You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Seems our lauded Govt has decided that "clean air" is the latest thing for them to be seen to be doing that's actually for our benefit...particulates are apparently the 2nd biggest health threat behind cancer.
I couldn't find any details to quote (or imagine what they might do/how it might be policed) but Woodburners were specifically mentioned on R4 news.
Brave move taking on the middle classes!
McMoonter's in trouble.
It's been in the pipeline for a while this. If the evidence is there then crack on and ban them I say. Cue lots and lots of outrage / vague anecdotal evidence / whataboutery from STW.
Won't happen up here, perhaps in the over populated south.
30% of urban generated pm 2.5s come from wood burning.
The evidence is there and has been for a while, it’s just been ignored.
Thats from the air quality expert group for defra if anyone wants the source.
It’s about controlling what is burnt.
Snippet from Guardian, I'd say a ban is unlikely!!
But on domestic wood and coal burning it said it would legislate to ensure “only the cleanest domestic fuels” will be on sale. This may include wood bearing the “Ready to Burn” logo which indicates low moisture content
Probably means wood will be more expensive to buy but there's nowt stopping people getting a lovely , wet tree from their back garden and smoking that up!!
We put one in our house 10 years ago just before they came the pineapple & cheese sticks of the middle classes.
These days it doesn’t get used that much because I’m conscious of the environmental impact.
What the government should also be doing is stopping houses being built that are not very efficient
Crack-down on Woodburners
Sounds uncomfortable
Wood tax..???
It's just hot air from Gove.
Councils can't afford to fill potholes or house the homeless, don't see how they are going to be checking up on peoples woodpiles.
(It'll be grumpy neighbours that wanna settle scores that will do the work!)
simplest would be to extend the ambit of the smoke control areas legislation.
Domestic particulate filters in urban areas or no burning.
https://www.gov.uk/smoke-control-area-rules
One reason we’ve not put them in the house we’re renovating...
Genuine question :
Which is more environmentally friendly for heating my house, collecting storing and drying wood collected from behind my house with a wheelbarrow, cutting with an electric chainsaw and splitting with an axe. Or burning oil in a 20 year old boiler.
No gas in the area and rented house so can't change the boiler.
In practice of course it's a mix of the two, but I do wonder which is the most damaging.
but Woodburners were specifically mentioned on R4 news.
Brave move taking on the middle classes!
God - I'm not even going to turn the radio on today then. R4 will be incandescent Remember what it was like when someone had the temerity to say Agas are a bit crap?
Curious clash of priorities though. The government subsidises the woodburner that heats my home and is committed to doing so for quite some time to come. And it funds the woodburner that heats the barn that the wood that burnt gets dried in - we're subsidised to burn subsided wood. Will we be seeing the same drive to discourage woodburnng in the ROI? If theres even any wood left there.
Still missing the point. People are the root cause of all man made pollution.
Just ban people.
Or tax children (with exemptions for strength, intelligence, luck etc).
One reason we’ve not put them in the house we’re renovating…
You didn’t put one in as they’re making sure people burn the right fuel?
Still missing the point. People are the root cause of all man made pollution.
Just ban people.
Or tax children (with exemptions for strength, intelligence, luck etc).
Merciless by name, merciless by nature.
And also mingin'
Ban trees. Nasty polluting things.
Which is more environmentally friendly for heating my house,
I doubt it's even close unless its a really fancy new wood burner ... that's before you pick up the wood that could rot and forms part of the ecosystem...
I bought a Defra approved stove, so maybe the next step is to ensure they are all that standard?
Didn’t bother using ours at all this winter, I’d run out of wood and smokeless plus it’s pointless in an insulated, centrally heated house in outer London. Previous owners put it in and it will probably go when we redecorate.
Tbh I wouldn't be bothered if it happens, though god knows how they would police that, I'd give coal a go, then once I get pissed off wi the mess, I'll get rid and put a gas fire in. Been liberating and chopping wood for nigh on 10 years now, I'm struggling to find the time if I'm honest.
Mine replaced an open fire so it’s got to be more efficient than that. I love mine though, it’s a double sided one in a big open plan space so great for warming the whole house on a chilly evening, rather than putting the heating on.
Meanwhile the rest of the environment is sliding into hell as we type.
Ming is right, we need to reduce the population.
One reason we’ve not put them in the house we’re renovating…
You didn’t put one in as they’re making sure people burn the right fuel?
No, because HBC planning regs have a proposal to ban them in the area where the house is being renovated... (near Harlow Carr Gardens)
Simple enough instruction/proposal for us to understand and make reasoned decision not to put one in.
That is a very different reason to the proposals then there is no crack down on wood burners.
As above - ours is Defra approved and I assume newer stoves are much better at burning off particulates because they are much more efficient than older stoves. I'm not sure when the change was made, but somewhere between our first (16 years ago) and our current one (one year ago) they changed the internals to make them more efficient I believe.
No, because HBC planning regs have a proposal to ban them in the area where the house is being renovated… (near Harlow Carr Gardens)
Where did you get this information from? I haven't heard anything like that. Here is the list of *current* smoke control areas in Harrogate
(I live near Ashville School so very close to Harlow Carr). And surely if one is already fitted they couldn't retrospectively ban its use.
Gove said on R4 this morning that they would discourage high-tar coals and encourage people to burn dry wood. Any more than that will be seen as an attack on country folk who will be whining that they've lost their bus services, pubs and post offices and now they aren't allowed to heat their freezing old houses because many in the country live in uninsulated Victorian or older houses and have to spend a lot to keep warm.
Like a lot of these issues it's not a one size fits all solution. Wood burners are a problem in cities and densely populated areas significantly contributing to poor air quality, but not an issue in sparsely populated countryside areas, so a blanket ban or measures don't make sense. From what I gather from the radio today powers are being given for local councils/authorities to make rules and take measures appropriate for their area.
Ming is right, we need to reduce the population.
you go first. We'll be right behind you.
So the wood I buy from the local estate forester is now more of a threat to the environment than heating oil? How about a wood chip biomass boiler which imports wood chip from Scandinavian counties because the UK can't provide enough managed forestry?
This is more about air pollution in heavily dense populated areas, but rural communities will suffer as a result.
Regards population growth, Itll never happen, but I'm 100% behind removing child benefit for those that have more than 2 kids. Any party that suggests such a thing would be nuts.
So the wood I buy from the local estate forester is now more of a threat to the environment than heating oil?
No, that is not what is being claimed they’re asking for people to make sure it is seasoned properly. Your’s is isn’t it?
I bought a Defra approved stove, so maybe the next step is to ensure they are all that standard?
Oh oh that’s the stick your fingers in your ears I’m alright Jack response
Doesn’t matter who approves your stove, it still gives off pollution. If you burn the wrong stuff even more pollution
What wobbliscott said. Like diesels really...
All stoves produce smoke when grate temperatures are low and combustion is incomplete. Once a stove is up to temperature the fumes emerging from the flue can be perfectly clean.
I shall still keep burning all the nice offcuts from work. Theres certainly more pressing things they should be worrying about I'm sure but hey it's politics they say one thing on a daily basis then do another anyway!
Once a stove is up to temperature the fumes emerging from the flue can be perfectly clean.
That's a contradiction in terms.
That is a very different reason to the proposals then there is no crack down on wood burners.
Maybe, but we made decisions based on HBC planned proposals for Implimentation of smokeless zones and limits as to what type of wood burner you maybe able to install. Some burners don’t burn hot enough, some do. We didn’t want to take the chance of HBC changing decisions when we are in the forefront of the renovation.
Ashfield School is over the other side near the roundabout/Beckwith Lane/Whinney Lane and I’ve no idea what HBC’s plans are for that area (other than the builders restrictions on the load of housing on the fields between the Police Station/Lund House Green/Old Police Training Collage) The house renovation overlooks HCGardens and the woods that overlook it... and there are/planned restrictions in that area.
We installed a bio mass burner in the farm last year (Lund House Green area) and were told then about the restrictions on both bio mass and wood burners in that area.
Your local council planning office will be able to advise on what rules are/are planned in your area.
education is what you need (said in a record breakers voiceover), I recently had my lined chimney swept after 5 yrs of burning seasoned hardwood (mostly ash/oak) in my stove, got less than a dustpan of debris/soot out of it. I’m all for stopping the dickheads burning shite damp wood and normal coal.
"Wood Tax ..?"
Payable every morning. 🙂