Are woodburners going to be banned?
Are woodburners going to be banned? No!
Should they be banned? No!
Despite what you may have read in certain newspapers or mumsnet, there are no plans to ban woodburners. The regulations have certainly tightened up though. I’ve written this blog to shed some light and give you some facts.
First of all…Ecodesign, what is it?
Ecodesign is the European-wide programme to lower emissions which came into force for wood burners in the UK in Jan 2022. All woodburning stoves manufactured from 2022 onwards must meet the new regulations. The initiative is in response to DEFRA’s Clean Air Strategy which aims to reduce emission and improve air quality over the next 25 years. This strategy sits alongside three other important UK government strategies: Industrial Strategy, Clean Growth Strategy and the 25 Year Environment Plan.
DEFRA, HETAS and SIA are backing the installation of Ecodesign stoves to reduce emissions from wood burning.
According to studies conducted, burning wood and coal to heat homes, hotels, pubs etc contributes up to 38% of UK emissions of damaging particulate matter (PM). The remaining 62% is mainly from vehicles, commercial and to a much lesser extent bbq’s & bonfires. However a new study from Kings College London has shown that across the country PM from wood burning is decreasing, even with increasing stove sales. The main reason given for a drop in emissions is the replacement of open fires and older stoves with more modern appliances. Up to 71% of the emissions caused are from burning solid fuel in open fires not woodburners. Burning wood on an open fire is the worst way to burn wood, both from the point of view of heat generated and the emissions produced.
An Ecodesign stove can reduce PM emissions by 90% compared to an open fire, 80% compared to a 10 year-old stove and over 40% when compared with a DEFRA Exempt stove.
Ecodesign stoves emit (on average) 0.7g per hour of smoke. The new regulation brought in for 2023 means you are allowed to emit up to 3g per hour. So even if you had 4 ecodesign woodburners running simultaneously in your house you would still be emitting less smoke and pm2.5 than the regulations demand!
Secondly…ClearSkies, what is it?
ClearSkies is an independent, not-for-profit emissions and energy performance certification scheme for stoves and fireplaces, developed by the Stove Industry Alliance to help consumers to identify stoves that are proven to reduce emissions for a greener world.
Stoves with a clearSkies certification are tested under laboratory conditions to produce up to 90% lower emissions than an open fire and up to 80% lower than the average 10-year-old stove. Any stove with the clearSkies mark is a low-carbon solution for home heating, meeting or exceeding all government standards and legal requirements.
Only wood burning stoves with the industry's lowest ever emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), organic gaseous compounds (OGC) and particulate matter (PM) qualify for the clearSkies mark. It is the new, nationally-recognised standard for stoves that achieve the requirements of the Ecodesign 2022 scheme and indeed go beyond those requirements.
As ClearSkies is fairly new, many new ecodesign stoves are still waiting to be tested. This means that if a burner you see listed doesn’t have the mark, it doesn’t necessarily mean it wouldn’t qualify for it, they’re just not able to advertise it yet.
Thirdly…Indoor Air Quality. What are PM 2.5's and are they dangerous?
The following is an extract from an article written by The Stove Fitters Warehouse that gives some clarity to the issue and counteracts some of the fake news spread by the media.
PM 2.5 are tiny particles and are in the air inside and outside of our homes whether we have a stove or not (think the finest of dust particles.) It is these particles that are dangerous to health for everybody if prevalent in high enough numbers over long periods of time. Inside our homes we create most PM 2.5 from cooking. Even toasting a slice of bread in a toaster creates a surprisingly high amount of PM 2.5. A recent study found that cooking a Sunday roast created higher levels of pollution than Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world! (Read article here.) Strangely this article featured in one of the newspapers who are so opposed to woodburners because of their ‘apparent danger to our health’ Strange then that they didn’t make the connection. I don’t hear anyone trying to ban Sunday roasts! Why not? They emit more pm2.5 than an eco woodburner.
A wood burning stove, correctly working, will not exceed small particle safe-guidelines or come anywhere close. A stove sucks air from the room, drawing particles into the fire and off up the chimney and outside.
The conclusions of a survey in 2019 by the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology were that homes without stoves had a Median PM 2.5 of 6.65 µg/m3 whilst homes with stoves were a fraction higher at 7.98 µg/m3. As a comparison outside air in central London averages 18-25 µg/m3.
Just think about that for a minute: a home has a natural and normal amount of 6.65 µg/m3 PM 2.5 particles all of the time, 24 hours a day. Using a wood stove can increase that a little for the few hours the stove is on (whilst still remaining well within recommended safe guidelines.)
So "very safe" becomes "still very safe".
With regard to clean air, DEFRA states that the cleanest and freshest air classed is anything under 11 µg/m3. The World Health Organisation's advice is not to exceed annual average concentrations of PM 2.5 of 10 µg/m3.
Note that this is an average over a whole year so even if your stove was running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year the average PM 2.5 levels would still be within WHO safe guidelines. For most homes, woodburners are only used for a few hours a day, a few months of the year and PM2.5 additions, caused by a stove, are negligible.
So finally, What does this mean for the consumer?
There are no plans to ban woodburning stoves, or even open fires for that matter. However, all stoves that are now being manufactured must meet the new standard.
All the stoves we supply & fit are ecodesign as a minimum. Many are clearskies rated 4 or 5 which go beyond the ecodesign standard.
Now that the new regulations have started there is no need to update existing installations. Anything installed before 2022 will not be required to be updated for the new regulations, so if you’ve just had a stove installed which isn’t ecodesign there’s nothing to worry about. If you’re thinking about getting a woodburner to replace your open fire or gas fire then you should get an ecodesign model. With soaring gas prices and concerns over levels of air pollution in our towns and cities from vehicles and open fires, there has never been a better time to make the change to an ecodesign or clearskies wood burner.
If you would like to contact us please visit www.cinderandsmoke.co.uk