Poor Air Quality: The Importance Of Replacing Your Open Fire With A Wood Burning Stove.

“An open fire is the wrong way to burn wood. The high level of incomplete combustion in an open fire produces higher levels of smoke and particulate emissions than a Defra Exempt or SIA Ecodesign ready stove. Nationally 40% of wood is burnt on open fires; In London this increases to 70%.“

 90% Less Emissions.

Which is why households in most British cities are banned from burning wood in an open fire, although many still do regardless of The Clean Air Act of 1993. And it’s the negative data which is coming back from the use of open fires that is feeding into people’s concerns about wood burning stoves. But when it comes to emissions related to the burning of wood, an open fire will create 90% more emissions than an SIA Ecodesign stove. Or, to put it another way, burning wood in an SIA Ecodesign stove will create 90% less emissions than on an open fire!

Increase In Efficiency.

The positive news it that levels of emissions from wood burning in general has declined in most UK cities, including London. This is due to people switching to Defra Exempt stoves which are certified to reduce emissions and are designed for smoke control areas. There are also many positives for households who wish to replace their open fire with a modern wood burning stove. For one, a huge increase in efficiency will help create a lot more heat in your room, and you’ll require fewer logs to do it – it requires approximately 16 logs to produce the same amount of heat in an open fire that just 5 logs will do in an SIA Ecodesign stove!

Fewer logs also means less emissions, which means you’ll be contributing to a better environment for everyone!

Ecodesign ready Stoves

As Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Select Committee Environment Food & Rural Affairs, said recently:

“What the SIA is doing fits in with the world we have; we have problems in our inner cities with very high levels of NOx and particulates. Anything we can do to reduce that from open fires and others, through SIA Ecodesign Ready stoves has got to be an absolute benefit.”

We are passionate about the environment and our role in helping to reduce emissions so that future generations can enjoy the privileges that we have, and we couldn’t agree more with Neil Parish’s comments.