Ensuring Your Wood Burner Remains Environmentally Friendly
Wood burning stoves are one of the most efficient ways of heating your home. Many people are attracted solely by the warmth and cosiness of being able to have a real fire in the room without the mess of an open fireplace, but in actual fact wood burners are also an incredibly cost-effective and environmentally friendly option.
Most wood burners operate at an efficiency level of between 70% and 80%, which is up to 60% higher than an open fire. The fact that wood burners also create more heat from the same amount of fuel and keep a room warmer for longer allows you to turn your heating down or even off at certain times of year, reducing both your heating costs and your house’s carbon footprint. After purchasing a wood burning stove, there are few steps you can take in order to help it continue to operate as efficiently as possible.
Firstly, try to buy wood from a reputable and sustainable source. Wood as a resource is carbon neutral because the carbon it produces when burning is outweighed by that which it absorbs from the atmosphere during its life, but if you want to enhance how eco-friendly your burner is even further, opt for wood from a seller that plants a new tree for each one it fells.
You can also minimise the pollution created by your wood burner by ensuring you keep it clean, because a clean stove is an efficient one. If a wood burner gets dirty or blocked, its efficiency will decrease dramatically, making it more expensive to run and significantly less green. It is important to clean your stove regularly, including all the removable parts, which you should also check for damage in case any new stove spares parts are needed. Faulty components can have just as damaging an effect on the functionality of a wood burner as dirt, and since stove spares are almost certainly going to be to be needed at some point during the lifetime of your stove, it is wise to be prepared and catch any problems early.
