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Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

theguardian.com

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Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

#11

Post by roywiggins »

jefft255 wrote: post #2

I thought this was well-known? I live in Montréal and there are pretty serious regulations on wood burning stoves [1-2]. I grew up in a wood heated house and I sure love sitting by the stove, but that was in the country with extremely low housing density. I'm not super convinced about indoor air pollution, with the right stove? French links, Google translate should get the gist [1] http://www1.ville.montreal.qc.ca/ba…

You still need to open them to fuel them, and people do that fairly frequently, which floods the space with particulates.

> The results showed the burners were usually lit for about four hours at a time, and during this period the level of harmful particles in homes was three times higher than when stoves were not being used.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/18/wood-bur...

Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

#12

Post by corty »

gruez wrote: post #6

>Wood burners have become increasingly popular in recent years [...] Almost 16% of people in the south-east of England use wood fuel, and 18% in Northern Ireland, according to 2016 government data, and about 175,000 wood burners are sold annually. If you're wondering why they're so popular, it's because wood counts as "renewable fuel", so it helps EU countries meet their renewable energy targets. https://news.ycombin…

Additionally, electricity, district heating, coal, gas and oil are getting more and more expensive due to carbon and renewable taxes. Renewables like photovoltaics and photothermics, along with heat pumps, are also increasing in price, because there is high demand on specialized workers for installation. The only thing that actually is getting cheaper is wood, a stove is comparatively cheap anyways (few hundred euros, compared to over 10k for anything renewable), and current climate plus tree pests cause a large amount of cheap firewood.

Also, there seems to be the dogma with professional renewable planners that room temperature should not rise above 18°C. I know people where their renewable heating was dimensioned too small, who then supplement by wood stove to at least get a cozy living room in winter.

Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

#13

Post by teej »

LatteLazy wrote: post #10

Anyone know how this compares to other daily hazards (living on a main road, being overweight etc)? Edit Looks like you can get a hepa filter for £70 that will fix the issue for the most part. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08G8JHGWH/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_fa... And gas stoves (and so presumably fires?) are also a problem. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/05/gas-stov... Thank god we mastered central heating…

This article says breathing the air in Beijing on one day is 15 micromorts. Beijing seems to have a P2.5 AQI of 50-100. You can use that to compare to the hazard of your choice.

https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-every-breath-you-t...

Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

#15

Post by jeffbee »

spodek wrote: post #4

Low Tech Magazine, one of my favorite sites online, has written a few articles on wood and biomass: - Well-Tended Fires Outperform Modern Cooking Stoves: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2014/06/thermal-efficiency-c... - Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/12/too-much-combustion-... - How to Make Biomass Energy Sustainable Again: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/09/how-to-mak…

Low Tech Magazine is pretty much bullshit from cover to cover and these articles are great examples of the genre. Read the first one with a critical eye. It doesn't make any sense. It's just a deceptive argument constructed to make performative primitivism seem competitive with modern technology, which it isn't. An electric induction cooker is superior to any kind of fire, in all aspects and ways, by large margins in every direction.

Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

#16

Post by DoingIsLearning »

gnicholas wrote: post #7

I have a neighbor who burns wood every day, and I bought an air quality monitor to see what the impact is on our air. The AQI hits 150 when it’s burning, which is really unhealthy. I was surprised it was this bad, especially since he’s not that close of a neighbor (on a different street even).

This is an indoor measurement in your house or an outside street measurement?

Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

#17

Post by HPsquared »

Walking down a middle-class street in the UK on a cold, calm day, the smell of smoke from the various wood burners is quite apparent. Amazing these are allowed when the controls on other particulate emitters, e.g. diesel cars, are (rightly) so strict.

Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts

#19

Post by aqrit »

chrisseaton wrote: post #8
gruez wrote: post #6

>Wood burners have become increasingly popular in recent years [...] Almost 16% of people in the south-east of England use wood fuel, and 18% in Northern Ireland, according to 2016 government data, and about 175,000 wood burners are sold annually. If you're wondering why they're so popular, it's because wood counts as "renewable fuel", so it helps EU countries meet their renewable energy targets. https://news.ycombin…

I think they're also popular because * people have wood anyway so they might as well use it for something * it often suits the design of houses here which were historically built for a central stove burner like this * many people have wood-burning stoves for cooking that are extremely large and heavy permanent fixtures in their kitchen and cannot easily be removed or adapted and are designed to permanently be burning…

Outdoor wood furnaces (boilers) became very popular over the last 15 years. They are cheaper than fuel oil. A traditional wood stove has to be refilled every 2 hours (or so), and is also a major fire hazard. "Wood burners" may also include pellet stoves which are also increasingly popular for similar reasons.
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