Why buy yourself into a neighbourhood where this sort of thing is bound to arise? Move.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and things haven't even started yet.

What if whole streets in cities and towns started to burn wood then what

We would all be coughing and smog would return.

Surely it is only when the flue is cold there is enough smoke to make the neighbours cough?

Should be virtually no smoke when the flue has warmed?

Hi Justin,

i can sympathise with what you are saying. I live in a rural area, conservation area to be exact, and have lived peacefully with my neighbours (2 of us with our wood burning fires) for the past 10 years.

2 years ago one person in our row sold off his garden and now we have 4 executive houses built on there (conservation land my a***). Anyway, fast forward to this spring when, on one still, calm evening after 6pm we lit our once-a-year bonfire. We had one of the guys from a new house, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth no less, having a go at me for lighting a bonfire in my garden.

I was very apologetic (humbly pointed out that we lived in the country and it was part of life around here) and even put it out I don't like to argue with people or cause trouble.

Next thing I have is a letter from the council registering his complaint.

And yes, I now have light pollution in my bedroom thanks to his security light on all night. Around here we can leave our front doors open and our keys in the ignition with no problems of theft, so I don't know what he is expecting.

Anyway, I haven't answered your question one bit, but at least you know you are not alone
We just keep on doing what we are doing, keep our heads down, don't antagonise people but stick to your choices. As long as you are using them responsibly and legally, then there is no problem. I find that people who complain over petty things are simply reflecting their inner lack of satisfaction in their lives. It's not about you at all; it's about them........

Rae x

I like your approach Rae...you'll be the one sleeping easy at night, you are a relaxed bunny...been reading Barefoot doctor?

I suspect your current neighbours are also just being over sensitive townies happy sucking the life out of our gas reserves!

I say, someones grumpy!

perhaps we need to face fact, too many people=too much fossil and or renewables burnt=carcenogens and our impending doom=mother nature taking care of the planet thinning the human race?!?

So Ecoman, you're saying, contrary to what's been said here before, that top-notch individual-building size wood-pellet boilers can produce LESS non-CO2 pollutants than anything else that's customarily burnt for fuel? SO2 OK - but what about the other, carcinogenic pollutants?

Are woodburnmers sustainable? Or are they a fad? Looking at UK production, it seems to me that we would have to turn over the entire arable farmland of the UK (say assuming 4 tonnes per acre output) to produce enough pellets. It doesn't sound very sustainable to me although I suppose the lack of food would cut down the population. Does anyone else have better figures than the back of fag packet calcs above?

Is there very obvious smoke and smell with a woodburning stove then?

I have no experience with them at all, but I have been reading about them and was starting to think that its something I might quite like to have one in the future. It would probably be just for occasional use to heat one room - partly because I have read that they are nearer to carbon neutral than any other heat source I could consider, and partly as a sort of back-up, given that I expect gas prices to only go up, and well yeah... maybe partly for the sheer romance of it, I guess (obviously a naive statement that I'm making prior to trying to lift an axe to do all the necessary log splitting, of course).

I've recently moved into a first floor maisonette in a smokeless zone - in the London suburbs, so I would have to get one of the ones that is approved as 'cleanburning', like a Clearview or a Hwam. It won't be any time soon, as my purse feels pretty empty, the cleanburning ones all seem pretty pricey, and the chimney would have to be attended to as well. And yes, I probably should look to insulating the attic before I do anything else. But if its actually likely to upset the neighbours perhaps I should scrub the stove from my longterm wishlist before I fall too in love with the idea? I didn't realise that use of them was so noticeable...

Posted By: tonyYou will be adding carbon to the environment and it has a finite capacity to re absorb carbon

Yes - by burning wood you're oxidising carbon back to CO2 - but what else would have happened to that wood? It would surely have oxidised one way or another soon enough, most usually by rotting. The only way to prevent that oxidisation is to put it somewhere it'll stay warm and dry indefinitely - how are you going to do that with firewood-grade timber? The EC Firewood Mountain, before long! If you can't prevent mass-oxidisation of scrap timber, then it makes no difference at all, how it's oxidised - so you might as well burn it. Furthermore, the timber you're burning to CO2 only exists because it's already taken precisely that much CO2 out of the atmosphere. Be clear - the burning itself of wood, or any biomass, is truly and exactly carbon-neutral. However, once the fossil fuel that went into production, harvesting and transporting firewood is dialled in, that's what makes it not so carbon-neutral. It's also true that burning timber produces other pollutants and carcinogens.

That's true - but burning it now versus inevitable slow oxidation by rotting spread over the next 0-7yrs say, is to me really insignificant in the grand scale of the global CO2 cycle. It's the total end-result balance over 25yrs say - reoxidised versus sequestered - that would have a detectable effect on global CO2 levels.

You are inadvertently saying that it is OK to burn rainforests!

Are rain forests replaced by grassland? When I was in them they were replaced by secondary growth rain forests and palm oil plantations and woodland -- didn't see any grass.

The oceans capture way and away more CO2 than anything else -- and all this nonsense about them not being able to dissolve as much CO2 when warmer -- well RHUBARB

It is not about how much CO2 is dissolved -- that is finite and less for warmer water than cooler OK -- BUT it is the rate of metabolising that CO2 which is important and that is huge. And once metabolised it is being removed for ever effectively. Its a wonder there is any CO2 left arround in the atmosphere.