A personal look at wood burning stoves
I admit it - we have a wood burner. A nice modern eco Scandinavian one. When we moved down from London eight years ago, it seemed to be the thing to do. Living, as we are, in an area full of woods and forests and in a house with a somewhat cavernous kitchen, where we spend most of our time and which was in dire need of the addition of a cosy corner with an armchair, sofa and wood burner. Lovely!
And so it proved. What could be better than coming in from the wind and the rain to the warm, friendly glow of the stove. Chatting around it with friends and family, hands wrapped around mugs of tea, watching the flames. Grandchildren toasting marshmallows after fireworks on the fifth of November.
'After all, it’s natural.' Man has always used fire to keep warm, to cheer, to cook and even to keep wild animals at bay. Maybe the soothing sight of those flames keeps wild thoughts at bay? Even the new Tesla is not immune with a programme whereby you can park your car and turn on a picture of dancing flames in a grate - just the thing for a romantic date night. (And a wood burner even improves the value of your home - at the moment!)
BUT, and there is a massive BUT. These friendly, old fashioned bringers of warmth and cheer are poisoning our air both inside and out. Even an eco-friendly modern stove like ours produces 750 times more particulates (the most dangerous pollutants) than your average heavy goods vehicle. It was a recent article by George Monbiot that woke me up to this. Not that I hadn’t heard of the harmful effects of wood burners before, but somehow this article got to me. George admitted to feeling shame that he had installed three wood burners in 2008 in his own home and lived to regret it and barely used them.
Back to the particulates -they are known as PM2.5 particulates. George says, 'Every time you open the stove door to refuel, your home is flooded with tiny particulates, accompanied by other toxins, including benzene, formaldehyde and polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons, pushing pollution levels way above WHO guidelines'. These particulates can affect every organ in the body and pass through the lungs into the bloodstream. Conditions mentioned include cancer, stroke and dementia. Of course, the pollution is not only in our own homes but also in the smoke that goes out into the surrounding atmosphere. Worse, of course, in a city. The London Clean Air Campaign has called for them to be banned, but they can also spread to your neighbours in the countryside.
Apparently, only 8 percent of British homes have wood burning stoves, often homes like ours with other forms of heating. Between 2010 and 2020 the pollution caused rose by one third to 13,900 tons a year. According to my research, particulate pollution from industry and transport has actually dropped while it has increased from domestic combustion, producing 17 percent, with road transport producing only 13 percent of this form of pollution. Shocking!
At times, I have found it confusing to browse the net on this subject. There are contradictory claims whether, of course, from scientists or journalists, or from those advertising stoves or wood. Modern eco stoves are better than the old stoves but doors still have to be opened to put in more wood. The instructions for our stove, a Contura, recommend smaller fires to protect the environmental impact.
What, I wondered are the legal requirements? It is a disputed fact, as is sometimes said, that you have to use kiln dried wood. In fact, kiln dried wood is often imported from Eastern Europe thus increasing the carbon footprint. It can also, if badly stored, absorb moisture and, as it is so dry, it burns too fast. However there is a stipulation, according to 2020 government regulations, that you must use only ‘ready to burn wood’, i.e. wood that has twenty percent or less moisture content. It is possible to purchase a moisture monitor to check this. Our local one-man log delivery business stores his wood for two years and it is good dried hard wood. (But perhaps, I realise, in this weather, it is absorbing moisture in our own wood store.) The same 2020 government regulations say that only Ecodesign stoves can be sold, so presumably those are the ones available now. If you own “ a mixed fuel stove”, the new Clean Air Strategy says you can burn smokeless fuel but not coal.
Apart from the pollution aspect, I was curious to see whether these stoves contributed CO2 to global warming. In fact, according to a site called Forest Master, they are carbon neutral. Trees, they explain, absorb carbon dioxide to power photosynthesis and then, when they are burnt as logs, they emit carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. “A perfect carbon cycle”! However, in my view this makes no sense. The tree has done all that work of absorbing harmful CO2, only for us to go and burn it and emit it all back! Surely better if it is used, shredded or left to decompose.
It is evident that for some people wood burners are the only form of heating that is practical or inexpensive enough. There are those living off grid, or in homes with expensive- to-use storage heaters, or on houseboats, or difficult-to-heat old cottages. But for people like us with central heating, it is nice and warm and cosy but an added luxury.
Whatever your situation, if you continue to use your stove, the advice is to ensure your chimney is clean, to buy sustainable firelighters that do not give off chemicals and, once your room is warm enough, to stop feeding the fire.
Where does that leave us? From being a keen wood burner, I am now a reluctant one, since reading that article and others. We still have a supply of wood outside in the log store but it is not going down at the same rate as it did. Mind you, it has been mild recently! Will we just use the stove for special occasions with guests (non-asthmatic ones) or days when we need cheering up or are very cold? Will we ever order more wood and continue to support a hard-working local businessman? Will the candle I now light in the kitchen satisfy my need for flame? I wonder how much pollution one candle could cause?