Should We Believe Sadiq Khan's Thoughts On Woodburners?

Sadiq Khan hit the press today with his negative comments on woodburning stoves. Depending on what online site you visit you'll see a variety of responses to the proposition that wood should be banned from being burnt in parts of London.

Mr Khan is, of course, responding to the report by the King's College London's Traffic and Health project that was published in January, and we discussed in our article "Making Wood Stoves Greener". Interestingly in Mr Khan's letter to the environment secretary he has requested tougher controls on the sale of woodburning stoves in areas with poor air quality, but the EU is already one step ahead of him with legislation to be introduced in 2020 to reduce emissions from wood stoves.

Wood stove manufacturers have already been working towards reducing emissions over the past few years by re-engineering their stoves to make them over 90% efficient. The Stove Industry Alliance has also noted that "modern clean burning stoves reduce particulate emissions by 90% compared to an open fire, and 80-84% compared to an old stove." So in fact burning dry seasoned wood on a modern woodburner that has been correctly installed is not a problem.

We are actually pleased at Bradley Stoves that efficiency of stoves is being called into question because there is always online competition from abroad with stoves being sold that are not efficient and do not meet the current industry standards that we would expect from a woodburner. All our stoves at Bradley Stoves are highly efficient, with Stûv stoves performing particularly well at over 90% efficiency.

If you are worried about the implications of getting a woodburner then do come and visit us at our showroom near Horsham and we'll be able to talk you through the efficiency of the stoves that are available.