If you use a wood burning stove - what would change your mind?

[letmeeatinpeace]

I live in a densely populated area in London, and the smoke from wood burners seems to be getting worse each year (it's coming into our home).

I'm intrigued to hear from people who use wood burners whether there's anything that would possibly change your mind to stop using them?

I would really love to persuade our smoke-producing neighbours to be more considerate and switch them off, or at least switch to something smokeless, so any tips on how to go about it in a positive way would be much appreciated.

I don't actually know which property it's coming from - it's probably several.

Would dropping leaflets with useful info about smokeless fuel, and proper stove usage be appreciated..? I'm pretty desperate..! (I'm borderline asthmatic, and really worry about my dc's exposure)

Also, is smokeless fuel genuinely smokeless?

(I will also go down the route of contacting my council, if needed, but I just don't imagine they'd do much specially as we don't know where it's coming from)

Being on a gas network would help. Not having free plentiful wood that needs to be disposed of anyway. Not seeing the C neutrality of it.

Nothing. My gas bill to heat my house to 16⁰ is over £100 a day. If I didn't have my wood burner we would freeze. We brought it with us when we moved

I would give ours up in a heartbeat if our underfloor heating wasn't absolutely poxy and completely impossible to control, and if we didn't live in a wind tunnel that makes it all so much worse.

Both my nearest neighbours are a km away though. I don't think I could bring myself to use one in a densely populated area, knowing they affect people's lungs, even though our heating system is dreadful.

I wonder if people who have them in London also have terrible heating systems too?

Lower energy prices.

They are very popular in my part of London & I wanted one but decided not too after reading more about them.

I wonder if people who have them in London also have terrible heating systems too?

Not the ones I know, it's more for the look.

Nothing I'm afraid.

No gas here.

Free installation and fuelling of a central heating system to replace our expensive electric heaters!
We have free firewood to use in our woodburner which warms the whole house when it's blazing.

Sod that, I hate using them. We got through about 3.5 tonnes of wood last year and I resented the time it took keeping them running and lugging wood in from the garage every day.

I also quite like chimney free walls so I can put my furniture anywhere!

My next door neighbour has a wood burner, it stinks.

If I had free reliable off grid electricity from wind/solar.

Live in the country, no mains gas, frequent power cuts, have solar and ground source heating but no good in the winter/at night/during powercuts.

Lots of free wood available - have 2 wood burners, a woodfired cooker and calor gas BBQ.

Normal gas prices. We have a supply of free wood and only put the central heating on for 30 minutes in the morning and that's already bumping the bills way up. I'm not about to turn down a free heat source, sorry

I can see why people would have them in the countryside, and in old houses with no CH, but in London I don't get it. It's a pretty affluent area as well, so I doubt its purely about economics. I lived in a much poorer area of London before and didn't have this problem. I think people need money in the first place to install them.

So - if you're a wood burning stove enthusiast that lives in LONDON, I'd love to hear your thought process and if anything might sway you.

I love the smell of woodsmoke

That’s likely because they’re burning all sorts of dodgy shit on it. If it’s just kiln dried wood it should just smell of quite pleasant light wood smoke.

If you’re in a built-up area of London you’ll likely be in a Smoke Control Area, so it shouldn’t be that bad?

How is the smoke getting into your home!

I have one. I dont use it though. I find it a pain to be honest

It's messy. Storing logs is a pain. And buying them

It takes ages to get going. Such a fadd

Have to keep messing with it, chucking more logs on

Such a faff!

Yes, it's a Smoke Control Area. It's so bad you can see a sort of fog on some roads. People don't seem to care, and I guess the council doesn't have the resources to tackle it.

I really do wonder if we could drop some info leaflets about how to properly use a stove, if that might help..

People should have to apply for a license to own one..!

We live in a city and have one (it was there when we bought the house). We don't use it because of the air pollution but in my experience most people have no idea how bad they are. Whenever people come over they always ask why we don't put the fire on even though we all live in a smoke free zone. Next time the smoke comes in your house would you be able to go outside and look for which chimney it's coming from? Then you could perhaps put an "official looking" note through their door explaining the law

I have an open fire in the suburbs which I had installed into a late 20thC house. Nothing would change my mind, I’ll never live in a house without a real fire.

Draughty old home = smoke inside

We also have a stove in our house and I refuse to use it. It's probably fine for the person in the house, but that smoke is blowing all over their neighbours.

It's worse in the evenings, so it's hard to see where it's coming from. Maybe a heat sensor thingy might work lol

Not in London but mine heats the whole house and with increased room temperature, thermostat then switches off the central heating.
Get loads of free wood so a no brainer. We can’t use smokeless in a wood burner and the woodsmoke is actually quite nice because all our wood is very dry.

I might stop using it if heating costs came down a lot.No complaints from anyone and it’s perfectly legal here so council couldn’t do anything.

Lots of wood burners near me. I can hardly smell the wood smoke on a winter evening walk but when I reach the main road, the smell from cars is overwhelming