insulation/loft insulation and double glazing). We just live in a very open semi rural area and the wind blows around the house nicely!

It's also used when we have a power cut. It was our only source of heat when Storm Eunice put our electric out for a few days earlier this year so with a gas hob we were able to eat and stay warm. A few of our neighbours had got rid of their open fires a while ago...very silly thing to do. Keep it clean and maintain it and it's there if you need it. We probably have a power cut a couple of times each winter and it's handy to have.

We have a lot of trees in our garden that need cutting back every few years. We ask for the logs back, put them under cover but open aired and dry them off for a couple of years. We're now using logs that were cut 6 years ago on the rotation. Which shows how often we actually use the fire.

The chimney is swept every year - even if we've not used it, just in case anything has got down it and to check it's all safe. It has a bird's nest cap on it as we had an old bird's nest on it when we moved in.

It's fully lined and we have carbon monoxide alarms in the living room and in a bedroom that's above the living room in case of chimney fume leaks.

I'm not giving up my, probably, used for a week each winter (if that) wood burner until my next door neighbour stops putting their car engine on to 'warm it up' then disappears indoors for five minutes every single working day of the winter. Totally unnecessary. Especially as they have a garage.

And, my fuel is a by product of the trees I've had to pay to prune back so it's 'free' from that point of view.

If you need to use a wood burner or burn coal (rather than just liking the look of it!) then yes, fair enough, BUT use only properly seasoned wood or smokeless coal. Most houses had wood burners where I lived in France, and you could tell they were used from the stacked, seasoning, wood outside, but the village did not smell like our village here in the UK does.

By the way, if you live next door to a house with a wood burner and you can smell it with the windows shut or it's belching black smoke, I would say something is wrong like a liner leak or the neighbours are burning 'crap'.

We can't smell the wood smoke in the living room where it's situated nor in the bedroom right above it as we shut the door on the burner once the fire's got going. A wood burner works by heating the iron fire surround, not by direct flames like an open fire does.

Our smoke is white to very light grey as it's seasoned, tree based wood. We're not burning pallets or 'old' wood that doesn't have a provenance. It's come from trees only - from our garden in this case - or from a supplier who grows trees to make into logs for fires.

Do agree that wood needs to be at least 2 years cut and seasoned before burning. Stuff hacked out of the woods in the last few weeks is going to be pointless anyway. It will gum up the chimney and give off very poor heat.

So does mine. There's been a notable change in the last couple of years. I smell it now everywhere I go.

This. Everywhere.

I am sitting by my wood burner right now. It's bloody lovely. I have no neighbours. Even the clean air report differentiated between remote rural use and town use.

Sorry OP my house has gas central heating and when this was put in they boarded up the fireplace, wish they hadn’t miss my open fires 😩

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Except for all the "people in the UK" in the thread above you who mentioned seasoning their wood.

everyone else is at fault apparently!

I season my wood. UK. So does everyone I know. Keeps the chimney cleaner for longer so why wouldn't you?

😂Will be chuckling at this as I light mine later

As a city dweller I much prefer the smell of burning diesel, fab for the lungs as well.

So does mine 🙄

Off topic but have you looked at modern storage heaters? If you have enough properly sized ones they can heat your home pretty well and although the running costs are higher than gas there is almost no maintenance required and they are pretty cheap to install.

😂

Yes, it's this.

We're on oil and having our own seasoned wood source is the most economical form of heating. We've had the chimney swept, burner and alarms checked and are only burning wood <20% moisture.

But if you've never looked into it and think you can just burn any wood you find lying around for free, that's where the problems start.

I feel really sorry for that man and all the other folk who are trying it this winter. They're likely to end up with masses of white smoke and still be cold, nevermind the risks with the chimney and CO.