The monitor we have is a Coasia Air Mentor PRO A 6-in-1 Indoor Air Quality Monitor (8096-AP) which we purchased from Amazon £139.00, the results it has provided have been invaluable and gives us an accurate reading of the particulates we are suffering. This monitor compared favourably with the equipment the Council Officers borrowed from a University for a one off flawed test.

I would reccomend it as essential to have a monitor for evidence collection as otherwise you will be totally reliant on an EHO opinion, that may be influenced by other issues.

However, because the legislation does not recognise particlates you need to be aware that the Council officers will try and ignore the particulate results as they will tell you there is no statutory level for indoor particulates and they can only use their sense of smell. However, I would not let this stop you getting this or an equivelant monitor as if you need evidence for nuisance it can only help support any action you may be forced to take when the Council Officers don't support your complaint. Good Luck. Please keep us posted as we are also at a critical stage with the Council being totally uncoopertive that pushes us ever closer to having to take our own action for Stat Nuisance.

As SteamyTea suggests keeping a diary of weather and any other events that cause the monitor to show particulate pollution levels, even on days when there is no pollution to provide evidence of background levels, is important to have use to tie up with the data from the monitor.

Location - We keep our monitor mostly in the room where the smell usually first comes in but the Coasia has the benefit of battery back up (approx 12hrs) and can be moved around the house if required.

The monitor we have works well with an Android tablet or phone app and bluetooth connection. I found it very easy to set up and it keeps a rolling 3 day history of particulate readings (you can keep history by using screen capture photos of readings).

Agree would recommend avoiding moving monitor around as much as possible but just mentioned the flexibility as it is a bonus (should you want to get a reading outside in the garden for example). Moving it would not corrupt the results providing you record where the monitor was when the readings are taken.

As I already mentioned the monitor we have keeps the data (for 3 days rolling history) in a recognisable format (to EHO's) providing understandable numbers and graphical view of PM2.5, 10's, CO2, TVOC's Humidity and Temp. The one minor downside is data, as yet, can only be "downloaded" by using the screen capture function which includes date and time recorded.

The unit does take a sample every 2 minutes providing an instantaneous air quality level readout and summarises it into an hourly average. If you need to link the results to weather would have to be done separately (we download weather data from met office records).

SteamyTea
That is why the monitor samples every 2 minutes (i.e analogous to a speed camera) but goes further in collating the data into an hourly average, as these are what the EHO's understand and as you know a smoking chimney nuisance usually go on for 5+ hours at a time making an hourly average reliable enough to record data for use in a nuisance claim. However as I said the monitor is taking a reading every 2 minutes and this instantaneous reading can also be recorded as evidence if required.

Just to update everyone. After having politely asked the logburners if they were using the stove on a specific evening last week, they denied it claiming it must be someone having a bonfire. This was then followed by an outburst of unreasonable behaviour which I subsequently logged as in incident with the police. My Local Environmental Officer believes it will be difficult to prove any nuisance but kindly pointed me to advice on the their website for taking out a private action.
So not a good start.

Hi Tony

Extracted from the local council website .... In order of EHD to take action they need to witness the nuisance and how it seriously prevents me from living a normal life and it's not just a case of annoyance.

Some days it's not as noticeable & on others it irritates my sinuses etc. - so I will have to prepare a stronger case

I thinking I need to get the medical profession involved.

Hi Tony

Thanks for the encouragement to fight this. I have already bought the Dylos air quality monitor and have been looking for external one too. I 'm going back through all the posts on here to gem up on the technical bits & get help from others inc hubby with the computer /maths side of it.
I 've also spoken to the EHD again today thanking them for their 14 day diary and pointing out that it will probably take longer than two weeks to prove a nuisance as it's currently 23 degrees so I don't think they will need heating today ! I need to inform the EHD when I'm starting their diary so I must now wait until it's cold again to commence the 14 day monitoring period. !!!! . Let's hope we have two weeks of cold weather soon ....

GreenLady - Was your neighbours wood burner installed and self certified by a HETAS approved installer? If so it may be possible to complain directly by email to HETAS regarding your neighbours wood burner (you should be able to check approval with your Local Council Building Regulation Officer).

HETAS approves installers and will investigate complaints against their approved installers. However, they not act on your behalf but will investigate legitimate complaints against HETAS certified installations. Unfortunately they will only deal with either your neighbour or the local EH Officers. Therefore its important if you do contact HETAS complain you clearly state details of your complaint are confidential and should not be shared without your consent.

I've had a heated discussion today with my local EHO in brief
1. He's never heard of Dylos- doesn't accept the results
2. I mustn't open my windows and I 'm responsible for making my home fume proof.
3. I can't ( haven't yet ) proven the fumes are from next door.
4. A statutory nuisance can only exist if it's 24/7.As there where days when I recorded no nuisance it's invalidated any complaint of a statutory nuisance.
5. The air temperature/wind direction and typography of the landscape cannot be taken into consideration.
I have contacted an environmental monitoring company regarding air quality but right now I am just so angry !!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryI have a feeling (no proof) from this and other threads that the EHOs have either been told or have tacit agreement from their management line to put air pollution from wood burning on the back burner and do nothing.

yes, reading same-flavour posts on here, it sounds like these EHO's have some common purpose...

gg

Posted By: gyrogear
yes, reading same-flavour posts on here, it sounds like these EHO's have some common purpose...

gg

I doubt it. No doubt EHOs, like most local government departments are having ever greater demands made on them with constantly diminishing resources. In those circumstances I'm not surprised that a difficult to prove breach, like smoke pollution gets put to the bottom of the pile> (Not that this excuses the response given, if it's accurate.)

Posted By: GreenladyI've had a heated discussion today with my local EHO in brief
1. He's never heard of Dylos- doesn't accept the results
2. I mustn't open my windows and I 'm responsible for making my home fume proof.
3. I can't ( haven't yet ) proven the fumes are from next door.
4. A statutory nuisance can only exist if it's 24/7.As there where days when I recorded no nuisance it's invalidated any complaint of a statutory nuisance.
5. The air temperature/wind direction and typography of the landscape cannot be taken into consideration.
I have contacted an environmental monitoring company regarding air quality but right now I am just so angry !!!!!!!!!!!!

As others have suggested I would send him a polite letter to confirm what was said and ask him to correct you if you "misunderstood" anything (not that you did).

I reckon it would help your case if you can get others to complain with you. That's about the only way they judge the scale of the "problem".

Posted By: JamsterYou might want to politely ask them re CPD training or qualifications and what their statement re nuisance being 24/7 is based on.

Definitely NOT until after they have agreed the minutes!

Thanks to every one that's commented. All of your advise is appreciated , taken on board and will be acted upon.

It must have been my written request for the EHO to spend sufficient time in my property to suffer the nuisance and use an EHO's power of enforcement to serve an abatement notice that upset the EHO .I found the tone of the conversation quiet bullying and was taken aback as I unexpectedly, took the call at work.
Anyway ..ding ding round 2 .! Waiting for the postman to deliver a new diary , the EHO wants me to make a new record and reading between the lines not quote " no nuisance observed " on the days that the wood burner is not being used or quote readings from the Dylos monitior, we are back to the 14 day rule I mentioned in a previous post . In brief - I believe the EHO having told me they have a background in Industry thinks Stat .Nuisance is only applicable to Industry . I will be challenging the EHO on this point .A few L.A. websites I've looked at try to make a distinction between what is considered as a Statutory Nuisance and a "perceived" Nuisance .In my opinion the regularity of the nuisance ( over the winter period ie. months but may be not everyday )and it's impact on my ability to enjoy free movement within and full use of my home etc. makes it a statutory nuisance in addition to the health aspects related to inhaling the emissions, not smoke. I had to keep reinforcing this point with the EHO , emissions not smoke.!
I agree with the comments from other contributors that the common thread with this is that EHO doesn't really want to get involved- he's going back over old ground to involve Building Control, who will undoubtedly report same the same as before - it meets the minimum regs for height and the HETA 's report states it's OK. Armed with what I've learnt from this site I will be strongly challenging that, don't want to say too much on here as can't be sure who's reading it .!
I'll keep you posted.

Posted By: GreenladyEHO doesn't really want to get involved- he's going back over old ground to involve Building Control, who will undoubtedly report same the same as before - it meets the minimum regs for height and the HETA 's report states it's OK

Unfortunately the BCOs don't want to get involved either however the building regs provide a minimum standard for chimneys but also go on to say that the chimney must carry away the products of combustion. If the chimney fails to carry away such products of combustion then the chimney does NOT meed building regs.