Pollution

True. But that's the irony, folks install one because they are desirable, then burn any old stuff to keep it cheap, or pay premium prices for wood. Same as buying a 4x4 that will never ever be taken on grass, let alone mud. So the circle completes when London coughs and the politicians decide we all need to be prevented from having items that are a necessity/cheaper alternative rather than a whim. 

Pollution is ultimately about overcrowding. 

So it is suggested that councils should ban the burning of logs in urban areas?

So what do us old folk do to keep warm in winter when we cannot afford inflated electricity or gas bills because of low, fixed incomes.

I would say that others should go away, mind their own business, and leave me to enjoy my log fire rather than me having to freeze to death!

How do I get the best burn from my wood burning stove?

To get the best burn from you wood burning stove, it's vital to use your stove's secondary air supply correctly...

You might be thinking that now you have got your wood burner installed, you can happily burn as much wood as you like safe in the knowledge that you have done your bit for the environment. Well, actually that might not be the case!

For a wood burning stove to efficiently convert wood fuel to maximum heat, the wood burner needs to be operated correctly so as to achieve the additional benefits that are not provided by an open fire. So what does this mean in practice? 

Fundamentally for a wood burner to operate correctly you need to burn both the wood itself and the exhaust gases that are expelled during combustion, whereas in an open fire the exhaust gases are expelled from the chimney in an unburned state.

This is why a wood burner is said to be 80% efficient (if operated correctly) and an open fire only 20% efficient, as 80% of the potential heat of an open fire goes up the chimney. Hence, if you don’t operate your wood burner correctly you will lose a lot of heat energy up the chimney and cause more air pollution than if the wood burner was used efficiently.

Managing the primary and secondary airflows

Help is at hand. To burn those exhaust gases you just need to correctly use the two air supply controls on your wood burning stove which control the primary and secondary air flows. The primary air supply arrives below your fire while the secondary air supply arrives in the form of air jets above your fire. The secondary air flow is the most important for achieving combustion of the exhaust gases.

Use the primary air supply to get the fire going and burning hot, then shut it down. From this point on manage the fire by adjusting the secondary air flow.

If this is done correctly you will see the flames dancing around and little jets of gas burning as they exit the wood. Another way to know you are getting a high level of secondary combustion is that your logs maintain their shape until completely burned (when you see this you will understand what I mean), plus the smoke coming out of the chimney will not smell.

Another no-no with respect to your stove is burning wood slowly with minimal air supply. In addition to poor secondary burn, this approach will also lead to nasty black tar deposits in your flue, which increases the likelihood of a chimney fire, and deposits on the stove glass.  

Taken from the yougen.co.uk web site👍🏻

You are a pyrophobe of deep understanding Rocky! Our house has it all, me brought up with fires and stoves all my life, OH who knows how to put them out............the technical discussions around our stove are fascinating!  

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That’s not fair, I’m a pyrophile👍🏻😊

We've just bought a fire pit for the garden and lit it one evening recently while we sat with a glass or two putting the world to right. Haven't had a real fire for 40 years and it was glorious. Not waiting for the pollution police to call!

Wood burners add to atmospheric pollution through CO2, so in that sense, the belief that they can be Green through using sustainable fuels, is a bit of a fallacy. Which said, in moderation, some sins against nature might be forgiven. How would life be without BBQs, bonfire night and the odd open fire. I’m not a fan of cleaning out solid fuel fires, so we have a real flame gas, coal effect fire, which in its turn, is hugely less efficient than our gas fired central heating. Continuous use of our fire or a log burner, isn’t really fair on the atmosphere though.

Still need to know how they would police it, neighbours splitting on each other.  We burn kiln dried wood which is smokeless, even when first lit there is no visible smoke from the chimney.  How would I know when the council deemed it to be a high pollution day, would they text me?   Like so many other issues dreamed up by politicians a little more work on the practicalities needs to be undertaken before it is moved into yet more legislation.