Over-heating Oil

[oddoneout]

Some of the figures that have been bandied about to support the anti-wood burner stance are in my view rather suspect. As ff says there is considerable difference between old and new stoves and, like the much bandied figures in favour of using dishwashers, it depends very much also on operator competence. One of the things that irritated me when the figures for particulate emissions from wood burning started to appear more widely was that I couldn't see a differentiation in the source of such emissions - with open fires, old burners etc all being lumped in together. That matters when noises start being made about blanket bans on use/sales of wood stoves. To my way of thinking the issue of open fires in urban areas (which in many cases aren't allowed anyway but the resources to enforce that are lacking and have been for a good while) needs tackling first, not least as they are almost entirely lifestyle/fashion statements rather than through necessity. Much of what is burnt on them may be totally unsuitable as well - foraged unseasoned wood or driftwood brought back from days out.
Then there is the fastgrowing fad for firepits - currently put into every garden makeover these days it seems, again subject to the same issues of unsuitable fuel and inefficient combustion. I also wonder where they sit in relation to controls/bans on bonfires particularly in urban areas.

[french frank]

I also wonder where they sit in relation to controls/bans on bonfires particularly in urban areas.

Living in a smoke control zone, I was interested to see whether what I was told a few years ago was still the case. It is:

"There are no laws against having a bonfire, but there are laws against the nuisance they can cause."

So you can have a bonfire as long as no one complains. But you are not allowed to burn anything which allows smoke to come from your chimney.

Re two logs: I should explain that when I've burnt the two logs I don't put any more on

[gradus]

I was browsing some sort of Aga/Rayburn cooker site. We have a wonderful gas powered Rayburn cooker that (a) you can cook on...wonderful oven (b) heats the water (c) does the central heating and (d) keeps our kitchen/day-room warm all the time. Gas prices, like oil, are now horrendous.
Unlike the Aga brand, Rayburns are made in several formats, one being solid fuel, which obviously needs stoking and ash-removal which is a bit of a faff. However they will happily burn wood...preferably dry wood... which is a clean-to-handle fuel and which is presently readily available because of Ash die-back. If shut down overnight it will remain alight, so no bother re-lighteing every morning. It has been calculated that running a Rayburn on dry logs from a good supplier costs less than half the price of gas or oil.

Two disadvantages. 1. You have to buy a completely new Rayburn. They are not cheap. But 2nd-hand, maybe?
2. In some urban areas, burning solid fuel is, I gather, banned. I assume this applies to wood, even though it's a renewable
resource.

Burning slowly overnight has always been a recipe for tarring which increases the possibility of chimney fires and necessitates either chemical additives being burnt to change the tar to a honeycomb like substance that can be brushed away, or burning a very hot fire to achieve a similar result. I'd be surprised if an oven manufacturer advocated letting a stove smoulder overnight but perhaps technology has stepped in to change things.