... to be (slightly) freaking out about my woodburner?

[HappyAlley]

The Guardian is going really big on this (although we all know they have a track record of ignoring other vital concerns) & other news outlets have been reporting on this for a while. It does seem obvious that burning fuel inside a house is, in fact, very bad for you. I have a four-year-old & we've had a woodburner for 5 years, since we bought this (draughty, Victorian) house. Used a fair bit to cut down on energy bills. Two - four times a week in coldest winter; sometimes all day on weekends etc. I try not to open it loads but DP won't bloody listen; he's got that man-disease of constantly tending/fiddling with the fire for no fucking purpose whatsoever.

Same here. Sometimes my next door neighbour (they aren't short of cash) lights his and the smoke comes into my house and any washing outside stinks.
Ban them in towns and cities where there are other options.

For most of rural Britain a blanket ban on wood burning stoves would be catastrophic. I think it is a fairly middle class/urban opinion to think they are fancy!

Actually, most people who I know who use wood burning stoves lead very simple lives, and live on small holdings, and in temporary structures like vans and yurts and caravans.

The thing with woodburners is they are an independent heat source... If you run out of money how do you heat your home if you can't pay for gas or electricity?

If you can burn wood you can literally collect your own fuel with your own hands
. Many snallholdings grow their own fuel as part of their self-sustainability. No one can tell me that it is un-ecological to properly manage your own woods and produce your own fuel.

A blanket ban on woodburners would be like a human rights issue - the energy companies would then have total monopoly on heat sources. Fuck that.

Over this winter I have been so thankful we have had control of our heating, and not waiting for some company to send us a bill. I haven't been worried at all.

Regulations on wood are about to come in- soon only wood that is very dry can be sold.

I do understand that they must be a problem in cities though.

Where have they supposedly been banned? Certainly not our near European neighbours.

It’s good that fuel will be regulated ie no wet wood, and new models have low emissions anyway. We used to just use ours occasionally at the weekends in winter to make the room cosy, but over the last year have used it a lot more as a heat source to cut down our energy bills. I do worry about particulates so no prodding is allowed, door open and shut as quickly as possible.

What will be the health impact of households using so little heating their homes get damp and mouldy? People should be able to have an alternative option.

Nothing heats the whole house to the bones like a wood burner

Had one twenty six years and we're all fit as fleas including DH at 76...

We never, never burn wet, green or treated wood. We collect it dead and dry from local woods and paths ( near our town, not deep rural) and store it until seasoned, or our chippie neighbour gives us offcuts.
Free fuel ftw.

Is increased life-expectancy really what we need more of now?

It's the usual Graun sneering at anyone who isn't doing middle class the 'correct way'. Which will change again next time one of the writers gets a new thought.

Er yes, if you enjoy living

I think the 'people died at 50' is a bit of a red herring. There have been generations of people brought up on open fires in the post-war period (I was, in the 80s) and life expectancy for that generation is well over 80. And it was coal fires. And the housing was damp. And they were likely exposed to cigarette smoke on a very regular basis.

What is it that makes wood burners worse than that? Or is it just that they are worse than not having one at all?

We've been using ours more than normal this year due to the costs of central heating. Last week I bought a fan that sits on top to help circulate the hot air. The smell around the whole downstairs was awful and it made my chest hurt a bit too. I was shocked to be honest as we burn decent wood. Although I'm a bit suspicious this current load isn't the best it could be. It has put me off using it when the kids are around. If I do then I won't use the fan!

Life expectancy at birth was massively skewed by high infant mortality until at least 1930

If smoke is coming into your house from a neighbours woodburner then it must be a problem with your chimney. I have a woodburner and so do my neighbours. We do not have mains gas and therefore use locally sourced wood. I would be more concerned with inhaling perfumes, hairsprays and scented candles than my woodburner. I seldom notice any smell, only occasionally when it is first lit. It has never smelt in the house or affected my washing or made my husband’s asthma bad.

Oh and I'm not sure about them being banned in other countries. My dad lives in New Zealand, in a town not the sticks, but no gas heating there, no central heating, just a couple of big wood burners, heat lamps in the bathroom, and air source heat pumps for those that want. Wood still sounds like it's the main source of heat for many there.

You need a carbon monoxide alarm

Well no doubt they will shut the 78 power stations fuelled by biomass - that’s wood pellets! Then the same people being so upset now about wood burners will be happy with even higher electricity prices and potential electric shortages.
electricityproduction.uk/plant/biomass/

I wonder this about GHGs too. Livestock agriculture contributes 5.8% of greenhouse gas emissions, yet the net zero focus seems to be disproportionately upon that rather than the 11.9% from road transport or the 17.5% from energy use in buildings - some of the latter would be really easy gains given how wasteful many commercial premises are, with lights on all night or propping shop doors open with the heating on.

I reckon that the fossil fuel giants are trying to keep the spotlight away from them.

Seems to be quite an obsession over log burners just lately. The comparison with PM and HGVs doesn’t take into account that all modern diesels have DPM filters which vastly reduce emissions. Log burners have only overtaken diesel engines as the engines don’t emit much PM due to the filters now. It’s a bit like saying my food bill exceeds my mortgage once I finished paying off the mortgage.

Well obviously your neighbours are morons, no one in a city needs one. That's not a reason for a blanket ban though. Instead I'd look to see if there's a practical way to impose a ban on any kind of solid fuel burning within ULEZs. Particularly bonfires - they're the worst because it's inevitably wet wood.

Put your air purifier outside so that your neighbours don’t have to breath in your toxic fumes…oh yeah it doesn’t work like that!

What they said

I'm thinking of replacing the gas fire with one.

Given the feelings here I can imagine some of you with be horrified. We don't use the gas fire or the gas supply at all and want to cut it off to stop paying the standing charge.

The wood burner would only be used in winter and then not much. The main reason for wanting one is so that in power cuts we can still heat the house.

We'd comply with all the rules on type of fuel etc, we live rural (enough for the air quality not to be an issue).

I think it's been the issues with gas supply and Russia that has made me concerned. Plus previous experiences of power cuts. I want to be able to manage and keep the DC warm in a power cut/ power shortage.

I should add we've recently replaced the gas boiler with a heat pump and added solar panels so trying to be environmentally friendly and keep our costs down. This does leave us vulnerable if the electricity goes off, which is known to happen where we live.

At the moment we've left the gas fire in as a back up but it's costing us the standing charge.