Without a doubt, you have seen some false headlines concerning the risks of using wood stoves and the potential for a ban on their use. HETAS examines the actions being taken by our industry and the government regarding home burning in this update. This includes affirmation that the government is not considering banning domestic burning in England, even though some households rely on solid fuel burning for cooking, hot water, and heating, as demonstrated by the recently released Environmental Improvement Plan (2023). It’s also critical to distinguish between data pertaining to residential burning and wood-burning stove use for home heating. Recent campaigns like Woodburning London and Clean Air Night have some extremely misleading or inaccurate messaging.
A few important things to think about when addressing the current misconceptions are:
• In England, the government is not thinking about outlawing home burning.
• Because of the natural draft that is produced when a modern wood burning stove is operated and used correctly, using one can help to improve the quality of the air inside the house.
• Modern Ecodesign compliant stoves produce 90% less particulate emissions than an inefficient open fire.
• HETAS Cleaner Choice certified products must demonstrate a 50% improvement on Clean Air particulate emissions, with some achieving as much as 70% improvement.
• Cooking is one of the many other home sources of particulate matter (PM), which can release far higher levels of PM than modern wood burning stoves.
• Official figures from the UK government estimate that modern wood-burning stoves contribute only 1% to 2% of PM emissions.
• To produce the same amount of heat as an open fire, a modern stove uses less than one-third the amount of wood.
• Inefficient and illegal in areas designated for smoke control, 70% of the wood burned in London is done so over open flames.
The industry has responded forcefully to these false allegations in recent weeks, which is encouraging, but we still need to do everything in our power to encourage responsible burning. The HETAS team is still working hard to represent industry at the federal level. They are advocating for wood burning’s future and confronting lobbyists and local authorities when they find false information online. Apart from reaching out to you today, we have also reached out to tens of thousands of customers who have subscribed to our newsletter, informing them that they are permitted to use their stoves and responsibly burn materials on this Clean Air Night. In 2023, we experienced our busiest year on the website ever. We will keep highlighting to customers the advantages of selecting HETAS registrants.
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