DEFRA

(Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs)

Just to clarify what fuels are to be banned and what you can still burn in your stove here is a section from DEFRA on the Government website. You can read the full article here.

Cleaner Fuels Announcement - February 2020

On Friday 21st February 2020 Defra announced their response on their cleaner domestic burning of solid fuels and wood consultation. The consultation took place between August and October 2018 and focused on England only.

The proposals in this consultation included:

• restrictions on the sale of wet wood for domestic burning

• phasing out the sale of traditional house coal

• applying sulphur standards and smoke emission limits to all manufactured solid fuels

Burning wet wood can result in more than twice the amount of smoke emissions than from seasoned/dry wood. The heat output from burning wet wood is significantly reduced, and chemical buildup on the inside of the stove and chimney can increase the risk of chimney fires. Wood sold in smaller quantities is more likely to be used immediately and not dried at home, therefore we propose to limit the sales of wood sold in smaller sizes of packaging to dry wood only.

Our proposals are designed to capture net bags of logs sold by retailers such as DIY stores and garden centres for immediate use. We want to ensure occasional stove users who buy small volumes of wood for convenience are not unwittingly burning wet logs that produce high levels of smoke.

Meaning you can still buy wood and you can still burn it and it is still the most economical fuel to use. If in doubt buy a moisture meter.