Wood heaters

SirRumpole said:

I haven't used mine for some time, but studies suggest that they are hazardous to your health.

Wood heater smoke estimated to kill up to 63 in Australian city each year, prompting calls for national ban

Researchers call for new wood heaters to be banned from urban areas and for existing ones to be phased out after their study shows their smoke may be killing up to 63 people a year in the ACT alone.

www.abc.net.au

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macca said:

Any acreage estate has far too many of them, we are in a valley and in winter the outside air is just smog each evening and morning.

If they burnt dry clean gum it would not be so bad but they burn their rubbish as well, stinks like a factory chimney some days

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wayneL said:

Yet, not an insignificant method of electricity generation is burning wood.

On my property I have two choices, burn the fallen branches/trees in the slow combustion, or on the burn pile.

It doesn't take too much brainpower to figure out which might be better overall.

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macca said:

Any acreage estate has far too many of them, we are in a valley and in winter the outside air is just smog each evening and morning.

If they burnt dry clean gum it would not be so bad but they burn their rubbish as well, stinks like a factory chimney some days

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Smurf1976 said:

"Smoking is old fashioned, obsolete and no longer required"

That said, if you're somewhere rural and you've got timber that needs getting rid of well then heating your home with it makes a lot of sense. Not so good in a city however.

I've owned one once, in a previous house, and it did take a bit of tinkering to work out how to use it. I mean lighting a fire seems obvious but first few times it just went out. Long story short, I discovered it makes a huge difference which way around the logs are placed in the firebox. A huge difference.

In terms of health though well slow combustion of biomass, any biomass, releases huge amounts of condensable particulates more commonly known as tar. That's what the visible portion of wood smoke mostly consists of - tar plus a bit of ash.

I wouldn't advocate banning them though. People need to keep warm somehow and given gas and electricity have been stuffed up financially in this country, I'm not going to suggest anyone be stopped from burning wood given the circumstances.

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farmerge said:

Got a couple of neighbours who seem to delight in smoking out the area. they wouldn't know how to burn a heap properly.

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sptrawler said:

Who are they? Cheech and Chong

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sptrawler said:

Who are they? Cheech and Chong

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