All You Wood Burners, Wet Wood.

[Vorpal]

Sensors to detect particulates, or detemine various air quality parameters are relatively inexpensive these days. It would be simple enough to require people who wood burners to install such sensors, and periodically spot check them, or just use them to follow up complaints form neighbors.

[pwa]

Sensors to detect particulates, or detemine various air quality parameters are relatively inexpensive these days. It would be simple enough to require people who wood burners to install such sensors, and periodically spot check them, or just use them to follow up complaints form neighbors.

The latter, surely.

[random37]

The latter, surely.

Never going to happen, until councils have more money.

[pwa]

The latter, surely.

Never going to happen, until councils have more money.

My brother stopped using a wood burner when the council knocked on the door in response to a complaint, so I think that is the point at which any use of pollution measuring devices might happen. After a complaint. It's just not a realistic proposition for councils to send personnel out randomly looking for smokey chimneys.

[PDQ Mobile]

My brother stopped using a wood burner when the council knocked on the door in response to a complaint,

What was the complaint?
Does he use your conscientious wood supplier?
Or?

[mjr]

I can see a case for an annual woodburner licence, the cost of which would cover and annual inspection of the equipment as well as random drone flyovers.

I already have an annual inspection for the insurance certificate but it's fairly weak. It could and probably should be toughened up.

I'm not wild on the idea of pollution drones but I dislike foul air more.

[pwa]

My brother stopped using a wood burner when the council knocked on the door in response to a complaint,

What was the complaint?
Does he use your conscientious wood supplier?
Or?

No, I'm sure he would only burn dry wood, but the flue was deemed too low and too close to a neighbour's windows. My brother decided to just abandon it, seeing no practical solution.

[Mick F]

So how about a moratorium on new woodburner installations until the squadrons of chimney sniffing drones are ready?

I installed my own and the previous one we bought secondhand locally. All fitted by me, plus chimney lining, plus all the plumbing for the back boiler.

The present one was bought from these people.
https://rangemoors.co.uk

[PDQ Mobile]

No, I'm sure he would only burn dry wood, but the flue was deemed too low and too close to a neighbour's windows. My brother decided to just abandon it, seeing no practical solution.

Not a standard top of gable flue?
I guess any solid fuel flue low down near a window might draw a complaint.
Even oil boilers emit smell. ((There is an older (late 70's) housing development near me all built with oil central heating. As I cycle uphill past, it really stinks))

Of course there is some smoke from wood burning especially in the startup phase.

Yet good dry wood burned with sufficient oxygen is really quite clean. And to my nose smells quite pleasant!

It burns away quite fast though and many people shut down the air supply to extend burning time. Then the unburnt tars get emitted.

Dry wood is a volatile fuel.
It has two distinct heat sources.
The gas (and smoke) producing initial volatile phase and then the carbon based charcoal phase.
Ideally a wood consuming appliance should be able to exploit those properties.
It will have a very large mass or a boiler/heat exchanger to heat water for storage.
During the volatile phase air is supplied at high input but later on when only the charcoal remains the air supply can be reduced to almost nothing.
In that way a great deal of the heat energy can be utilized.
Anyone who burns wood on a simple open fires looses most of the heat of the first phase up the flue- it is a lot of heat, maybe 70% of the total available.
Dry wood for such a fire is rather a waste, though the emissions are good.

Clearly those are the ideal burning conditions (the Russian stove and the Soapstone types with their high mass do this very well).
However most people will want length of burning compromise but it is a method worth considering - more air input if smoke is a problem.

I see people who allow wood to more or less smolder in their hot stoves and the emissions stink.
They also get less heat than they otherwise could.

[Ben@Forest]

We are a very different country to the places that grow wood. Much more densely populated.

It's romantic, but in this country, not practical for widespread use.

I reckon the future is wind and solar, and better design of new buildings.

It's true we are a very deforested country, but as has been said there will always be a supply of small-sized roundwood - whether soft or hardwood because forest stands are thinned to encourage better final crops, first and second thinnings are generally suitable for the chip, or biomass or firewood markets. And that doesn't include arboricultural arisings - plenty of tree surgeons make a good sideline in charging to take arb arisings away, letting them season and and then selling them as firewood.

Also we import firewood, look here https://pearsonfuels.co.uk/imported-firewood/ it is an increasing market. I know most people will be aghast at this but, if you think it's wrong then by that rationale we should not be importing charcoal (nearly all from abroad), or oil , or gas or Evian water....

[Cyril Haearn]

Water certainly should not be traded, we have enough
At Luebeck there are huge piles of sawdust on the quay, they are loaded onto trains, dunno where they go
What is sawdust good for?

[Mick F]

Compressing into stirling board, or something similar to MDF.
Compressing into pellets for burning.

Loads of things I would think.

[Ben@Forest]

What is sawdust good for?

You've never owned a cat....

[Cyril Haearn]

What is sawdust good for?

You've never owned a cat....

Wuff
Whole shiploads and trains of it, thousands of tonnes?

[Ben@Forest]

What is sawdust good for?

You've never owned a cat....

Wuff
Whole shiploads and trains of it, thousands of tonnes?

In all seriousness part of the reason for the wood pellet boiler market was the high 1970s oil prices and the fact that sawmills in big timber-growing countries really did have thousands of tonnes of sawdust which they didn't have a market for. Now of course there is such a demand for wood pellets that they are also made from primary timber.