Wood burner: I know this has been done to death, but I'm rural and now conflicted.

[user1471530109]

I've finally got the money together to do some of the many jobs around the house. Moved in 5+ years ago and it's been a hard slog.

I've always planned to add a wood burner. I'm rural but we do have gas in the small village. My boiler froze in the v cold snap before Christmas and I had no other source of heating and it made me convinced the woodburner was going in!

But the money is sat there and I'm not sure it's the right move after all the bad press. Surely they won't ban them in villages and rural areas? Maybe towns and cities? I know the health issues-that obviously worries me too. In the winter, when it's a very still day, the smoke outside from all the wood burners is thick! But I'm guessing most of these are ancient stoves in the many v old houses round here.

I've toyed with a gas stove but I keep thinking that's daft with the gas prices going through the roof.

Any other options? I'm not overly convinced by electric. A wood burner in rural areas the best option?

Tia

This article talks more about the (very real, I think) health issues: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/27/wood-burning-stove-environment-home-toxins
Our neighbours burn well dried wood in a newish woodburner and you can really smell it all the way down the road when the stove's on.

We got rid of ours, despite being eco this and eco that and only burning the right stuff it did affect my lungs and I was genuinely worried it wasn't very responsible parenting to inflict all those particulates on the DC.

We have a Provence real flame gas 'fire'.

We keep debating a log burner but love the convenience of switching on and off and no maintenance.

Also love rurally but have no gas in our village.

Get one.

We use open coal fires with no issues, but a log burner heats up much faster and is much more efficient.

When we were looking fireplaces or burners were a must have for us.

That Monbiot article is pretty scary, @Toomuchstuffwillkillme 😳

We have a woodburner (small-ish rural town) but we've always rationalised it as being of net benefit, as it's meant we haven't been burning oil or gas. My husband's a carpenter so we have a steady supply of logs and kindling - mainly offcuts and wood from family land.

Burner is nice source of heat & light when the electricity goes, which it does a few times a year here. We can scavenge our wood & kindling so the main costs are time to keep it fed, gadgets like the flue thermometer, and getting it swept once a year. Neighbour gave us some chimney brushes a few weeks ago, though I don't know if we will use them or still get sweep in. Sweep is nice for pointing out issues like when the bricks disintegated (now replaced), and the baffle plate is slowly chipping away now, too.

We'll end up moving to a house with gas in it in next few years. Am not sure how I'll adapt to having gas in house: gas is so darn smelly to cook & heat with when you don't live with it any more, very noticeable. No worse than kerosene outdoors, I suppose.

@watchfulwishes
The internal air pollution would mean I would not get one.

My woodburner has a pipe at the back through the wall via which it draws air from outside.So it doesn’t deplete the room of oxygen.
It is mega efficient and only needs ashes emptied once every 2 months.
Got the chimney sweep in this year and for a check up … first time since installed back in 2012 and there was no soot as it burns so hot.

I love ours and we use solar power a lot so I see it as a green trade off. We have just put a bioethanol fire in the conservatory two weeks ago and wow I'm impressed. It might be a good option for you if you just want a real fire

@user1471530109 Are you purely looking for the most effective & economical heating, ir would you like a log burner?

id have put one in as a priority 5 years ago, second only to any safety issues (like a rewire)

id still put one in. Financially I'd take the gamble that they won't ban them anywhere in a hurry & rurally never/not for a loooooog time, if ever.

Thanks Bellac11 that’s reassuring re air quality after all the very negative guardian article. We live rurally, have a supply of free well dried out ash and a new eco burner. We have never noticed any pollution or smoke hanging around here. Surely it’s better to use wood grown on site and aged than transport fossil fuels from other countries if the air quality is not an issue?

I'd get one in your position, OP. Wood is really £££ though, iif you buy it in. It's not a cheap source at all. I am yet to be convinced by the evidence on this. I know that per unit of energy output they emit a significant amount of particulates. But It's not like most people would have theirs burning for more than 3 or so hours per day on the coldest days. You wouldn't whack it on for the sake of it, it's just too dear.

I have one, greater London. It's the very highest efficiency rating you can get. I need it on when it is at freezing or below as the house is still cold despite central heating and an efficient boiler. It's an old single skin house and will never be cozy unless I spend tens of thousands, which I do not have.

If someone is going to fund massive insulation retrofitting projects and heat pumps for all, then I'm all in and will stop using it. In the meantime I'll choose to not be financially banjaxed. I have a free source of wood, a rapidly deflating income, two teens and no partner, so needs must...

We had an open fire installed in a suburban 1970s house in 2005 and I wouldn’t be without it. Doesn’t get used every day but in winter it’s on about 4 times a week. There are now at least 4 other properties in our street where log burners have been installed.

I can understand why burning coal was banned in many authorities in the 1970s but that was before gas central heating was the norm for many homes. Now, most people in the suburbs light them for hygge rather than running back boilers or as their only source of heating, so they’re being used much less frequently.

I can’t get on board with the pollution risk from log burners having survived since the 1960s in the industrial north if England. I do have asthma, but that was triggered by my parents’ heavy smoking indoors and multiple dogs (which I’m allergic to.)

OP, the clincher for me is do you live alone or do you have young DC?

As a mum I would never take the risk with my kids future health, knowing what we know now about the dangers of particulates - much higher with wood burners than any other fuel source.

If it's just you that you're responsible for then I think you have more leeway to decide.

We have no mains gas and have a LOT of power cuts. I’m interested in bio-ethanol but don’t know anyone who has it. How did you go about getting yours, what helped you make the decision?

An open fire or stove and thus the option to burn wood is something I’d never compromise on.

No, burning wood will never be banned in rural areas, it’s only a few small smoke-control zones that are affected and stoves complying with the regulations are readily available.

The nets of wet wood that petrol stations used to sell at outrageous prices were awful. There’s no reason to burn wet wood, a moisture meter is cheap and you can easily check what you’ve got. Have a sensible system for stacking your wood and bring some indoors well before you’re about to light it.

I keep wondering about this too. We're rural with no mains gas, and burning oil isn't wonderful for the environment. I also suspect the dry heat from a log burner would be good for our house. But I am also nervous reading those articles.

@Grumpybutfunny i was looking at bioethanol ones as an alternative, would you recommend?

Yes we would, the log burner is fab but not having to build the fire and clean it up is lovely. Heat wise I think it's the same

If I had mains gas I would never in a million years have a stove. I have a multi fuel with a back boiler as well as oil its quite a workhorse but I hate it with a passion. I'd love a gas stove I could flick on and off.
We also have power cuts at the slightest puff of wind. I'd still give up the stove. I've had stoves for 30 years so the romantic novelty wore off a long time ago.

Hmm, I wonder about all the bits in between though. I live rurally in that I live in a small village, it’s definitely not urban in any way, but that’s not the same as “essentially them, their family and a lot of sheep” - I’m on a road lined with several houses on either side and there is another road between my house and fields. So how much of a problem are we talking about in this situation, if we all got wood burners (and a number do have them) then we would be close enough for it to have an effect on each other. (I can’t read the article so not sure if this is covered)

This is really interesting.. thank you all for your replies.

I will look at biofuel again. I was v interested in this but I can't remember now what put me off? Is it expensive?

I do have 2 dc.. Youngest is 10. I'm also a single parent, so I won't be up for chopping wood.. I'd have to pay the expensive of having it all prepared. Do thankfully have a big garden for storage of wood. We also live on the last road of a small village. So fields/allotments at back of house. I would imagine most of the wood burners/open fires that cause the smoke in the still days in the winter are decades old. At least half of the village is v v old.

I dread to think what the cost will have risen too. My window quote went up £1k from the summer!

@Grumpybutfunny thank you

It will probably be certain ones that are banned if they are, if you a getting a new one it will be all up to what current regulations are. Also it's much more likely in heavily populated areas not rural areas. I would probably get one