Errrr! It doesn’t effect bbqs.

I hope it doesn’t as I don’t trust all the creepy lowlife politicians …

This is unpleasant, bad for people’s health and the environment.

Notice the world population increasing?

You’ll need to explain the relevance of this. Did you think the point you are trying to make is obvious? Or that I would not be able to understand?

Something needs to be done. Often when I go out for a walk in the evening, the smell of fires is strong throughout my walk (also when away on holiday). This is unpleasant, bad for people’s health and the environment

and is that the fires fault or the user operating the fire ?

and is that the fires (sic) fault or the user operating the fire ?

This is a very strange thread.
I can understand that people who have fires, of whatever sort that cause the pollution issues, want to continue to use them. But, to try and deny there are problems for general public health and the environment, seems to be fuelled solely by self interest.

seems to be fuelled solely by self interest.

What you did there….. I see it!

Anyway, that’s fine, I’ll stop burning the very dry wood I have and simply put the oil fired central heating on a lot more if it makes you happy.

Yep oil (or by its other name. Kerosene -a member of the diesel family….. Of which I’ll burn 4-5 times as much to heat the house.

But then if your walking past my house your probably lost.

City folk often forget that rural communities need alternatives.

How ever I fully support the government’s actions on this -where by its wet wood and household coal -ie the smokey smelly deritvitivws of the fuels.

But let’s be honest who’s going to check the wood. All wood can be made wet if stored incorrectly which is where my comment about the stove user being a large part of the issue comes from.

If your smelling a stove it’s either just started up or it’s being slumbered/used wrong. A stove operating within correct operating parameters should not be smelling as you walk up the street.

The smell of burning wood is lovely. What’s wrong with you people?

Percentage in the UK of people who burn coal or wood must be really low. then it’s what percentage burn wet wood, which most people with log burners dont use, so that percentage must be really tiny.

Banning wet wood and ffs coal(not power stations though eh ?) will contribute to Britains goal of being carbon neutral.
On paper.
Ban the use of a small amount of coal fires allows diesel trucks to keep polluting. It’s all just another smokescreen by our friendly tory B£$%^&*^&

Banning wet wood and ffs coal(not power stations though eh ?)

They’ve been on the way out for years supposedly by 2025. You missed it behind the smoke screen

Was it not just last week we had another successfully 27minutes of not having to source our electric from coal…..

Electric cars should improve the situation.

Not sure I didn’t time it but the record is about 2 weeks.

Are we going to talk about shipping wood all the way from Canada to burn at Drax… to power homes, electric cars, ebikes, streaming video, or whatever…

DRAX linky

USA send over even more (news to me), and Brazil is a source as well (madness).

I can trace all mine to source.

Mostly by following the oil drip off the landy on the road. 😉

I’ve found wood to be way more expensive this year. Got a delivery recently and the guy was saying that Drax was having an impact in that they are using so much it’s driving the price up for everyone else. Don’t know how much truth there is in that, but the two suppliers I’ve used over the past few years have both increased their prices by a significant amount this year.

It’s true for pellets for use in bio mass boilers. It was reported on quite heavily in Scotland last winter. Not for kiln dried or seasoned logs, as far as I know.

This proposal isn’t about the environment or clean air. The effect of burning wood and coal over most of the country is really small, particularly in rural areas, if the existing clean air act had been extended and implemented properly it was perfectly adequate.

What we have here is a private industry body who set up a scheme where suppliers and manufacturers have to sign up and pay them to use their logo on their products. Being an industry they have been allowed to lobby the government to set up a nice little earner. Only suppliers that are part of their scheme will be legally allowed to sell wood at garages and shops. Of course it will be policed by this body as they will profit nicely from it and have the law on their side. It isn’t about the environment but rather about creating a monopoly.

The really annoying aspect of all this is the fact that they have eliminated a large part of the competition that they couldn’t control by banning the use of household coal. The environmental impact of burning coal in stoves is tiny, particularly in rural areas. Banning the use of coal in power stations would have a far greater impact on the environment. The banning of household coal has a far greater effect on the profitability of this scheme though which is the real issue.

The Right Firewood

Read it for yourself, the text of the legislation hasn’t come into place yet but I would be willing to bet that this scheme is at the heart of it.

The same body have in the post managed to do something similar with self certification of stove installations rather than involve building control. Again profiting from legislative framework.

Makes perfect sense. We use ours to minimise kerosene use. And the last winter has been fuelled by our own sources, next winter will be too. But we’re way put in the stocks. Elsewhere it’s a significant contributor to urban air pollution, which is no joke. So just by switching on your ‘context’ button you can easily avoid frothing yourself to pieces over an entirely sensible measure.

Although yeah, didn’t know that above, would be a shame if that did the same as the microgen certification scheme did to balls up small scale renewables

Are people saying we should burn wood rather than use our oil central heating? Genuinely curious.

What I think is wrong is that last year we were looking at houses, and without fail every new build house we looked at came with a lovely middle class wood burning stove.

They should be banned as part of new builds as surely the insulation should be that good that turning a stove on would be unbearable.

This is our first year in new to us house. It has an open fire, and boy it beats a wood burner any day for relaxation in terms of the smell, look and noise. Produces bugger all heat though

This is our first year in new to us house. It has an open fire, and boy it beats a wood burner any day for relaxation in terms of the smell, look and noise. Produces bigger all heat though

Oh the large amount of ironing about everything you wrote before this nugget.

Drax was having an impact in that they are using so much it’s driving the price up for everyone else.

That iPad must hella suck up the juice! 😳

This is our first year in new to us house. It has an open fire, and boy it beats a wood burner any day for relaxation in terms of the smell, look and noise. Produces bigger all heat though

Are you mental?

Open fire efficiency is 20%. Wood stove efficiency is 80%. So for every kj of heat you are pushing into the room you are consuming four times as much fuel and presumably for times as much particulates. I say presumably because you can nause up using a stove by buying too big a one and using it slumbering nearly all the time.

You can’t in the same post advocate the banning of a device that efficiently burns a resource then 3 lines down celebrate a stupidly inefficient method cos it smells nice without appearing most than a touch clueless.

Oh the large amount of ironing about everything you wrote before this nugget.

I thought that was the whole point about this thread and STW that we are allowed to be self righteous

You can’t in the same post advocate the banning of a device that efficiently burns a resource then 3 lines down celebrate a stupidly inefficient method cos it smells nice without appearing most than a touch clueless.

But most people do have wood burners because they look nice, all I am saying is that an open fire trumps a burner for looking nice.

My serious question was that we are on oil (no gas in Shropshire) If it is genuinely less polluting to put a wood burner in I would do it tomorrow.

Friends down the road are looking at ground source heat pumps, they are quite pricey at approx £15k

People who put a wood burner in because it looks nice should not be allowed them

They do alcohol burners if you really must have one for only for the look.

My serious question was that we are on oil (no gas in Shropshire) If it is genuinely less polluting to put a wood burner in I would do it tomorrow

Where do you live?

Stove trumps oil fired heating for use of fossil fuels. Stove is carbon neutral(if the wood source is sustainable).
Oil fired heating trumps wood stove for particulates

So if living in a rural location I think a well used stove is the win

The real win is of course an extra jumper.

Nothing about banning the burning of used tyres, filled nappy’s or tar and creosote covered telegraph poles. Game on.

What’s the chances they’ll ban moronic obscene SUV’s from high-density urban areas too?

I love the smell of wood smoke coming from a freshly lit open fire. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed it in any urban area. Either I never go anywhere middle class enough or its always covered up by the shitty vehicle fumes – the ones that mean you never see lichen growing in towns as the air is so bad.

Sounds like a a bullshit way of deflecting attention from the real environmental problems.

Whenever I go up to tynemouth to visit the 8nlaws everyone’s burn8ng coal still on their open fires/ stoves. More yellow sulphur smoke upon there than you see in the south. Old habits I guess.

That iPad must hella suck up the juice!

It does run the forum remember.

People who put a wood burner in because it looks nice should not be allowed them

It’s possible to like the look of them and to be functional too.

all I am saying is that an open fire trumps a burner for looking nice.

I prefer the look of a log burner. Funny old world.

Old habits I guess.

Lots of mining widows still get free coal around here as part of their ex’s T&Cs.

Thankfully this is Scotland, and these ladies won’t be affected.

It’s possible to like the look of them and to be functional too.

This is a reason why people partial quoting it’s shit. Because if you go back and read the context – the quote that I quoted you’ll see that the point the quote was referring purely to people living in New builds with wood burner simply for the look.

Sorry I was confused because you didn’t mention new builds, I also didn’t know they weren’t functional in new builds, what you said was.

People who put a wood burner in because it looks nice should not be allowed them

Hence my confusion as that doesn’t mention only new builds.

Read thread again .your confusion shall be quelled.

Clue….the post I’m responding to is directly above my own.

Yeah I read the thread your post is way after you replied about new builds, hence my confusion.

People who put a wood burner in because it looks nice should not be allowed them

I think it’s a safe bet that the majority of wood burners installed in recent years are cosmetic, and they do lower urban air quality (even the “clean” ones). One of the radio reports I listened to implied that the authorities would like to ban urban burners and open fires completely, but that’s politically unacceptable, so the new legislation is a compromise.

Yet another idiotic, pseudo science half-idea from the current numpties driving the English parliament. Sooner we get on our way and get that border wall built the better..

Its a devolved issue and will only affect England… I’m not sure if Scotland’s cities suffer the same levels of PM2 problems – but if they do then for once Scotland might follow an English example.

Ya, but where are the substitutes before banning the fuel for the stoves?

you mean like the readily available fuels not covered by this proposed change, which anyone actually using a stove for heat rather than a status symbol / prettiness will already use?

if I didn’t know better I’d say you are arguing because you enjoy it!

Oh ya … like I said gas fire would be banned too in the future as they want to go all out “clean” energy with using electricity.

Long term it probably will – perhaps when the gas starts to run low and we don’t want to rely on russia for imports though… BUT lets be clear the solid fuel rules are not about switching for climate change or greenhouse gas issues – they are about particulates that have a clear and direct health implication. I’m not a fan of this government – but if there is a job of government surely its to regulate things selfish people do that affect others? No doubt “angry gammon man” will find a way to claim this is not what the 52% voted for, and we should go back to the good old days when the streets were filled with smog, and the weak died from respiratory disease!

We use ours to minimise kerosene use.

This. We have a pretty big detatched house with no gas, just oil for the CH.
I’m just about to light the stove in the kitchen/breakfast/snug which is a 17m x 5m room that’s used all day. Without the stove I’d have to heat the entire house most of the day which, including upstairs, is probably 8 times the size of the kitchen. Doesn’t really make sense.
I’m luck though in that I have a good supply of very very cheap wood that I split and store. Right now I probably have enough logs in IBC cages for the next 2-3 years so the issue of wet logs and coal doesn’t affect me at the moment.