Should I fancy a fancy wood burner for work and play?

[ian33a]

Plenty of people have a log burner and chuck almost anything into it. In our house there are two burners. With one of them, the previous owner admitted that he chucked all sorts inside. With this burner, the flue was thick with tar, the stainless steel liner had rotted through and there was evidence of previous chimney fires.

We've just replaced this burner and had a new flue installed. The installer has told us to only burn stuff that has been unaffected by man - so no purchased machined wood or anything painted or stained. Also, no wood with a higher moisture content that specified by the burner manufacturer.

I guess we are lucky in that we don't have neighbours immediately close by. We're also not in a low emission zone. In our previous place, if I lit a match one of the neighbours would be around to complain about the smoke, well almost.

 

[sawtooth-9]

The " lazy " chooks just jump onto the tractor and come for a ride.
They play" chicken " as you mow - they literally get within inches of the wheels.
Sometimes I find an egg on the tractor seat ! Breakfast !!!
Sadly, recently , I noticed a really bad smell when I was on the tractor - turns out some poor snake decided the engine bay was a good place to rest. Probably had his head in the fan belt ! Ouch !

 

[stuart little]

I'm surprised that fire pits and log burners are getting more popular when we're all supposed to be creating less CO². With all the compostable material you're getting, can you not take it to the local tip every few weeks? They will compost it properly and sell it back as garden compost.

We have a guy, locally, who has a log burner, except he burns anything, and the smoke is often so bad you can taste the varnish/paint, especially in the cold season when the smoke lays low. He's that sort of neighbour.

I know the feeling - got one like that, who starts his barbie off with some accelerant & stinks the place out with a parrafin smell. Luckily it's been too hot to BBQ!

 

[stuart little]

Plenty of people have a log burner and chuck almost anything into it. In our house there are two burners. With one of them, the previous owner admitted that he chucked all sorts inside. With this burner, the flue was thick with tar, the stainless steel liner had rotted through and there was evidence of previous chimney fires.

We've just replaced this burner and had a new flue installed. The installer has told us to only burn stuff that has been unaffected by man - so no purchased machined wood or anything painted or stained. Also, no wood with a higher moisture content that specified by the burner manufacturer.

I guess we are lucky in that we don't have neighbours immediately close by. We're also not in a low emission zone. In our previous place, if I lit a match one of the neighbours would be around to complain about the smoke, well almost.

I used to burn all sorts of wood on my open fire, until the housing association (off-shoot of the council) decided to remove/block all fireplaces & instal electric! A good example of 'Out of the pan into the fire'. Three years on & still waiting for the 'chimmocks' to be capped.

 

[GweithdyDU]

I watched a video recently where someone made a clean burn incinerator from a couple of old 45 gallon oil drums. similar design to the one in the link. These are different designs of rocket stoves, very efficient and clean burn as long as it's running hot.

Rocket stoves and rocket mass stoves are very popular in many parts of the world where there are less restrictive regulations. I would love to build a rocket mass stove in my workshop, but just not feasible in the UK with current regulations and no way of proving it meets HETAS requirements, even though it would.

Esse make a very interesting 'carbon negative' stove for outdoor cooking. Another rocket stove and similar price, but will only burn small bits of wood.

I think the days of wood fired stoves are numbered in the UK. I expect them to be banned before long because of the health concerns.

"I think the days of wood fired stoves are numbered in the UK. I expect them to be banned before long because of the health concerns." Or so they (as in not us) have us over a barrel for purchasing their energy/heating at a price they can determine?". I'm not given to conspiracy theories and I'm not saying it is a policy of any sort, but it sure as hell feels that way. If I'm broke, I can burn a pallet or two and be warm for the evening, but I can't easily produce my own electricity to heat my room. The move to electricity is fine but encourage/or subsidise folks to move away from reliance on big energy producers that hold more power over us than governments.