Quote:
Originally Posted by Rickoshea
Hands up, we installed a wood burner in our London suburb home and most of the wood we burn is locally sourced either from our garden or those of our neighbours. It is DEFRA approved for use in smokeless zones so assume it is not outputting too much rubbish
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Burning unseasoned wet wood is the worst thing you can do other than contaminated scrap wood, i.e. painted or MDF etc.. Wet wood produces more smoke and far more particulate and will be well over the limits. Being a DEFRA stove will not compensate.
The wood should be clean, seasoned for a minimum of three years to dry it out sufficiently and or kiln dried, i.e. put through a heat drying process. Anything else will be the total opposite too being green and limiting pollution. This is why particulate pollution is rising more than expected. Ill informed people thinking they are doing a good thing for the environment and their pockets but actually the opposite. The green lobbies who pushed log burners expected the users to burn the correct stuff. Scrap wood and unseasoned garden cuttings etc. are free and dried wood is not and can be more expensive than gas. Further to this wet and contaminated wood produce tar as well as soot which does not brush away when sweeping, which should be done twice a year. This tar is the main cause of the increasing incidents of chimney fires, which could result in total loss of the house and life, and again these fires increase pollution.
To produce the best calorific value i.e. burn hotter and longer, the best products are kiln dried of well seasoned hard wood. Burning hard wood also has its ecological questions; should this type of wood be cut down and used just to burn? Soft wood, pine for example, burns faster but produces lower temperatures, so dry clean scrap wood isn't as hot and you actually need more of it. Wet wood needs more of the energy in its combustion to be used drying it out and so therefore is nothing like as hot in additions to the other increased pollution disadvantages.