Wood burning stoves FUEL BAN from 2021

[ChrisLX200]

It dependes where you live, whether you have close neighbours or not dictates whether stinky wood smoke is going to be a nuisance. I can tell you it definitely IS a nuisance when the guy across the road burns what smells like rubber-coated logs and my windows are open to let some air in.

 

[koolpc]

I love the smell from wood burners!

Wood 20% moisture and under is fine.

 

[ChrisLX200]

That's nice for you. I don't.

 

[koolpc]

That's nice for you. I don't.

Yom yom...

 

[sja360]

It dependes where you live, whether you have close neighbours or not dictates whether stinky wood smoke is going to be a nuisance. I can tell you it definitely IS a nuisance when the guy across the road burns what smells like rubber-coated logs and my windows are open to let some air in.

I think this is the main issue, people are burning old furniture or pallet or treated wood etc which creates more toxic fumes than regular dried & seasoned wood.

 

[DampDog]

I think this is the main issue, people are burning old furniture or pallet or treated wood etc which creates more toxic fumes than regular dried & seasoned wood.

I'm of the same opinion. Nigh on all the folk I know who have bought a wood burning stove have bought them because "They look nice!" or "You can run them dead cheap, they will burn anything." Chap a few houses down burns nowt but pallets and wood he's bought home from work. (some of that is old railway sleepers off-cuts that are soaked in tar. He recons they are fine because they are dry!) As soon as he lights up you can smell it from streets away.

 

[Freakbro]

My central heating is run on coal, from a multi fuel stove with back boiler. I've always found it odd that the coal I use is classed as "Smokeless coal - not approved for smokeless zpnes" I'll ask them if this blend will be affected, as it sounds like this ban is mostly about the 'house coal' for open fires?

 

[b00merang69]

I'm of the same opinion. Nigh on all the folk I know who have bought a wood burning stove have bought them because "They look nice!" or "You can run them dead cheap, they will burn anything." Chap a few houses down burns nowt but pallets and wood he's bought home from work. (some of that is old railway sleepers off-cuts that are soaked in tar. He recons they are fine because they are dry!) As soon as he lights up you can smell it from streets away.

That is what you call A-holes, I know the type.

 

[alexakasloth]

Does the ban on traditional coal include low sulphur/"smokeless" coal? Or are they considered seperate? The amount of small (<2.5 micrometer) particles is significantly less in smokeless coal than seasoned wood.

 

[Orionaut]

I think this is the main issue, people are burning old furniture or pallet or treated wood etc which creates more toxic fumes than regular dried & seasoned wood.

Which they will continue to do, These new rules will do nothing to prevent them from doing so.

 

[a1ex2001]

The trouble is micro particle pollution is on the increase and is a proven health risk so something needs to be seen to be done. This is a zero cost option for the government to say they are doing something. To be honest it has always amazed me I can buy house coal and unseasoned logs in the smokeless zone I live in. These rules shouldn’t impact anyone’s enjoyment or heating as dried wood and smokeless coals will still be available and I don’t really see how anyone can complain?

 

[Gav_r26]

I don't understand why people would use wet wood anyway. Gives off less heat and is just a pain to burn. Also tars up your chimney and can ruin your liner. I'm fortunate I have space to leave mine to season properly, before burning, most of which comes from the farm. On the plus note, Wickes were selling their house coal off over the weekend for £2 per 10kg bag. Nicely stocked up for the next few winters now!

 

[Semple]

Which they will continue to do, These new rules will do nothing to prevent them from doing so.

This. From my understanding the ban will be on suppliers selling "wet wood". It'd be nigh on impossible to have a blanket ban on burning wet wood because it wouldn't be enforceable.

As someone who's just got ownership of an outside log burner through a house purchase (previous owners left it when emigrating). I was planning on buying some dry/seasoned wood to burn on the odd occasion over summer when sat outside in the evenings. Considering the burner only sits a little over a meter from the ground, i couldn't think of anything worse than burning wet wood and letting the smells drift through the house.

 

[Orionaut]

I don't understand why people would use wet wood anyway. Gives off less heat and is just a pain to burn. Also tars up your chimney and can ruin your liner. I'm fortunate I have space to leave mine to season properly, before burning, most of which comes from the farm. On the plus note, Wickes were selling their house coal off over the weekend for £2 per 10kg bag. Nicely stocked up for the next few winters now!

Again, this is all about solving a non-existent problem.

Nobody should use wet wood at all.

Nobody should use house coal in a stove.

Nobody should use House coal (or wet wood, or anything else that generates visible smoke) in urban smoke controlled zones.

And if you did burn wet wood/house coal out in the sticks somewhere. It isn't really a problem.

AIUI, "Bulk" sales of wet wood will not be restricted. The presumption I guess that those able to buy wet wood by the Ton will have somewhere to stack it until it is fit to use.

 

[sovietspybob]

This will be interesting to see how it's enforced.

I have a log burner which supplements our regular heating system, i tend to buy wet wood and store it for 2+ years before burning as it can be a lot cheaper than buying already seasoned wood.

I do tend to buy off Facebook market place from 'a guy with a pickup' so i'd image this law will be to stop people like him selling to people who don't know what they're doing and burning it straight away. But say now i can get a ton bag for less than £40 from some dodgy facebook guy, if i'm forced to buy kiln dried stuff from one of the big local suppliers i'd be looking at well over £100-£120 per bag which makes it not really worth bothering with but if it does improve the air quality for everyone i'll still be for it and i'll just use the burner sparingly on the odd weekend and Christmas.

There is a house about 50 metres away from us which burns coal and god knows what, always thick black plumes of smoke coming out of their chimney, if this stops them doing whatever they're doing then that'll be a good thing.

 

[D.P.]

Garden bonfires got banned over here (guernsey) last year

They are banned in Switzerland in order to preserve air quality

 

[Martynt74]

This will be interesting to see how it's enforced.

I have a log burner which supplements our regular heating system, i tend to buy wet wood and store it for 2+ years before burning as it can be a lot cheaper than buying already seasoned wood.

I do tend to buy off Facebook market place from 'a guy with a pickup' so i'd image this law will be to stop people like him selling to people who don't know what they're doing and burning it straight away. But say now i can get a ton bag for less than £40 from some dodgy facebook guy, if i'm forced to buy kiln dried stuff from one of the big local suppliers i'd be looking at well over £100-£120 per bag which makes it not really worth bothering with but if it does improve the air quality for everyone i'll still be for it and i'll just use the burner sparingly on the odd weekend and Christmas.

There is a house about 50 metres away from us which burns coal and god knows what, always thick black plumes of smoke coming out of their chimney, if this stops them doing whatever they're doing then that'll be a good thing.

This is to stop the sale of small netted bags of wet wood. The guy with a pickup selling in bulk will be fine.

 

[sovietspybob]

This is to stop the sale of small netted bags of wet wood. The guy with a pickup selling in bulk will be fine.

I assumed he'd need to be licenced in some form or another to continue selling which i thought might well put the small guys off

 

[Little_Crow]

This is to stop the sale of small netted bags of wet wood. The guy with a pickup selling in bulk will be fine.

That's how I understand it too, It's more aimed at the garage forecourt/hardware shop bags of wood.
I don't expect this makes up a huge portion of wet wood sales so it feels like a law to make it look like something is being done rather than actually address a problem.

A guy I follow on youtube is of the opinion that garage forecourt wood in Canada is sold extra dry so it burns faster and you have to buy more.
I expect sale volumes are a lot different to the UK, leading to an alternative Capitalist angle.

 

[Boycey0211]

I'm in the process of getting a log burner fitted.

This is for a couple of reasons,

a) Its a Victorian house and as such is cold as **** 90% of the time. The heating is OK but cant keep up in the larger rooms.
b) Yep, aesthetics. I do want to be curled up infront of a warm fire on a saturday night. sorry.
c) It was always going to be a defra approved low emissions jobber. I'm the first house into a smoke restriction area and as such I need to have one. Plus its better for the neighbours.

I'm not bothered about buying properly kiln dried wood, if I was then I wouldn't be living where I am. I've got space to store 'wet' wood until its dry but being the UK I've not got a great deal of confidence I'll be able to get it under 20%!