Following the recent announcement from Defra of its plans to phase out the sale of wet wood and house coal for domestic burning between 2021 and 2023, the Stove Industry Alliance (SIA) is looking to clarify the legislation that will affect England from next year.
SIA welcomes the government’s plans to encourage the use of cleaner fuels, saying that coal and wet wood are the two most polluting fuels and a ban on them will help tackle air quality issues.
However, the Alliance emphasises that modern Ecodesign-compliant wood burning stoves burning the correct fuel continue to be a very sound environmental heating solution and that wood burning stoves will not be banned. Ecodesign-ready stoves produce 90% less emissions than an open fire and are a very low carbon method of heating using a totally renewable and sustainable fuel.
The legislation specifically seeks to stop the sale of all pre-packaged traditional bituminous house coal, with a ban on loose sales via coal merchants to be applied at a later date.
It also aims to ensure that wood sold in single units under 2 cubic meters (loose stacked) must have a moisture content of 20% or less.
Finally, the legislation will implement a national requirement for certified controlled sulphur content and a smoke emission limit on manufacturers’ solid fuels (as currently applies in smoke control areas).
The SIA is encouraging the public to burn approved dry wood and smokeless fuel in a modern SIA Ecodesign Ready appliance. By doing so they ensure the maximum efficiency of their appliance while significantly reducing particulate emissions.
Morley Sage, chair of the SIA, comments: “We welcome the announcement that will see the most polluting fuels phased out and encourage homeowners to use approved dry wood. As an industry that employs over 25,000 people across manufacturing, retailing, installation and servicing, headlines that suggest that wood burning stoves are being banned are not only categorically untrue, they are also very damaging to people’s jobs and livelihoods.
“The stove industry is committed to continuous appliance improvement as evidenced by the introduction of the SIA Ecodesign Ready scheme which clearly identifies appliances that already meet the strict ecodesign standards that come into force in 2022. An Ecodesign Ready appliance used with properly seasoned wood fuel reduces particulate emissions by up to 90% compared to an open fire and will need significantly fewer logs to produce the same amount of heat*.”
To help homeowners make informed choices by getting the best advice, the SIA has recently set up the SIA Retail Group. Members of this network of showrooms have made a commitment to ensuring all appliances they sell meet or exceed current legal requirements, will offer advice on choosing the right stoves, will only use or recommend qualified competent persons to carry out installations, and will provide advice on using the stove and choosing the right fuel.
A full list of SIA Retail Group members can be found at http://www.stoveindustryalliance.com/retail-group-members/
* An open fire will need 16 logs to produce 4kW of heat over a 5-hour period, compared to just 5 logs needed by an SIA Ecodesign Ready stove
