Another neigbour getting a wood burner

[JoSFry]

Come on …. When will people wake up to the pollution these things cause!

Woodburner are not at all fine in built up areas. I am thoroughly fed up of my neighbour’s woodburner. Our house (London suburbs) is to the east of them so when the prevailing west wind blows all the smoke blows our way. We can’t have our bathroom window open and the washing stinks of smoke after it’s being on the line. Their house has been massively extended recently so it’s much more insulated than the other 1930s houses around here.
Woodburner should be completely banned in built up areas. My parent had a woodburner for many years but they had no close neighbours to inflict their smoke on. Also there was no gas connection where they lived and always a high risk of power cuts in bad weather.
When will people wake up to the health risks of burning wood?

They could. But again that would cost money.

I don't, if you'd read my posts you'll see I live rurally in an old farmhouse.

I'm not particularly anxious, but a couple of days in winter with no power is very unpleasant no matter where you live. There's an easy way to mitigate the risk.

You however do seem quite anxious and convinced that a woodburner is going to jeopardise everyones cardiovascular and lung health, when so far the human race has done quite well using fires for heating.

We have an open fire which i guess is the poor mans version of a woodburner, but it we love it-so cosy!

We have an open fire. Usually burn kiln dried logs but we cut a bay tree down two years ago so hoping that will be okay to burn this year. We only had a few fires last year but still had the chimney swept, have it done every year regardless.

We have solar panels and have taken minute amounts from the planet this summer so hope that counteracts what little we burn in the winter

My dad says when he was a kid people used to send a burning sheet of newspaper up the chimney to deliberately start a chimney fire to clean it out!

Do you take flights for holiday
Do you drive a car
Both will be far more polluting than a wood burner use d few times a year

Love my woodburner too. It’s eco-friendly and has a catalytic converter in it to ensure no harmful emissions escape the chimney (three storeys up into a constant sea breeze/howling gale). The ash only needs cleaned out once a year because it burns so cleanly (huge difference to the 50-y-o multi fuel stove I grew up with in a house where that was the only source of heat - mind you, I didn’t catch asthma or lung cancer from that either), and the ash is so clean it can be sprinkled on the garden as fertiliser. Catch yourself on with the idea that emissions from a clean wood fire are the same as a car exhaust - didn’t you notice how flowers grew along the motorway verges during lockdown and then died after we all started using the roads again? This shows how dirty car exhausts are. Yet ash is a fertiliser. The ‘research’ this campaign is based on uses results of all combustion including that in third world countries where the open fires are used for cooking and fuel is whatever they can find, and doesn’t filter for modern, clean burners.

I'm aware of the research around the topic. The increased rate in cot death, lung health, heart health, cognitive decline, dementia. It's not a risk I'd take for myself or my children because I like the look of it. I'm not sure that society should be paying the health tab in that scenario either and I think it should be legistlated against in high density housing.

If only they all had this

You are onto a loser here, OP. People are in complete denial about wood burners. It's like talking to people in the 1950s about cigarettes while they puff a fag out of the driver's window with their kids in the back.

Everyone says "They smell so nice" - well derr, that's the polluting particles.

My neighbour had a woodburner and every time they used it my Philip's air filter would immediately send alerts to my phone! It's crazy. They actually have lung cancer now coincidentally and it is awful but I am assuming that it won't be used this winter as it won't just be me wheezing away.

Given that my heating oil bill is going to be double this year and we are always at risk of power outage because of our location, meaning our boiler wouldn't work anyway, I will be absolutely keeping my stove. I will however be taking a look at the catalytic converter equivalents for home stoves as I had no idea they existed and our installer didn't mention it. I am quite happy to make upgrades to keep both my family and our neighbours healthier!

Let's revisit that question next Spring.

Yes, all forms of heating must be banned and citizens must complete energetic star jumps to keep warm.

The elderly / disabled / obese will be issued star jump machines which will do the jumps for them, they only need to lay on it. This will cost 800 billion pounds.

We will need to import another gazillion labour-voting, low IQ - double negative haha - people from incompatible cultures to act as star jump machine carers. Over their lifetime they will cost 900 gajillion zillion pounds and will boost the rape and sex assault figures in the UK.

No english language skill required, but a forklift license is useful to help get citizens in and out of the star jump machines. Association with extreme islamic terror groups and being a bit rapey a distinct advantage.

Yours, Ed Milliband, Energy Secretary

This could easily be a labour policy.

Up until 50 years ago the majority of homes were heated by open fires. Why are wood burners worse for health?

Probably a lot more house fires started by candles!

The new regulations mean that certain sources of fuel cannot be used. Modern burners have to meet demanding emissions and efficiency requirements. Ecodesign requirements have already changed the market for new solid-fuel appliances. Manufacturers have had to test and develop their appliances to meet the required standards.

So new neighbours (per the OP) getting a new appliance have to meet these standards.

I dont think there is anything wrong with log burners, or gas central heating.

I am not part of the net zero death cult.

I would draw the line at burning tires for heat.

I love ours. Chimney swept annually.

What is the base rate for those and what is the increase to that rate which is directly and solely attributable to wood burners or open fires?

We've got a wood burner which is fairly new, regularly serviced/cleaned, well ventilated area and we only use kiln dried seasoned wood - we've also got solar panels so ended up using almost nothing produced by power plants this year. It's all swings and roundabouts right?

Because I lived next to a main road, never had an issue.

And in winter in the nice areas you could smell the wood smoke. It wasn't subtle.

I also avoid open fires in pubs as those set me off too.

Your indoor air quality isn't the same thing as the pollution your stove releases into the surrounding environment though. The op's concern is about exposure to that outdoor pollution, not the air inside the your house.

I have Amazon air quality monitors in the same rooms as the log burners. There is no particulate or CO pollution unless you leave the door open for extended periods (but by which point it's gone out anyway!).

What is interesting is that the weekly house cleaning, floor mopping etc really sets off the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) pollution.

Also putting up a real Christmas tree sets it off.

So if you are really worried about pollution and carcinogenic pollution then don't clean your house or get a Christmas tree, it's far worse than a log burner.

I live in a smoke control area - you don't have these in England then I guess?

This is what it means:

A smoke control area is an area where people and businesses must not:

• emit smoke from a chimney of a building. This includes outdoor buildings that have a chimney, such as summerhouses
• buy or sell unauthorised fuel for use within a smoke control area, unless it's used in an 'exempt' appliance (appliances which are approved for use in smoke control areas)

It covers the areas of Wales with the poorest overall air quality and is mandated by local authorities.