Woodburners, nice or nasty?

We had one in Spain, but as Lesley60 experienced OH was incapable of leaving it alone so I was forever repainting the walls. It was also no good at heating the bedrooms even though it’s a single storey villa. Had a revamp, got rid of it and I’ve never repainted the walls in that room since then!

Rosie51

Daisycuddles Most people use woodburners in the winter so not sure why it would effect washing on the line / people who have their windows open etc
Those of us that don't have tumble dryers still dry our washing outside when it's not raining, even in winter. And I like to have windows open for a while to air the house, couldn't be doing with living in stale air all winter.

I don’t have a tumble dryer, the environmental damage regarding micro plastics is appalling. But that’s for another discussion.
In the winter washing dries overnight on an airer in the room with the residue heat from the woodburner.

Daisycuddles Most people use woodburners in the winter so not sure why it would effect washing on the line / people who have their windows open etc
Those of us that don't have tumble dryers still dry our washing outside when it's not raining, even in winter. And I like to have windows open for a while to air the house, couldn't be doing with living in stale air all winter.

We had a log burner for some years but change over to an electric flame effect- so much cleaner- no fumes, better for the environment and the house gets alt less dusty- no more cleaning it out or lumping logs about

I like the smell of woodsmoke too, but I really sympathise with the OP - all the time, other peoples' smoke? that's really unfair.

Love woodburners, look & atmosphere, but have never bought a property with one, & if we had one I'm not convinced I would ever go to the trouble of using it.

Since this so called "government " cut the winter fuel allowance we rely on our Woodburner in the winter. We live in a very rural village and the houses are far apart from each other. Most of our neighbours have them. In my opinion there are too many rules and laws preventing us living our lives, as long as we don't affect anyone else

Maybe people are just burning all the recyclable waste the councils have decided they don't want, or can't be bothered to collect.

We do have a fireplace and chimney as it’s a Victorian house but instead have a fake woodburner, easy to turn on and off and very realistic too.
Real woodburners are bad for the environment.

I had one for a couple of months when we moved in, but husband played with it like a toy putting logs on all the time, I found it to be a dust creator
I like the smell of woodsmoke but I couldn’t smell it in my house only outside, anyway I had it taken out and and replaced with modern marble fireplace with electric fire with realistic flames

Has is gas

We live in a rural area, been here two years. We replaced the wood burner in the house we have, has isn’t easily installed. It does smell a little at night outside. We don’t have street lights. Some of the properties are Victorian and some newer, like ours. I think if I had the choice again I would reconsider not having it installed. It cost too much to change it now, we also had a new boiler and oil tank. Too much to change the system now.

I dread visiting my son’s house in the winter. His log fire makes me cough and brings on my lung problems 😫

I understand that the local Fire Service can check these out regarding air toxicity. Such a waste of a 999 call. Also, a complaint to local Authority for investigation. The more complaints they receive, the more action can be taken. My neighbour has just had one installed but seems to think anything can be burned to save them taking household rubbish to the local tip. I can't understand why they don't notice anything.

We absolutely love ours. We had two in our last house and we have one in our current house, a barn conversion, but we do live rurally.
The heat output is brilliant and they are so warm and cosy during those dark winter nights.
I can imagine if you’re in a built up area, it might be a different scenario altogether.

If used properly and by the ‘rules’ there should be very little if any smoke and I would look into reporting people who are burning stuff inappropriately. Nothing wrong with Woodburners…..it’s the people….

We had one in our old house and I got fed up having to bring in wood and didn’t like that it cause a lot of dust riddling etc. But the effect was cosy I agree. Everyone here seems to do the “right thing” re the fuel used and if they don’t mind the faff that’s fine. A few of our neighbours have them and we aren’t aware of any smells so perhaps they’re burning the correct fuel too.

Daisycuddles Chimney 35' away on top of a shed. I don't need to open widows in winter I do though need to keep vents open and open my door. Indoors instantly smells of smoke.

ROMILO

Just a quick question. There are enforceable rules concerning the use of wood burners to protect the environment and people's health . A lot of people have said that they get free wood, where do they get the free wood that meets the regulations?

The rules vary depending on where you live and whether you are in a smoke control zone or not. We live in a very rural area with almost unlimited access to free wood, which we cut and store ourselves until it has dried out sufficiently to burn effectively, which you can check with a meter.
Let's face it, almost every type of home heating has its pros and con. Without our free wood, we simply couldn't afford to heat our house, so it's a no-brainer as far as I am concerned.

Many people, sadly, use free just cut wood. They do not season it as they should.

Graceless What size of log burner did you have to keep it going day abd night yet only clean it out once a week. I was brought up with coal fires and had one when first married and if I wanted to keep the fire going 24 hours I'd need to stay up to stoke it. Had to be cleaned daily in winter. Son has a wood burner and that too would need 24 hour stoking. For daiky use and that's really after work hours, cleaned every two days.

Really like mine and also love the smell of a log fire when you're out walking on a wintry day One place I stayed for a while had a log burner which made me wheeze like mad but think that must have been the wood supply as have no problems with mine.

Just a quick question. There are enforceable rules concerning the use of wood burners to protect the environment and people's health . A lot of people have said that they get free wood, where do they get the free wood that meets the regulations?

Fat thumb syndrome smell not sell

I have a similar problem with the smell of smoke permeating through my house. Neighbour erected a small summer house 3 years ago and installed a wood fire. With the low height tge top if the chimney is level with the bedrooms on the back of my house so basically, lounge,kitchen, dining room, bathroom and two bedrooms sell like kippers when the fire goes on. I feel its bad enough chimneys being on top of double storey houses without being allowed on basically sheds. The building is 35'
away from my house.

I wonder if people consider pollution aspects and consequences of their road travel, air travel and cruises when they jet off on holiday.

Congested city roads cause awful fumes. I light my stove for 3-4 hours in the evenings when most people are indoors, on winters nights for max 5 months. I don't have gas. I don't feel bad about it. I don't have holidays, I use my car only locally max 3-4 days per week if that.

My grandmother had an open fire all her life [died 83yrs] and didn't seem to suffer from it. She heated her iron on it, heated the kettle on it and her crumpets were very well received when toasted by it.