Jump to content

EU Strikes again ...again!


zenataomm

Featured Posts

Just seen on Sky News ……...

 

Pollution proposals aim to curb emissions from wood-burning stoves

Critics say the plans do not go far enough and more should be done to

 

 

 

 

 tackle traffic pollution.

 

 

 

 

 

 https://news.sky.com/story/pollution-proposals-aim-to-curb-emissions-from-wood-burning-stoves-11381351 …….. Now then I have never been one to get overly concerned about new rules/legislation. I've been around too long to know that even if it comes to pass at some point then the shape and coverage of such changes often looks different.                Even if it doesn't the ultimate question you should ask yourself is "And how exactly are they going to enforce it?" We don't even have enough "Plod" to attend robberies within 24 hours.  This paragraph interested me ……. And councils will be given new powers to bring in "clean air zones" to tackle poor air from sources such as wood burners, for example limiting what people can burn or bringing in "no-burn days", and from diesel-powered machinery. So are we to see signs on canal banks telling us that the local council has identified every other day as a "No Burn" day for Stoves, and perhaps even Diesel?    What gets my hooter going is that this tiny overpopulated set of islands always seems to be the first to leap into restrictive legislation that immediately penalises its own people. We even give over £12bn every year to other countries to help them develop (we even give to Russia!!!)     It seems we gave over £150M to India last year, this is a country with its own Space Programme, which is doing little more than The Americans were doing 50 years ago. However India is planning 455 new coal fired power plants while China 363 new ones.  You can't tell me that stopping our people from burning stoves and restricting the use of Diesel is going to make a jot of difference compared to that lot.   As I said earlier it's going to be damn near impossible to enforce and the majority of us probably wouldn't give a fudge, but there are many people who are rule bound and far from comfortable about interpreting such rules in their favour.                                                                                        Before anybody challenges me to prove any of the figures above, they're not mine I got them off the .gov.uk site, so it's probably all lies and should be higher.  After all the last Home Secretary didn't have a clue about her own operational figures.

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My reading of this is that the U.K. Government have to publish a Clean Air Strategy. That seems sensible to me. It’s the U.K. Government who are proposing restrictions on burning “wet” wood and non smokeless coal amongst other things. Only a relatively small number of people would be affected by this and the government will ignore them. Banning cars and lorries from cities would bring much cleaner air but a lot of people would be affected and the government could not ignore them.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Detling said:

Use dry seasoned wood and smokeless fuel, no problem. If you don't it would appear that you don't care about your neighbours health and wish to give them breathing problems, your choice.

Agreed 100%

Problem is people think properly seasoned split and delivered firewood is cheap and its not, a lot of work and time goes into producing a decent product

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Agreed 100%

Problem is people think properly seasoned split and delivered firewood is cheap and its not, a lot of work and time goes into producing a decent product

Yes, and the bye-products of the production process also pollute - so is there a net gain of any significance?

The antisocial aspect is the main issue - made worse by burning rubbish - plastic - bones - that sort of thing, in close proximity to neighbors

Within reason, to my mind, the smoke of genuine wood burning has a characteristic 'pleasant' smell - away from the clouds of smoke.

Perhaps it is just me - the smoke triggering happy memories of the 50's sat around the scout camp bonfire with a mug of cocoa, chunk of dry bread and chunk of cheese at supper time - singing songs.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

8 minutes ago, Horace42 said:
9 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

Yes, and the bye-products of the production process also pollute - so is there a net gain of any significance?

Snip.

 

 

 

Ah, yes.  I hadn't considered that.  When we buy kiln dried firewood we forgot that it has been kiln dried.  Presumeably tars are driven off or is it temperature controlled and just the water goes up the kiln's chimbley?

 

I am told by our local wood suppiers (Certainly Wood) that they use waste wood to fire the kilns so at least that part of the process is carbon neutral.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would think that 90% of boaters couldn't give a flying wotsit what they burn in their fires. Similarly neither could landlubbers. The problem with that is that people who do burn kiln dried wood and use smokeless fuell get tarred with the same brush, so to speak.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It doesn't need to be kiln dried,  infact unless the kiln dried timber is stored isolated from the atmosphere it will eventually absorb moisture from the air.

 

Yes firewood processing needs carbon input to produce but the base product should be carbon neutral,  assuming new trees are grown in some way.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, tree monkey said:

It doesn't need to be kiln dried,  infact unless the kiln dried timber is stored isolated from the atmosphere it will eventually absorb moisture from the air.

 

Yes firewood processing needs carbon input to produce but the base product should be carbon neutral,  assuming new trees are grown in some way.

They kiln dry it as it saves lots of time, it’s far quicker than air drying. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Detling said:

Use dry seasoned wood and smokeless fuel, no problem. If you don't it would appear that you don't care about your neighbours health and wish to give them breathing problems, your choice.

It is more likely that you wish to keep warm. How many people toss a log on the fire thinking "Heh heh! This'll give the neighbours bronchitis"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, MHS said:

They kiln dry it as it saves lots of time, it’s far quicker than air drying. 

Yeah, I sorta know that but they also often dry to a level that is below the atmospheric humidity level and the less scrupulous advertise as such.

Any seasoned timbers water content will vary with humidity levels/storage quality and length of storage.

As long as its > 20% water content its good to burn, kiln drying is a useful process but it doesn't make it better that properly none kiln dried timber

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Yeah, I sorta know that but they also often dry to a level that is below the atmospheric humidity level and the less scrupulous advertise as such.

Any seasoned timbers water content will vary with humidity levels/storage quality and length of storage.

As long as its > 20% water content its good to burn, kiln drying is a useful process but it doesn't make it better that properly none kiln dried timber

<20%?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thing is when you're freezing your nuts off you'll burn anything to keep warm, whether you're on dry land or afloat.

It's a stupid, ill thought out proposal which will end up with petty council officials penalising narrow-boaters because their chimneys are easier to spot than all the smug middle-class houses with non-compliant wood/multi-fuel fashionable burners.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the 'green' wood - freshly collected from the canal bank - it burns slower and lasts a bit longer - but being a fine weather boater I avoid the cold - I hardly ever use my stove - and the bag of green wood is usually a year old and dry when I burn it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

I like the 'green' wood - freshly collected from the canal bank - it burns slower and lasts a bit longer - but being a fine weather boater I avoid the cold - I hardly ever use my stove - and the bag of green wood is usually a year old and dry when I burn it.

In which case its not green :)

 

unseasoned wood can cause problems with the stove and flue and can block the flue quite quickly

 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

I like the 'green' wood - freshly collected from the canal bank - it burns slower and lasts a bit longer - but being a fine weather boater I avoid the cold - I hardly ever use my stove - and the bag of green wood is usually a year old and dry when I burn it.

Wood that has been collected and then allowed to dry for much over six months is generally considered to have been 'seasoned' and suitable for burning with out undue tar production and smoke. The wood we buy at the moment comes from a supplier that leaves it to dry for over a year before he sells it, so that is considered seasoned too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Clodi said:

Thing is when you're freezing your nuts off you'll burn anything to keep warm, whether you're on dry land or afloat.

It's a stupid, ill thought out proposal which will end up with petty council officials penalising narrow-boaters because their chimneys are easier to spot than all the smug middle-class houses with non-compliant wood/multi-fuel fashionable burners.

What about un-smug working class wood-burner owners? Are they easy to spot?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 hours ago, MHS said:

What about un-smug working class wood-burner owners? Are they easy to spot?

 

As easy as a pre-predudiced view.

 

They are easy to spot as they mostly cannot afford to live in expensive areas and in many cases cannot afford their own homes to stick a wood-burner in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Horace42 said:

I like the 'green' wood - freshly collected from the canal bank - it burns slower and lasts a bit longer - but being a fine weather boater I avoid the cold - I hardly ever use my stove - and the bag of green wood is usually a year old and dry when I burn it.

So does properly seasoned wood, in a stove with the proper control to turn the air down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.