Wood burning - health problems!

[GFFord]

I was researching the effects of wood burning in the home and garden as I suffer from some health problems, and found out wood burning is the biggest source of air particle pollution.

Even more than cars! It can also increase risk of serious health issues (heart disease, lung disease, stroke etc) and is especially bad for kids and babies. Particulate pollution also shortens life in general, according to multiple studies www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/16/home-wood-burning-biggest-cause-particle-pollution-fires
What are your opinions about this - I think we need to limit use of wood burning around our kids. I definitely will!

My only heating options living in the middle of nowhere are oil, electricity and a large wood burner that we burn our own (properly dried) wood fuel on.

Having balanced the pros and cons and the risks I'm confident that having a warm dry house and enough money to buy food and oil rather than just oil is probably going to lead to better child health outcomes for my children than not using the woodburner.

I agree with you 100%. As long as there is little other option and the fire is safely carried out (less polluting wood burner from last 10 years or so, lighting from the top, dry wood, no open fire etc).

@pastabest have you looked into the heat pump grant scheme? This would be a good alternative to burning oil or wood, we qualified for one recently and it saves money on oil and wood, plus being non-polluting.

GFFord^^ are you promoting heap pumps ?
how do they convert cold air to warm air - where does the electric come from
polluting power stations

The hot gases pass into a heat exchanger, surrounded by cool air or water. The refrigerant transfers its heat to this cool air or water, making it warm. And this is circulated around your home to provide heating and hot water. The government are planning to introduce these all around the country, they're proven to work I can say so from my own experience. I just think it's a good idea to get one, especially if it's being paid for in part, and everyone will need one soon by new environmental laws.

They're not powered by electricity, and are much more efficient than boilers, so very good for environment.

I am fairly certain they run on electricity, or at least my neighbours pump didn’t work in the recent 10 day power cut we had. And looking at Scottish government grant scheme they promote the fact that new ones run on electricity rather than oil.
Reality is, in N E Scotland , I would still need additional heating, the house needs to be virtually air tight so no fresh air open windows, and I would still keep my wood burner as a backup for the ridiculous outages we still have.

From a quick read, they still use the houses heating system to store the heat and push it around the house so do still use electricity or gas, whatever your heating system uses. Just because the pump itself doesn't use electricity doesn't mean it isn't needed.

Perhaps you should understand the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the refrigerant gasses used in the heat pump systems. They are significantly more dmaging when released to the atmosphere than CO2.
Generally heat pumps only energy efficient in very well insulated houses built to morden high specs with extremely well insulated floor slabs.
When retro fitted as a heating solution in an older less well insulated house they are inefficient in their electricity use. Additionally as the ambient air temp reduces the effective heat energy that can be removed from the air or ground reduces and likewise so does the efficiency of the system as it needs to run almost constantly to keep a property warm.

A link to a Belgium energy site which explains the pros and cons and truths and falsehoods of ground source heat pumps www.energuide.be/en/questions-answers/what-are-the-disadvantages-of-a-heat-pump/2584/

Heat pumps are basically the reverse of Air conditioning and the units require electricity to run the pumps, fans and compressor.

What is a heat pump powered by, if not electricity? It's not going to work by magic :-)

I think the wood burner / open fire are urban concerns. Burning wood makes sense in a rural location - especially if you are using a local, replenishable wood source.

@LtGreggs A tip is to burn wood fire from the top rather the bottom of the pile, that significantly reduces air pollution in the home according to scientific studies.