Neighbours Wood Burner

[Livingonaprayeryeah]

My Neighbour had a wood burner installed a few weeks ago by a legit Company and the flue looks to be legit height, approx 4m tall on the external wall.

The problem is, the top of his flue sits below my bathroom & bedroom windows since I live in a house and he is a Bungalow, and the road slopes down. Now I can’t have the windows open or put washing out as it smells of smoke.

It’s not terribly bad and the smoke isn’t black, but it is noticeable. If I open the back door or window, I can smell it. He has it on literally all day.

Is this normal? Should I be able to smell it?

I raised the issue with Neighbour politely and he said he is burning the right fuel and it is a new burner and he has all the certification and follows the rules etc. So I’m wondering, is this it then. Is this the new norm for us. We live in a Smoke Control Zone.

It’s very annoying as it blows on to the bathroom window, my DC bedroom
window & the downstairs loo window, as well as the back door. All windows that I need to keep open after showers/toileting. I also hate not being able to put washing out now as I have done for years. I have young Children, one has serious respiratory issues, so I wouldn’t allow him out in the garden now if the burner is on.

Is this the reality of living next to a log burner? I don’t know if not being able to open my windows & put washing out would be classed as nuisance by the Council? I can’t and don’t want to move; just want to know if this is our new reality or if there’s anything I can do?

i have family in Scotland so I've no problem with people using them where there are no viable alternatives, or people using them because they cant afford any alternative(although the latter are hardly going to comply with the need to only burn certain wood types or be investing in the newest stove versions). I do have a problem with people installing them (for vast amounts of ££££) when they have central heating and the means to pay for cleaner energy...why not invest in external insulation or solar panels? The reason why particulate pollution from wood burners has continued to climb in the last decade or so is purely down to people wanting a wood burner for aesthetic reasons and this people are blithely ignorant about the local pollution they are causing. The pressure group in our city was started by a local GP who works in an area of our city where she is well aware of the health issues that pollution causes.

With new burners, supposed to only light small low temp fires for a week or 2 to somehow adjust the new metal in. All day seems odd.

They must be getting thru masses of wood if burning all day every day. I wonder where they are getting their wood from, what kind of wood is it, OP? What can you see of their woodstore, OP?

Totally fine if you have no gas. But a lot of people don’t need them, they think they look nice. You should have to apply for permission and prove you have no alternative.

Other than the disability these criteria means it is all low income families, the government website itself says eco4 is intended for the lowest income families and is only for homes in band d-g. It is not how you’re portraying it, many many people, the overwhelming majority will not meet this criteria or be able to afford.

Bannng them would be easy. The government bans various sorts of emissions all the time and has done so historically on several occasions as regards different types of fuel and making smokeless zones. Enforcing the ban might be a bit more tricky, but if the penalties (fines) are set appropriately it should be self funding.

I think no one on here who favours a ban has suggested that they should be banned in rural areas, although this is trotted out time and time again as an excuse as to why they should not be banned in cities.

There are alternatives even in rural areas even if a rural ban was implemented (which to repeat again, no one is suggesting it should be). LPG for example is a very clean burning fuel and is probably not that much more expensive than kiln dried wood.

You say you can't take peoples heat away, but apparently at the moment you are allowed to take peoples clean air to breath away. Just because you are elderly and vunerable doesn't give you the right to destroy the environment. The correct solution is to make it so that the elderly and vunerable can afofrd to heat their homes with clean burning fuel. I'm pretty sure most elderly and vunerable people would be happy with this anyway, as maintaining a wood burner as a primary heating source takes some significant physical effort.

@Cosywintertime I was using 'we' as a country if you are going to be snippy about language 🙄.
I would imagine that given how indiscriminately ulez has been implemented the government can do something with unnecessary polluting log burners.

Or maybe rather than 'unnecessary' I should say vanity log burners

How much do you have your windows open and dry washing outside in November? It’s below 10 degrees for most of this week.

Round us once it gets to dusk you can smell the wood burners being fired up but very little during the day, I assume the novelty of all day fires will end for your neighbour before too long.

I came across bioethanol burners recently. All the aesthetics of a wood burner without the smoke. It does seem there is perhaps a greater risk of getting burnt using them which was a downside but would work for those who just like the look of a wood burner. Perhaps they will increase in popularity/sales if government increases restrictions over wood burners. Personally I feel like we are taking a massive step back in terms of air quality by allowing their proliferation.

@PinkPlantCase I have bedroom windows and bathroom windows open for a good proportion of the day/eve because I don't want mould. Also unless it is raining or freezing, I put washing outside for the same reason. Neighbours are complete pyromaniacs with log burner in winter and firepit in summer and have been for years, unfortunately...terribly terribly middle claaaassss

Unfortunately the cost per unit of energy used is currently not great for bioethanol.

Although there are people around here who insist that isn't really relevant and something is just cheaper because they know its cheaper and cost per unit of energy is irrelevant in assessing the merits of different heating sources.

So maybe people can do some sort of Jedi mind trick and convince themselves into believing it is cheaper.

Maybe cost should not only factor heat output per £, but also cost in production terms and also environmental cost.

Our house doesn't have a thermostat, we have to switch our boiler on for the radiators to come on and when they come on it's too hot, humid and stuffy. We have our windows open year round especially when drying washing.

The people opposite us had a woodburner. Goodness knows what they burned in it but we could smell as soon as it was lit even with all our windows closed and there was thick grey smoke coming from their chimney.
Thankfully they moved and the new people have ripped out said woodburner.

Horrible things!

I think there are a lot of people who just don't want to acknowledge the impact of wood burners on neighbours or the environment because they want one, it's legal, and that's that. Head in the sand.

I live in a suburban housing estate of newish build houses. Just the usual identikit mass produced type of new build houses. All with gas central heating. Numerous neighbours have installed woodburners over the last few years. I have asthma and I can often tell when someone has lit their burner by how it affects my chest, even before the smell starts to drift in. I can't even have the trickle vents open in my house at this time of year anymore, never mind a window.

There is absolutely no need for them in densely populated areas where people are on mains gas. It's lunacy that this is permitted.

Totally agree @ScaredSceptic They're fine in big old country houses but no need in centrally heated houses. I have a tiny living room and inherited one. We used it once and it actually made us feel ill as the heat it belched out was ridiculous for such a small room.
It's never been used in 10 years and is just there for decoration.

I think there is also a lot of people who refuse to believe that there are many many places in the uk not densely populated , even in the same town or village, and that many properties don’t have full heating, and many people rely on them. Both can be true.

I never said otherwise. I was clearly talking about modern suburban estates like mine, where everyone has mains gas.

I don't think anyone on this thread is advocating for them to be banned where households have no reasonable alternative. But to allow them everywhere just because people fancy them makes no sense.

Sure but do you understand how complex that is. You can’t even ban them in a given post code, or even a street, due to the huge diversity in the uk, it would need to be down house by house.

To explain, I live on a street that is approx 1.5 miles long. In the first half mile there are hundreds of houses. In the remaining full mile there is about ten large properties surrounding by fields. You couldn’t even ban them for the street, as one end is densely populated, the other sparsely and people rely on them.

Yes agreed, it wouldn't be straightforward. But even if it's complicated, something should be done, as to allow the current free for all to continue is madness when there are negative environmental and health impacts, as well as impacts on the quality of life of those affected by smoke and smell.

I think most people understand this. As you say decisions would need to be made on a household level. But that's not impossible. Perhaps they could require planning permission and in order to be approved the householder would have to show they had no reasonable alternative fuel source?

Great post.

Side note: who do you think the “we” is that MPs work for / represent?

OP, keep complaining to him. Daily. I can't hang the washing out. The dc are coughing. It stinks. The dc can't play out. Just day after day... keep complaining. His unnecessary, faddish woodburner is having a negative effect on your mental and physical health, your enjoyment of your property, and your ability to carry out normal household tasks. Complain to the council. Just keep going. Make it not worth the while for him.

It's unlikely that the street all share the same postcode. On my street the postcode covers about 25 houses but the street is far longer.