Green Party policy on .....

[rich p]

...... open fires?
I do my bit for the planet where I can on a local level but it occurred to me, as I set the fire yesterday,to wonder what the GP views were on it. I burn house coal and logs but it's instead of having the central heating on.
Anyone know?

 

[wafflycat]

i think the green party suggests putting on a woolly jumper to keep warm as opposed to a packet of crisps to be 'hot'

 

[Rhythm Thief]

No idea. And I shan't be making any attempt to find out before installing a multifuel stove in my house as soon as I can. Open fires are lovely things and have benefits not calculable by a simple "good/bad" analysis.

 

[Amanda P]

I don't know either.

An open fire is very inefficient though. A stove burns much hotter and cleaner, and more of the heat goes where you want (not up the chimney).

Installing a log burning stove in our house was one of the best investments we ever made. Besides heating the place, there are, as RT says, many other benefits.

The price of logs has gone up, though, in the last couple of years.

We've semi-seriously considered buying a bit of woodland so as to be self-sufficient in firewood. There isn't enough forest in Britain for us all to heat our houses that way, though.

 

[marinyork]

Not open fires but quite a few GP members have stoves of various sorts.

 

[Archie_tect]

Use a multi-fuel stove with a back-boiler connected to the central heating circuit and a coil at the bottom of your Hot Water Cylinder- won't need a pump- and free hot water/ Central Heating.

 

[Fnaar]

I spent a fair amount of yesterday afternoon sawing up bits of old wood and fallen branches to stick under cover and use through the winter, along with coal (smokeless... we're in a zone) on open fire at home. Sawing up the wood made me so warm I didn't need to light the fire... However, rest of family had a moan so we put the central heating on for a bit.

 

[upsidedown]

I think most firewood is the by-product of managed forestry. Coppicing encourages new growth which will capture the carbon released when you burn it.

i think

 

[sheddy]

Wood is good. Coal is bad. Gas is somewhere in between ?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Now that the winter is almost upon us, we've discovered that our central heating isn't working properly. We were all set to rip out the gas fire downstairs and stick a wood burner in; unfortunately, the gas fire is plumbed into a back boiler which feeds the heating. So it's going to cost us to get that modified, and while we're at it we're going to have a combi boiler installed, and the upshot is we'll probably need about £2,500 to get everything done ... a project for next year, I think.

 

[Theseus]

I spent a fair amount of yesterday afternoon sawing up bits of old wood and fallen branches to stick under cover and use through the winter, along with coal (smokeless... we're in a zone) on open fire at home. Sawing up the wood made me so warm I didn't need to light the fire... However, rest of family had a moan so we put the central heating on for a bit.

They* say that wood warms you thrice:
When you fell & trim the tree
When you chop & split the logs
When you light it in the hearth

* who are they?

 

[rich p]

They* say that wood warms you thrice:
When you fell & trim the tree
When you chop & split the logs
When you light it in the hearth

* who are they?

Der are dese tree fellers

 

[HelenD123]

I think open fires were going to be outlawed because they are too inefficient. That's what I was told when I was looking at getting a stove.

 

[Dayvo]

I think open fires were going to be outlawed because they are too inefficient. That's what I was told when I was looking at getting a stove.

Just about every Norwegian/Scandinavian house has one of these:

http://www.jotul.com/no/wwwjotulno/Main-Menu/Produkter/Ved/vedovner/

but here there is NO shortage of wood.

 

[HelenD123]

Just about every Norwegian/Scandinavian house has one of these:

http://www.jotul.com/no/wwwjotulno/Main-Menu/Produkter/Ved/vedovner/

but here there is NO shortage of wood.

Yep, they're much more efficient. I only use mine infrequently so went for the convenience of gas in the end. I still sometimes wish I'd gone for a log burner. I worry that I've got no independent means of heat if there's a power cut, and there's just something mesmerising and soothing about a real fire.