Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
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Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#2I 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/banque311/content/po%C3%AAl... [2] https://www.lapresse.ca/maison/immobilier/conseils/201804/17...
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#3I'm wondering if this is also be applicable in the case of a closed combustion wood burning fireplace? (internally, at least). My understanding is that they create quite a tight seal when all closed up.
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#4Low 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-make-biomass-...
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#5[deleted]
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#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.
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#7I 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).
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#8>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 wood so you can't really turn them off either
* people like the smell and aesthetic (note this article is in just about the most middle-class publication there is in the UK)
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#9I'm wondering if this is also be applicable in the case of a closed combustion wood burning fireplace? (internally, at least). My understanding is that they create quite a tight seal when all closed up.
> Wood burners cause less indoor pollution than open fires. “But every time you open the door, you reduce the stove to an open fire and particulate matter floods into the home,” he said. The peaks take an hour or two to dissipate. “But by the time it comes down, someone opens the door again to refuel and you get spike after spike,” Chakraborty said. Some burners have filters, but these only reduce the pollution being vented outside.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/18/wood-bur...
Re: Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts
#10Anyone 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 decades back...