The Gentleman Magazine Issue 20 | April 2020 | Page 68

WOODWARM STOVES
Open fires and wood burning stoves have seen a huge surge in
popularity over recent years, providing an additional form of
heating for many, and for some, the sole heat source.
Despite some of the negative press doing the rounds recently
about solid fuels stoves and poor air quality, should they
continue to be used as an efficient, carbon neutral source of
heating?
The answer is a resounding ‘yes’, according to Rupert Snook
Director at Devon based Woodwarm Stoves.
But you don’t have to take his word for it. The Gentleman
Magazine asked Rupert to explain the facts about solid fuel
stoves emissions so you can judge for yourself.
‘In January 2019 the Government published the updated UK
Clean Air Strategy and suggested that the “increase in burning
solid fuels (wood and coal) in our homes now makes up the
single largest contributor to our national Particulate Matter
(PM) emissions at 38%”.
However, since then, the industry body, the Stove Industry
Alliance (SIA) conducted an independent review of existing
scientific research which sets out to clarify some of the
uncertainties surrounding PM emissions from burning wood
and other solid fuels in and around the home.
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The key findings of the review are that the stove industry has
been severely misrepresented.
Based on the results, which have been independently verified,
the volume of wood burnt each year in the UK is around 1.85m
tonnes and not the 6m tonnes as suggested in the Clean Air
Strategy. Applying this more up to date and accurate figure to
those used within the Clean Air Strategy the percentage of PM
emissions that can be attributed to domestic wood burning
would fall from 38% to 14.9%.
The SIA review also showed that 96.5% of users were using
their stoves for heating and not purely for aesthetic purposes.
This is a vital consideration and a valid endorsement of wood
fuel as an affordable form of low carbon heating for the UK.
Most importantly, The SIA also found that more than 27% of
appliances used for heating are open fires or stoves that are
more than 10 years old. These account for over 51% of the UK’s
annual wood fuel consumption. Replacing an older stove with
a modern, efficient one would reduce emissions by nearly 45%.
Taking this into consideration as well, wood burning would
account for only 8% of PM emissions in the UK – a figure that’s
a whopping 30% lower than that cited in the Government’s
Clean Air Strategy.
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