HEATING, VENTILATION AND SERVICES
Burning the misconceptions
Fire and stove suppliers Charlton and Jenrick address the misconceptions around wood-burning stove emissions, and the important new Ecodesign regulations due to come into force this year
plus Ecodesign stoves. You need to be aware of the stark differences.
• If you burn wood on an Ecodesign stove, you need to make sure you burn correctly seasoned wood
CONFUSING MEDIA COVERAGE & SOME MISCONCEPTIONS
If the above points were not frustrating enough, there is more misleading information still circulating in the media. Here are three to be aware of: • Burning wood accounts for 38% of PM2.5 emissions, compared with 12% from road transport.
• Emissions of fine particles from domestic wood burning more than doubled between 2003 and 2019, from 20,000 to 41,000 tonnes.
• An Ecodesign stove will emit 750 times more pollution than an HGV vehicle.
W
ood burning stoves have been delivering a sustainable, renewable heating method for
a long time – long before the carbon reduction and air quality targets were introduced. It’s been estimated that there are over 2 million stove and fireplace installations in the UK, which represents an investment of around £2bn in peoples homes. Stoves don’t just provide warmth, they make a genuine contribution to economic growth.
MISINFORMED CONCERNS
As mentioned in the media, some misinformed campaigners wish to ban the sale of wood-burning stoves. A great deal of these misinformed concerns come from the fact that “domestic burning” is far too broad-brush and covers both the burning of wood in highly efficient wood-burning stoves and also bonfires
jan/feb 2022
and open fires too. Burning wood in an Ecodesign stove vs open fires and bonfires is an incredibly bad comparison. An Ecodesign stove will emit virtually no visible smoke, and up to 90% fewer emissions than an open fire and up to 80% less than a 10-year-old stove.
BE AS GREEN AS YOU CAN BE To make sure your Ecodesign stove remains at its optimum level of efficiency, it’s important you burn correctly seasoned wood, namely wood that is at or below 20% moisture, such as “Ready to Burn” certified wood. If you are burning unseasoned “wet” wood, regardless of what stove you have, you will be creating totally unnecessary pollution. People who have misinformed concerns need to consider these two points: • Domestic burning covers both hugely inefficient open fires and bonfires
The SIA (Stove Industry Alliance) states that the figure of 38% of PM2.5 in the UK is caused by domestic wood burning is “greatly exaggerated” because it is based on an incorrect assumption of the amount of wood fuel used. This figure comes from a government survey back in 2015, which incorrectly estimated that 6 million tonnes of wood are burnt each year.
Recent figures published by Defra show that in fact 1.75 million tonnes of wood fuel is burnt indoors each year. This number is much more closely aligned with the SIA’s own research, which gives a figure of 1.85 million tonnes. If Defra’s latest wood fuel volume figures were combined with the correct emission factors, the real percentage of PM2.5 attributable to domestic wood burning would be less than 10%.
750 TIMES MORE POLLUTION THAN AN HGV? The statement that an Ecodesign stove emits 750 times more pollution than an HGV is misleading and incomparable. Furthermore, this ‘erroneous’ test was
www.sbhonline.co.uk 49
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
