Is there a lobby against wood heating ? The Guardian has a new article about how dangerous it is because each time you refuel the stove, particles enter in the room.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/18/wood-burners-triple-harmful-indoor-air-pollution-study-findsWood burners triple the level of harmful pollution particles inside homes and should be sold with a health warning, says scientists, who also advise that they should not be used around elderly people or children.
The tiny particles flood into the room when the burner doors are opened for refuelling, a study found. Furthermore, people who load in wood twice or more in an evening are exposed to pollution spikes two to four times higher than those who refuel once or not at all.
The particles can pass through the lungs and into the body and have been linked to a wide range of health damage, particularly in younger and older people.
Advertisement
The research was conducted in 19 homes in Sheffield over the course of a month at the start of 2020. The wood burners used were all models certified by the government as “smoke exempt appliances”, meaning they produce less smoke. But this and the new EcoDesign standard, due to become compulsory by 2022, only assess outdoor pollution.
If you follow the link and read the original article
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/12/1326you also can read that :
All participants used dried and seasoned logs, but the sizes varied. There was also a diversity of kindling used, taking the form of firelighters, newspapers, balls of paper, twigs, sawdust, packing cardboard, greeting cards, and even empty egg boxes. Echoing the findings of existing studies [20,35,52]. This means that the same wood burner may emit different levels of indoor air pollution depending on the quantity and type of fuel and kindling used.
and
While the findings point to the opening of the stove door as the origin for indoor PM emissions, further lab-based research is required into how this might relate to duration, timings, and the point in the burn cycle at which the opening occurs.
So they clearly didn't try to explain to the people how to reduce the quantities of PM when using the stove. When I bought my new stove, the salesman clearly told me that I should never open it when there still are flames. I should wait until there are only embers left to refuel it. By the way it is also what is said when you're doing a Barbecue, wait for the embers before putting the meat on the grill.
There is also the top down kindling that greatly reduce fine particles. I guess impossible with egg boxes.
There is also a point that is never discussed, I'm sure that biomass smoke particles are less harmful than the ones from fossil fuels combustion (at least petrol), otherwise nobody would have survived going to a pub before smoking was forbidden inside.
Another aspect with new modern stove is that the air is often taken outside, so you loose the effect that the stove renews the air in the room. Maybe it is a good concept regarding safety (the smoke can't enter in the room in case of pressure problems) and heat conservation (no cold air enters in the room), but I couldn't install such a system and am happy I didn't because I find that it provides a good ventilation in the house, so it probably helps to brings the concentration of fine particles down.
Of course there is more dust in the house when we heat with the stove, but dust is not fine particles, it is much bigger.
