Help please with wood burner setting

It's a multi fuel burner, we had one. If you are burning wood you leave the grate flat, if you are burning coal you use the metal handle to lift it up.

Maybe if you live out in the countryside away from other houses, old stoves might be ok. But so many people in built up areas are going in for woodburners nowadays, and that's when the real pollution can start. If it isn't a cleanburn stove, it's unfair to your neighbours.

Another advantage of cleanburn is, you don't have to empty ashes so often because all of the fuel is used up.

Kiln drying of logs is not good for the environment because of the amount of electricity used in the drying process. Well seasoned logs are good enough - and cheaper. Get a moisture meter. 23 or below is good.

Make sure the wood is dry, kiln dried if possible, we certainly didn’t bother with a whiff of smoke 50 yrs when there was no central heating so don’t worry about log burners now.

Interestingly we have a log burner and I read an article that said that log burners are cleaner than originally thought and data/research should be revoked at. The main thing is to use kiln dried wood as it has a higher burn rate. To operate ask you landlord/agent. And enjoy a cosy feel in you home.

Wood burners are lovely. If it's in good condition there is no reason not to use it. Just find out if the last tenants used it and when the chimney/flue was last swept.

Don't use it. Get an electric fire/heater which will be so much cleaner and not send clouds of smoke into the air.

Lets face it, even breathing damages the environment. The worry with wood burning stove is that they emit particulates that can be damaging to those with lung problems.

If you live in a rural area, any particulates from a wood fire are unlikely to harm anyone as they will soon dissipate into the generally cleaner atmosphere - and many farms and really isolated houses off the gas grid use wood fired central heating boilers. They burn logs or wood pellets and need loading and ash removing only once a day.

The problem lies in built up areas where there can be a lot of wood-burning stoves churning a lot of particulates into already polluted air.

We have a very old house with gas CH and a relatively modern low-emmission stove in the living room, which we use at weekends and during very cold weather to support the CH. I do not think, from year start to year end, it will be emitting enough particulates to be seriously damaging, but as I said, even breathing can damage the environment.

I never realised it was so technical. I live in the country, and we have a Clearview log burner, it’s about 5 years old now I guess, and in common with all our neighbors I think, we buy wood in bulk from the local farmer after he’s kept it in his barn for a year and chopped it up, then put it in the log store outside. In the autumn I move enough for that winter into the garage (only because I’m too lazy to go outside in the winter).

My log burner hasn’t got an adjustable grate, but it’s got two air controls on the base and on the door. It seems very efficient to me, I use about three fills of wood if it’s on for the whole day, it’s a lot cheaper than keeping the central heating on, and keeps the whole house warm, in fact too warm in the lounge so I keep the door open.

I’ve never given this any thought before, but based on what those of you who in the know are saying about the environment, are all log burners a bad thing, I really do hope not?

Wood needs air from above to burn, NOT from below. Solid fuels (smokeless and house-coal (don't use house-coal!) needs air from below. So grate down for wood burning, and raised for smokeless. Open vent near top of stove, side or front, for air into wood.

Your stove should be a clean-burn stove HETA approved to be non-polluting. An old stove probably isn't.

I've only had 6 years of living with a wood burner. My DH has lived with the same wood burner for nearly 50 years now. It's recently had it's 2nd flue. Neither of us suffer from breathing related problems. Our work circumstances (woodland management) mean we have a lot of wood. We burn a lot of green wood and treated wood left over from the work DH does.

I know I will get shot down in flames but the dangers of burning green wood (unseasoned / not kiln dried) wood are more to do with dangers for the chimney. It should be cleaned twice a year.

It is only a poorly installed, improperly vented or leaking wood heater can result in CO levels inside the home that may lead to CO poisoning.

We regularly maintain our burner and ensure there are no leaks. I've recently replaced all the wood rope around the door.

MawBe

MaizieD

TBH, despite what the article say, I don't quite understand how many people managed to live to a ripe old age in the days when open fires were the norm...

I imagine draughty old houses ( wonky windows aka “built in ventilation”) with single glazing and the fire in one room only made a difference.

Not in our house, MawBe. My mother had a pathological hatred of draughts. We huddled round the single coal fire in a draught free room all winter long

MaizieD

TBH, despite what the article say, I don't quite understand how many people managed to live to a ripe old age in the days when open fires were the norm...

I guess we all sat and coughed!
Although, maybe it all went straight up the chimney, maybe the draught was sufficient to take it all away?

MaizieD

TBH, despite what the article say, I don't quite understand how many people managed to live to a ripe old age in the days when open fires were the norm...

I imagine draughty old houses ( wonky windows aka “built in ventilation”) with single glazing and the fire in one room only made a difference.

I think you need to get more information from your landlord because wood burners/multi fuel stoves are not something to be taken lightly. You do need to know that it has been properly maintained and you can’t guarantee what has been burned on it previously. As others have said make sure that you don’t burn tread or painted wood or unseasoned wood. I have had two put into an old cottage that I once owned replacing one old Rayburn that was in a fireplace that hadn’t been swept in 25 years and it was a death trap had l used it. I don’t mean to scare you but you need to understand them.

Thank you so much for all your responses.
As J52 suggested I Googled the make, and found that when burning wood I need to push the the adjuster away from me so the grate lies flat.

If you know the make eg. Charnwood or Morso, then you can Google the handbook. By law you should have a carbon monoxide emissions monitor, low down as the gas is heavy and is best monitored lower.
Some stoves are multi fuel and the grate can be altered depending where you burn the specific ‘coke’ solid fuel or kiln dried wood. Always ensure that your logs are fully seasoned and dried, preferably kiln dried.
The Landlord should have a HETAS engineer inspection certificate and have the chimney swept every year.
It is NOT trivial.

I will burn almost any kind of raw wood, but would never burn any wood that has been painted and treated in anyway. Nor should you burn damp wood. Either buy kiln dried wood or store it for at least a year before using.

Burning painted wood etc or damp wood, leads to your chimney get coated with noxious tars etc and getting it properly swept and cleaned is then very expensive.

Ask your agent for operating details.

You can also find lots of helpful advice and instructions on YouTube if you type in the make of your woodburner.

If the grate is adjustable I would think it is a multifuel stove.

What make is it?

I know, we don’t have one, but you should have been in his sitting room when he was burning the old Whisky Barrels! What a pong!

Oopsadaisy1

You are right Maizie they appear to be far more dangerous than we had all supposed, the Asthma site also has an article about it.
I think you can buy long lasting wooden is here things to burn.
A friend of DHs burns all sorts, wood with creosote on, painted wood you name it, on it goes, GPS are trying to work out why his DW has such awful COPD......

OMG! That's something you should never do. We just burn seasoned, untreated, wood on ours.

TBH, despite what the article say, I don't quite understand how many people managed to live to a ripe old age in the days when open fires were the norm...

We have had a stove for 15 years, we put wood on as and when needed and have done regardless of te presence of children.

All stoves have their idiosyncracies. If there is anything on the stove to give its make and model, look up the instructions online.

Otherwise, I would ask the Agent to provide full operating instructions and a carbon monoxide monitor to be placed in the room containing the stove. Personally I would not use the stove until these have been supplied.

You are right Maizie they appear to be far more dangerous than we had all supposed, the Asthma site also has an article about it.
I think you can buy long lasting wooden is here things to burn.
A friend of DHs burns all sorts, wood with creosote on, painted wood you name it, on it goes, GPS are trying to work out why his DW has such awful COPD......

There was an article in the Guardian a week or two ago on this, Oopsadaisy1. Is that what you're referring to?

TBH, if you can only open the door once to refuel you might as well not bother to light the thing at all. In only just an evening's burning it will need refuelling at least 2 or 3 times.