Woodburners: myth versus reality
The woodburning stove industry has long been a convenient whipping boy for all manner of errant knaves, leaving a cloud of mythological flatulence floating in the aftermath. Let’s examine some samples:
Myth 1: Ban on woodburning stoves.
We’re not aware of any ban or even unidentified-ban-shaped-object on the horizon. In fact, the latest standard for stoves – Ecodesign, which mandates high efficiency and minimal emissions, and which took years to draft – was only introduced in 2022. There’s a clear regulatory landscape for stove use now and into the future.
Myth 2: Stoves are polluting.
Wood is a carbon neutral fuel. Combustion releases the same quantity of CO2 as naturally decomposing wood. Modern stoves are incredibly efficient and will burn logs without producing visible smoke. Emissions – up to 90% lower than an open fire and 80% less than an older stove - emerge above roof height (unlike cars’).
Myth 3: But forests are being felled!
Most logs for domestic stoves come from local tree surgery, which actually makes trees and forests healthier. And encourages even more tree-planting.
Myth 4: Woodburners produce most of the small PM2.5 particulates that cause illness.
Less than 0.3% of the UK’s PM2.5 is attributable to modern Ecodesign stoves and is massively outweighed by equivalent emissions from roads. Even cigarettes produce nearly five times as much. Bonfires on Guy Fawkes night alone created more PM2.5 than all of Britain’s Ecodesign woodburners together produced in a whole year.
Myth 5: stoves are middle-class.
Woodburners are about as democratic as appliances get and have humble, homesteading origins. They’re ecologically sound and provide autonomy, security, and sensuous, sunshine-like, heat. They key into the local economy, they can heat a small house or a large room and they heat all bottoms alike, rich and poor. King Charles is rumoured to be an enthusiast, too, and you can hardly accuse him of being middle-class!
There’s a lot of rubbish written about stoves, but fire is the alpha and omega of home heating and stoves have never been better than they are now. Maybe it’s time to put some real heat at the heart of your home.
*Figures from the Stove Industry Alliance and Poujoulat.
