Much has been made in recent times of the pollution level figures in London and the role in which the stove industry has played in these figures. Away from the headline grabbing newspapers feeding distorted information and facts it is time for some honest hard truths to be aired.
Aside from mentioning the super massive problem that is vehicle and air traffic amongst others within London the fireplace/stove industry are aware and have been for a long time that a shape up and tightening of regulations is needed within the industry, it is common knowledge that old fashioned traditional style open fires are highly inefficient and produce high levels of co2 when burning, the use of old out dated unapproved wood burning stoves is also an inefficient way of burning much in the same way that driving an old “banger” of a motor vehicle with no catalytic converter will be “unclean”
Worth pointing out that the burning of wood on an open fireplace or an unapproved stove is and has been illegal in London since the time of the introduction of the clean air act 1956!
It is worth noting that the (SIA) stove industry alliance have documented that up to 70% of all wood being burned within London is being done so illegally on open fires! If you then factor in that modern clean burn stoves produce 90% fewer emissions and 14% less CO2 than open fires it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that the illegal use of the open fire and unapproved stove is at the crux of the problem and this illegal activity is dragging the good work done by the high efficiency stove industry through the mud! Couple this illegal use with the very much un-regulated supply of poor quality fuel and I would suggest that tackling these two issues will go far and away to drastically reducing the already small percentage of pollution actually created by the use of stoves in London.
It has been proposed that in 2022 all appliances (wood burning stoves) will need to carry the European SIA ECO stamp much in the same way that the appliance up until this point and beyond must be DEFRA approved.
So what does all of this mean for the consumer? In basic terms what this means is that the use of a wood burning stove in London is not going to be outlawed nor made illegal, it will simply mean that anybody wanting to use a stove will have the legal responsibility to use a high efficiency, low emission burner that will be better for the environment at the same time as being more economical in terms of fuel consumption, we as a company do whole heartedly endorse the use of such appliances after all as human beings we do have a primeval affinity with the use of fire in the household and as we head to the future with greater technologies why not do your bit for the environment and get a “clean burning high efficiency stove”
