Far from banning stoves the Government is now offering helpful advice on how you can use them to burn wood efficiently with the minimum impact on local air quality in Defra's 'Burn Better, Breathe Better' campaign... more
With the current crippling energy prices many of us are going to have to rely more and more on our stoves and, if we haven't got a stove, our open fires. There's going to be a real temptation therefore to burn whatever we can lay our hands on rather than pay out for kiln dried or seasoned wood and smokeless coal. After all it's free fuel, isn't it? ...more
It really pays to think about this as soon as possible, even if you're not quite ready to fit one right away. When a wood burning stove is planned in from the very start, in many cases, it could help you to reduce its installation costs. It will also simplify dealings with Building Control and it will improve your SAP calculation. Better still, If the stove is for a new-build you can even claim the 20% VAT back. Read more...
Time to take a reality check about stoves and air quality. We recently came across this well-considered article 'Ban wood burning stoves? I think not' by Michael Bye at Ceramic Glass. In it he perfectly and reasonably challenges some of the hysterical press and TV coverage about stoves... read more
At The Stove Yard we've been saying it for years (since we first opened our doors in fact): wood burning stoves deliver renewable, low carbon, affordable heat. Many of today’s wood burning stove owners are happy to tell you that they have been doing their bit for the environment long before carbon reduction and air quality targets made daily headlines. In the last five years it's estimated that nearly 750,000 homes have installed a new stove – many of them replacing open fires and older stoves, ensuring that stoves also make a genuine contribution to economic growth. It's vital therefore that we do not overlook this well-established and much loved method of heating our homes as the country rises to the challenge of the new carbon reduction targets that are soon to become law...read more
The Northern Ireland Assembly's Climate Bill and the stove industry's response
In February 2020 the Northern Ireland Assembly declared a climate emergency. The Climate Bill aims to ensure that Northern Ireland meets legally binding net-zero carbon emissions targets by 2045. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without such targets. In March of this year the Republic of Ireland approved a similar bill with a net-zero target by 2050. All of this is to limit the consequences of climate change.