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For hundreds of years local country communities have burned very environmentally friendly logs in their homes without regulation or tax and VAT, a grey market. Local trade between farmers and communities thrived for generations without problem. In 2012 the spy glass turned to this smaller group armed with environmental and health issues. Reading the surveys and papers associated with burning logs it was clear these groups wanted to make the findings fit the narrative and start to legislate log burning.

This headline is typical of the sensationalism; “The air pollution from wood burning in homes is responsible for more than £1bn a year in health-related damages in the UK according to a report.”

The researchers said their cost estimates were conservative because lack of data prevented them from including the impact of indoor air pollution from heating.

“It is clearer than ever that burning biomass and fossil fuels at home is not only an environmental problem, but also a major health problem,” said Milka Sokolović, the EPHA director general.

The Government did a survey on wood burners and their usage and here are some of the highlights that resulted in them taking steps to introduce new regulations on burning wood. The rules apply to burning wet wood which without doubt does add more carbon to the atmosphere. Later we shall look at the Government’s scheme on Kiln Dried wood.

Out of the population of circa 2 million log burner owners in the UK the sample size was 1,206 of which Northern Ireland have 188 18.4% of the total sample.
The significant column Is the percentage of off gas grid, in other words they use log burners because there is only electric alternative. Northern Ireland do not capture this data but the gas grid in NI is poor and its estimated 80% of users are off grid.

This chart shows a high percentage of people in the South East and slightly high in the north west have log burners. But within the report it states only 5 per cent of households in the South East (compared to 17 per cent in the South West) use wood fuel for all their heating, implying its for occasional use. Also, the south west is more rural and spread out than the densely populated south east.

When questioned about the usage of log burners, the majority of respondents (80 per cent) used wood fuel to provide some home heating 12% of respondents were high wood fuel users.

Only 1.3 per cent of respondents used wood fuel for either all or some of their cooking.

Log burners users started burning their logs in October and finished in March. Most log burners are not used in the spring and summer. In south east and London had the highest number of log burners but the lowest usage per week. Usage was higher when log burners are the main source of heating and no gas is available.

The Average winter usage per the survey was 3 hours per day but this was distorted by the high users being in minority and the high volumes being low users. Summer usage was 1.4 hours a day but again difficult to say houses with central heating support used log burners in the summer time.

This is a statement within the survey;

Uncertainties – There are significant uncertainties inherent in using a large-scale household survey [1200] to estimate domestic wood fuel use.

Further; In addition to general uncertainties around sampling and limited demographic data on respondents, there are risks inherent in the methodology used (appliance use).

• Respondents’ recollection of the start of the heating season over a year previously would
• have introduced some inaccuracies
• The number of hours of operation per week was a fairly crude scale
• The appliance ratings and efficiencies are expected UK averages estimated by expert
• opinion
• quantity estimation methodology was deemed to pose a greater risk to the accuracy of the results.
• Difficulty in estimating quantities of wood fuel delivered
• Estimates of quantities purchased are in anticipation of heating requirements rather than
• how much was actually used during the period being surveyed
• The moisture content of wood fuel is difficult to ascertain
• Length of heating season
• These uncertainties are especially hard to quantify as they depend on the judgement of individuals.
• Quantity of logs delivered is a critical parameter, as logs make up 76% of the total wood fuel.
• subjectivity to uncertainty both due to estimating the quantity and to understanding of the moisture contents of the logs. Units such as ‘trailer loads’ are particularly uncertain.

However, 93% of the total logs were quoted in tonnes, so the primary uncertainty is in moisture content and in the accuracy of assessment of quantity.

Although the survey resulted in a large volume of data being collected, several categories resulted
in such a small sample that disclosure was a risk resulting in a large proportion of cells being
supressed and also resulted in limited statistical value. This applied in particular to certain
geographic regions, particularly the North East, and with certain appliance types.

The Government has banned the sale of Wet Wood. This ban becomes law on February 21st 2021.
If you read the survey on log burners and wood usage there was clearly some evidence of grey wood activity in other words the Government had no control over volumes of wood sold or the quantities and it appeared very much a unruled market.

Therefore, in February 2021 under the green emissions banner a ban on providing and selling wet logs was introduced. New rules on supply, registration and regulations and fines imposed on those failing to meet the guidelines.

What does this mean for the average log burner consumer is prices have now increased 200% for a stair of logs. Suppliers have to declare and maintain records of batches of logs for burning and its ILLEGAL to sell logs with a moisture content above 20% in more usage that 2 cubic meters.

To make this even worse the Government have said log burners are polluting the UK and it’s not carbon friendly. Burning logs its totally carbon neutral. A tree falls down naturally, the farmer chops it up and sells it to a consumer all done locally reducing fuel costs.

Traditionally, logs are supplied from trees that are fallen. They stay in fields for years drying out. He farmer cuts them up and leaves them to dry. After a couple of years, they are stacked and sold to neighbours and towns. The whole process can take 5 years. Yes, the negative is nobody is checking the moisture content but the wood won’t burn well if its too wet and the farmers know this.

Logs sold [ ready for use] Must have a 3% moisture content or less which means the have to go through processing. Now a new industry has emerged on industrial estates. So now the farmer must take their fallen trees, cut them into small pieces and transport them into towns and industrial estates to large purpose-built kilns. These kilns are operated on Gas and Electric. The Wood is then off loaded and stacked in the kilns and over several days are dried artificially using other power that would have normally been done by the sun and the wind. They are then restacked and classified and put back onto a transporter to be sent to wood distribution centres for farmers to resell to their neighbours.

So finally, on this; how can the Government’s process be classed as carbon friendly and the latter old-fashioned method not.