Woodburner - health risks

[SecretOfChange]

Just came across this article: amp.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/18/wood-burners-triple-harmful-indoor-air-pollution-study-finds

What do you make of it? Real issue? Paranoia? Has anyone heard anything like this before and from other sources? Thanks.

I also appreciate your arguments about boats not having electricity, but the fact is that households without mains electricity represent a miniscule proportion of the population, and of those who use woodburners/fires. My village may be relatively rural, but we have mains electric, mains gas, and power cuts are relatively rare. No one in my village is using a woodburner because they have no other choice. And then there's the large number of city dwellers who have installed one since the trend started about 10 years ago. For the majority they are a lifestyle accessory, not needed for heating.

Indeed, people still seem to think" if I can't see it, it is harmless". Radioactivity and microplastics and air, soil and water pollution are all invisible, and all harmful.
There's a government consultation on pesticides. I have not yet read it, but those more thoughtful posting here might be interested. It's on the govt. site for open consultations. There are others of some interest too. One hopes it may be a good thing if the actual public respond to public consultations, rather than the usual suspects and interested parties and lobbyists.

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable

But you also miss my point that’s renewable electricity - solar or wind, if they cannot provide enough power to heat a narrowboat, they aren’t going to heat a whole house either. Solar and wind farms have their own huge ecological problems too. Just because you use electricity doesn’t make your heating more eco or health friendly, it just moves the ‘problem’ elsewhere.
Given our current power stations it isn’t going to be long before power cuts become a much greater occurrence. Not enough past investment in our own infrastructure.
Nice to know that you know so much about your neighbours. I once lived in such an area - still couldn’t afford to run the gas heating and basically lived in one room with an open fire as that was all we could afford. Please don’t make such general assumptions.

I'm not sure any boiler works without electricity.

They can if they work on a gravity system. Older solid fuel central heating systems were often gravity. We have a backup generator that is sufficient to keep the boiler, lights and fridge/freezers running. Oh, and the internet router.

@Bargebill19. This company claims to be producing barges that can run heating, cooking and a few hours of propulsion off solar

thamessolarelectric.co.uk/

Trust me 21 year of living in a boat - so many people promise that you can live off solar - no you cannot. You can use them for leisure purposes, but every boater who lives aboard uses solar or wind power in conjunction with their Diesel or petrol engine, generator (gas, diesel or petrol) or electric hook up if a landline is available. You cannot power things like washing machines and electric radiators from solar alone. Even a simple thing like hot water is produced either from a back boiler attached to a stove, or from running an engine or diesel/gas heating.
No amount of solar panels will cope with electricity demands in summer let alone autumn, winter and spring. Solar will cut down other forms of power generation, but not eliminate it.
As for the dark arts of battery maintenance which a pp seemed to think would suffice - well let’s say there will be a lot of boaters laughing at home owners trying to deal with inverters and exploding batteries and people wondering why this and that doesn’t work.

Not to mention the cost ..... way to prohibitive for ditch dwellers. Even flash ones!!

@bargebill19. A friend of mine is a live aboard, her Widebeam has an electric engine and solar panels. I am fairly confident there is no petrol or diesel engine aboard

Just checked, yes her boat is 100% electric so clearly it can be done.
She also has a multi fuel stove for heating though

Exactly - proved my point. Doesn’t use solar derived electric to heat her boat.
Solar is great to provide small amount of electric to power 12 volt items such as laptops, tv, lights, water pumps but not for heavy drain items like washing machines and heating and hot water. Immersion pumps take a phenomenal amount of power. If you cruise as well (not many do) there will not be enough power to generate propulsion and supply other items as well running of solar energy. Electric driven boats which are used for live aboard continuous cruising (not on a marina hook up) are always backed up by a diesel generator for this reason. Again still using non renewable resources.

This company claims to be producing barges that can run heating, cooking and a few hours of propulsion off solar

The pictures of the boats in their website pictures show chimneys on top and solid fuel stoves inside.

Btw multi fuel still means burning fossil fuels either wood, coal or a mix.

Excuse the gibberish. It's late.

OP, there is so much misinformation and scaremongering on this thread.

@Changi.

Yep!

The cost of one of using there set up would push a boat well into the £250k budget range.
Most second hand boats are in the £20k - ££70 range. Whitefied a boat which tried all this technology and sold at a loss for £250k, (brand new) has had most the tech ripped out and replaced with conventional, proven tech. It has been sold on subsequently for a lot less.

@Bargebill19. Her boat doesn't have any diesel or petrol engine, it cruises exclusively from solar powered electric engine and has rain water harvesting system. Happy to pm you with details, she won't mind at all :-)

In fact a production company has made a documentary about her boat as low impact alternative way of living, happy to send you the link and feel free to correct me on any technical aspect of anything I've mentioned.

@Ferrylights
And the cost will be out of reach for the majority. Also she has a wide beam. Narrow boats do not have the space - she will be able to have 10 batteries to store power a narrowboat doesn’t have the that ability.
General water usage is 150 gallons per fortnight - rainwater doesn’t generate that amount. She could use a purifier system to harvest river water - again narrowboats don’t have the space to fit such systems.
I know of boat that is very much like the one you seem to know. They don’t live aboard permanently despite telling people they do. People like them like to tell people they have all these green credential - but the reality is very often far from what they tell you.

Her boat doesn't have any diesel or petrol engine, it cruises exclusively from solar powered electric engine

Does she live on this boat year round? If so, how does she keep the batteries charged during the winter?

We have an off-grid holiday home. No mains services at all. We have solar panels for electricity. They run the lighting, water pumps (fresh and rainwater harvesting), fan for the composting loo and the occasional 240v appliance for short periods. It works fine in the summer but in the colder months, due to the lack of daylight and extra drain, we need to run the generator for several hours a day to keep the batteries charged.

How does she find enough rainwater in the summer? Does it work in Temperatures as low as -15 deg? - something that often happens on the canals in Britain.
It was great fun (not) helping a friend remove 100 gallons of frozen water that had caused her HOT water tank to burst, from her bilges.
Something on the roof has a far greater potential to freeze solid and become damaged.

Sometimes we struggle with lack of rainwater in the summer. We have had to top up the rainwater tank with water brought from up from the river.

It's an old boat but built by the previous owner I believe who was an engineer an yes she is a live aboard and has been for 4 years. I have no idea how the rainwater harvesting system works but I am now intrigued to find out. She cruises continuously managing the boat herself and it is huge. It is absolutely run by electric save for the multi fuel burner. There is a good size kitchen on board and a 3/4 size bath, I would happily live on it myself :-)

Again - it’s NOT a narrowboat.

And it still burns fossil fuels, unless she wants to freeze to death 🥶

I know it's not a narrowboat ..i never said it was