Wood Stove Pollution and PM2.5 Particle Emissions TESTED ✓ 

Have you tried putting the detector in your neighbours bedroom Keith, assuming you have them. We have a wood burner a few doors away and the stench of burning wood is terrible upstairs. I now try and make sure the windows are closed before they light their fire, but the smell still gets in if the winds blowing our way : all the best - Steve

My tip being a pyromaniac. Always do a top down method of fire lighting. Large logs on the very bottom then a layer of slightly smaller logs, then kindling and then the lighting nest on top. Like a pyramid. The heat from the top makes the syn gasses come out from the wood underneath which are then ignited rather than loose the un-combusted gas out the chimney. You'll have a much more efficient burn that way. cheers J

This fire pit is one of a few covered pits that is on the list ru-vid.comUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM of approved products for Disney Fort Wilderness. The product served its purpose well and provided excellent fires throughout the evening. We were able to open the door and do s'mores, but I had to be careful because the handle was a bit hot on occasions. Additionally, I wish they had replaced some of the standard nuts with lock nuts in some places. We lost the door handle after just a couple of days of usage. Not a deal breaker, just a recommendation. I still give it 5 stars.

Well, just to add a comparison number to this: I have an air quality monitor in my living room, and over the summer, when windows are open, I regularly saw it spike up to around 100 µg/cm³. The reason for that always being my neighbours working their charcoal barbeque on their balcony next door to mine. So while your oven was giving you values that would be critical over extended periods of time, using a barbeque on a regular basis without masks will also do that.

Neighbour has one, makes inside my house smell like a bonfire when they use it

I think I'd be more worried about the long-term health effects of main road you live by than the log burner tbh. Enjoy the fire!

Whenever you open the door to put in wood, open a window just a little to let air into the room. If not, you can create a vacuum and pull smoke participles back into the room. I'm interested in a test to see if that changes your reading. Thank you for all the great content and I'll keep watching.

Great video! I'd be really interested in seeing what your sensor picked up from having a couple of those horrible scented candles that people seem to be so keen on as a comparison 🤞

I have yet to meet a single person who uses the correct type of wood in a wood burner. Old furniture, painted wood, skirting, of fence panels, treated timber etc.

Hi Keith, My brother-in-law fitted a wood burner in the living room of his timber framed bungalow. Unfortunately, it produced so much heat that it cracked the external render! I think that the main advantage of a wood burner is the aesthetics, i.e. the visual appearance! My own personal opinion is that when I arrive home, I want an immediate and convenient heat source i.e., a gas/electric fire. I couldn't be bothered to faff on loading wood etc and waiting for the stove to heat up! Also, the fumes would be a major concern not only for humans (especially babies/children etc), but also for pets. I think anyone who fits a wood burner is turning the clock back 70 odd years to the 1950's when open fires were commonplace! Having said that, I accept that everyone has different views, and of course, as you say, being a wood worker, your fuel is free! Another great vid!

Don't freeze to death trying to keep sea levels from moving a few inches 40 years from now.

When opening a stove to re fuel open the door 1/2 inch and wait a few seconds for the velocity to climb and clear the stove then open the door slowly not to drag smoke into the room , the stove will smell and produce smoke ( enough to set a smoke detectors off ) when you first commision it , ventilate first few fires .

This is really interesting, something I have wanted to look at for a few years. Please could you try the PM2.5 sensor with other normal household actions - e.g. candles, burnt toast, cooking bacon, hoovering carpet, incense stick. My feeling is that many normal actions cause an increase in PM2.5 particles, and having a well-fitted woodstove needs to be seen in context. I have been living with woodfires for 51 years now and believe in them, so would really appreciate a balanced view. Thanks for the good clear video. Vince

Hi Keith, I used to work in a stove shop (admin not installer!), just a couple of pointers/thoughts The skirting and door frame are wood, looks a bit close and breach of regs? The closeness to the curtains makes me a bit uneasy too! Storing wood outside is OK bu not ideal. Also kiln dried joinery wood gets wetter outside. Wood stored outside is not ideal to burn, it's still generally kind of wet. Wet wood = more deposits in chimney = more chance of fire. Kiln dried is optimal for efficiency and 'clean" burning. In all honesty I wouldn't burn anything else than kiln dried, but that's my preference. Don't burn any painted, ply, treated wood, mdf etc, recipe for a chimney fire due to deposits in the flue. The high particle reading I would suspect is from curing the paint, this is normal. When building the fire it's best to put more in than less, the more wood the slower and longer the burn. Warm chimneys are better for drawing smoke, as are longer ones. You are at a disadvantage in a bungalow unfortunately. Make sure to get it swept yearly to keep it as efficient as possible and reduce the chance of chimney fire. I don't mean to sound dramatic but I had all the above drilled into me. Stoves are fab but need to be treated with care which I know you will. Happy stoving!!

A stove so close to flowing curtains would be more of a worry to me!

If I would recommend anything it would be to put something on the wall behind the stove. Some reflective material, backed metal or tiles. Have you checked the temperature of the wall/wood/curtain behind the stove when it's lit yet? I also agree with others about the stove fan.

Some people are going to get a shock after the expensive purchase and installation costs. The shock is actually buying the wood. Its very expensive. I've done a quick calculation and the cost of gas to heat the home is cheaper than a cubic meter of wood. So along with the installation costs some unfortunate people are in for a shock

Very interesting, and a little spooky. I had an identical stove installed recently in my bungalow. IIRC stove was £475 + vat. Flue was £950+vat and fitting was £720+vat £48 for Carbon monoxide alarm Data plate and Certificate. I had several quotes with wildly different prices before I got the above. One guy quoted £1900 for flue parts, another £1500 for fitting. It seems the energy crisis is bringing out the best in people!

In winter time when I open the window to get some fresh air, I get fresh wood smoke from my neighbor.

LOVE wood stoves. 🥰 And everything that comes with it, felling, cutting, splitting, stacking, getting a fire going, and maintaining it. The lovely warmth and ambience it gives me. It is just lovely.

I find open fires especially in pubs with constant comings and goings make me cough fit to burst and my eyes sting. Woodburners the same. There's a road where i live that constantly smells of bonfires in the colder weather that has the same effect on me and i suspect some of the houses have wood burners . I grew up with open fires and my mother and husband smoked. We considered a wood burner years ago they do look lovely but not for me now, glad we didn't do it. And i have to say i've seen some filthy stuff coming out of house chimneys recently.

If your stove allows it, consider fitting an external air intake pipe. The burner should then pull in cold air from outside instead of drawing in ready warmed air from the room to send back up the flue that you've just paid to heat up! It also helps with the draw up the flue if your house is newer/more airtight.

Great video thank you for sharing! Do you continue to monitor PM2.5? I’m very interested to hear what range of concentrations you have observed

We are on our second burner in 25 years. We don’t burn timber off cuts as they burn way too fast. I get well seasoned wood locally from the bush (live in Australia) or from a reputable supplier. Our Fire stays in all night and like a previous comment, I use a burn down method as it warms the chimney quicker

I've had an Ecosy Hampton 5 Inset log burner fitted at beginning of Oct '22 and absolutely love it. It's in a regular 2 up 2 down terraced house ( mid 80s construction with cavity wall infill ) and after about 3 hours use it's raised the temp upstairs by about 2-3 degrees and the lounge it's sited in by 5 degrees even on a slow burn

What about the extra pollution outside?

And if you want to split logs safely to fit into your wood burning stove, I know a cool DIY tool that helps do it without the risk of chopping your hand off! Just thought I'd throw that in!

Great video, sadly wood has really went up in price also! Crates of logs are now very costly also. I have solid fuel central heating, I only burn anthracite which the government says is okay, it has also jumped in price, it’s went from £18 for an open sack to £30, so it doesn’t really matter how you heat your home now, IT IS VERY COSTLY. Kind regards Johnny

Hey Keith we fitted a multi fuel whole heat system in our 3 bed semi about 8 years ago. We took out the old open fire I was skeptical but honestly best move we ever made. Runs the whole house heat and hot water and like u I've always got off cuts and I cut and dry all my own firewood so really it's just smokeless coal we burn little bit that to get fire going. Ours was 8k all in for big stove all radiator system towel rail removal old fire all the plumbing and electric work and really we only use a tiny bit of electricity to power the pump that sends it round the radiators and I see allot of people are putting them in now. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Dear Friend, i Love this! Regards from Rio De Janeiro, where only few áreas needs warm de ambient. Neighborwoods a nove 800 meters from sea level, besides the citiescin the mountains 60 km from Rio such is Petrópolis, Teresópolis and Friburg. Greatings from your friend. 🤜🤛 I try to watch each video you post.

Curious about the distance to combustible material. The curtains and door frame. We are having one installed and the guy said 18 inches from the stove to any combustible is the requirement. Yours look closer than that. Also, he said we can't have plasterboard on on our chimney breast either side for that reason so need to use cement board. Our burner will fit inside an old fireplace but will stick out an inch or two so the side distances come into play.

With so many burning wood this winter, the smell of burnt wood in the air is commonplace and as an asthmatic running outside is off the menu. Interested to see what these readings would be in a high population neighborhood outside 🤔

nice stove Keith I'd recommend an ecofan that uses the heat of the stove to generate power to spin the fan it helps circulate the heat through the room. I also use an hepa air purifier mostly for pollen in the spring/summer but it helps with the particles in the air

We have had our Contura stove a little under 4 years. It was installed by an approved installer and is fully HETAS certified. Our first few burns actually set the smoke alarm off unless the windows were open. Now it is nicely burned in we have no issues. Our installer did warn us this might happen because of the proximity of the smoke detector, so we were not awfully worried. Our sweep cleans the flue & sticks a camera up at the end of each burn season, and the soot removed is minimal. The beauty of the stove for us is our house was built in 1950 and originally had a coal fire. The chimney is in the centre of the house, and our installer filled the gap between the original fire-clay flue and the new stainless liner with a non-absorbent vermiculite alternative. The stove heats the rest of the house residually, cutting down on the amount of gas used. Even after the gas prices rocketing, our heating is costing less to run than before the stove was installed.

Nice one, thanks. Hate to be a bore but feel it's worth pointing out that there is Air Quality Legislation to regulate what sort of wood you can/can't burn residentially. Cheers.

We live on a smoke control zone so we have a defra approved tiger inset and only burn manufactured logs. I definitely noticed more of an odour the first few times we used it but now I feel like it doesn't create much of a smell in the room. Thankfully there seems to be a good flow of air up the chimney and our stove being defra approved means you can't actually close off the top vent completely, which I believe increases the efficiency

Thanks for the video, I’m just about to have one installed and I’m surprised how close it is to the wall. Our installers would not put it that close. 🤷‍♂️

I'm surprised the installer put it close to combustible materials (the curtains). I had an installer concerned that the walls around the fireplace (not in the solid brick fireplace) were wallpapered!

You have air coming into the stove via the vents and air coming out of the stove only via the flue. You will get particulate matter in your room only if you a) have a leak b) open the door when the temperature inside is too low or c) have a poor draw or a flue restriction. I reckon you’ve sorted it by now but that thermometer is your friend. Mine lives on the flue and I know that if the temp drops below the green zone any new wood will be slow and possibly smokey to get going. As yours is on the side, you’d need to find at what point on that scale to try and keep above. Further to the comments on top down idea (kindling on top)… you'd only really want to use that method if you were in very cold conditions to warm the flue first; or if you had a poor draw. I stack the kindling around a fire lighter with the larger logs on top. I don't allow the kindling to start first, I load the logs on top and then light it. The trick is to use kindling pieces that are thicker at the front of the stove so that when they collapse the thicker ones at the front are the last to go. That way, any material on top will slump backwards and not against the door. Enjoy your stove mate. P.s. not convinced the architrave is a suitable distance away from it though. 🤔

Some good advice there Keith, we have had ours for 20 years with no issues, sweep the chimney every year, use DRY logs, they need to be under 20%, and leave the door ajar to start the fire for a couple of minutes to help warm the flue.

Interesting to watch this Keith. We only rent our house but have been here ten years and the landlord has let us put our own stamp on it. About 4 years ago I knocked through the plasterboard covering up the old fireplace, got in a tradesman who re-established an open fire. Best thing we ever done, it’s a totally different type of warmth and it’s kind of hypnotic just watching it. I will be checking the air quality in the lounge though as I expect an open fire to have a higher 2.5 rating than a wood burning stove. Also putting your Mirka day into practice 😀😀👍👍

Great vid Keith! We've been testing this for a year or so and have some very interesting findings (vid coming soon). Any coating / oil on the stove will send emissions through the roof but that should stop after a few burns. Other than that PM2.5 readings have been negligible - we're in a 2 storey so I guess the chimney being higher could result in a better draw? Not sure 🤔. Lots of factors. Keep measuring and we'll have to compare results after the winter! 👍😎

I agree with what you have said Keith about the burn in period the only thing I would add is I would also open the window to do a rapid air change during the first few burns to clear the air. I have a wood burner which means the lounge is lovely and warm but the rest of the house has electric storage heaters so turning them on is a scary pass time for the pocket. A couple of things make sure you have a Carbon Monoxide alarm in the room and it works. Also I brought one of those fans you place on top to help push the heat about and this really helps.

btw, these high readings aren't bad for a few times. They are only bad when being exposed to over and over again.

It doesn't conflict really. You just have to leave the room or open a window for the first half dozen burns.

Woodstove is a blessing in a home. I heat my apartment with AC and it is crap. It is never warm as with wood stove and it keeps air humid which in turn makes space feel more cold and also I have mildew problems so I have to vent quite often making heating very expensive. I have wood stove in my workshop and it is an absolute delight having it there. I find that it is warmer in my drafty old (400 years!) woodworking shop than my well insulated home. Like yourself, I use scraps in the workshop to heat it so it is basically free.

It's very close to your wall and curtains! Our installer has insisted on a meter between the log burner and any thing else in the room!

I think we were very lucky we chose a British manufacturer cast iron multi fuel stove the people who fitted the stove built use a chimney breast and made the harth themselves and they do all the fitting . I would totally recommend you find a fitter who employs all his own workers and does not contract out. They did the first and second firing for use the first fire there was a slight hot paint smell but there where no others fumes. . Our house already has air bricks fitted so there was no neec for additional airflow. The firm we used did the survey and completed all the building regulations application for us I they where fantastic, if you live south Cheshire or North Staffordshire I highly recommend Newfield Fireplaces. They are a family business and very helpful. Once fitted the came back 3weeks later to check there work make sure everything had settled this was April the in October the phone and ask if everything was going OK asked if he could come and check all the seals before heavy winter use . They been great Stove get very warm we leave our doors open and the travel into the hall and up the stairs our living room 6mx6m and it hot 🔥 with minutes . We use to gave a gas fire but it not warmed the room. This warms the house. We use a small blow touch to warm our flue up and it make a huge difference in the draw. Without doing this we get some draw back. But since using the touch (it the type cooks use to burn sugar) fantastic results the flue get that quick warming and the draw is instant when the men installed it and did the first few burns they had all windows and french doors open

Many thanks for linking to the air quality monitor. We're about to move into a bungalow that has an open fire and I'm really keen to get a reading on it when we get it up and running, hope to move in around January or February. It has a detatched garage so will be setting that up as my workshop.

Ours was the same, fitted 2 years ago it was £3300 but our fire was £1k we too have a twin wall flue in a two story house. The first I would say 6 or 7 burns created smell and smoke from the paint curing, like a oil smell, it set of our fire alarm every time we used it during those first 6 burns, once it’s been used in anger and everything is cured it was absolutely fine, again heats up well, occasional smoke in the room when first lighting but that is usually the kindling some of it is a bit crap. We use kiln dried ash as the main fuel, I do make kindling myself from those logs and they never smell or smoke, just don’t always have the time to get the axe out so I buy in kindling as well. But brilliant piece of kit, very efficient and very warm house as a result.

yes, some of the wood used contains scrap wood, that has been pressure treated or plastic coated. The oil used in milling the wood contains a very large amount of benzine.

Try the meter in your kitchen when your cooking. My pm 2.5 meter went higher in the kitchen than in the lounge with our woodburner on.

Another excellent video, thank you, I have only a wood burner for my heating,but thinking now of getting an air quality monitor, thanks for posting

We've had ours for a while now and love it. The first thing we did was buy a new turntable and dug out the Vinyls for a true throwback to the early 70's . I do get some looks from visitors to the home when they see my kindling bin full of segments and woodturning mistakes.

When refuelling I set the flue choke vertical (fully open) to increase draw, then open the doors slowly to avoid creating turbulence. Providing the fire is burning well and you are careful not to disturb the flow, nothing will eddy back into the room. Having said that I’m ordering one of those meters to check!

Hi, The top down method is good ( see two comments down), but in my opinion the big mistake is going for such a budget stove. There is a reason these are less than half the price of the market leading Pure Vision range. On Pure vision stoves the thick stainless steel baffle automatically opens to stop minor smoke emissions on refueling, and even has an ignition setting that warms the flue quicker again to reduce the emissions. They also use a much more expensive low odour paint. Your fitters are right about getting heat into the flue quickly by the way.

My sister lives in rural Durham; in the Winter, a particularly cold & windy place. It’s a good job she has a cast iron duel fuel stove cuz during Storm Arwen, she had no electric for a week. Without it, she’d have frozen.

In Finland there are probably a million wood-burning sauna stoves and statistically I don't think there are more health or respiration problems than in say Norfolk. On the contrary, going to a sauna regularly decreases heart diseases by 70%. So I wouldn't worry too much unless your flue/chimney is leaking.

Little tip. When lighting a fire in a wood stove stack the tinder on top and large pieces on bottom

We've had our wood burner for a few years now and we love it, I collect pallets and any other scrap wood over the summer and once cut up they lasts us all winter, the only outgoing costs are paying for the annual service (less than £100) and the price of a few boxes of fire lighters. We also have oil fired central heating which we mainly use for the hot water but since we had a new condensing boiler fitted two years ago we are only using one 900L tank every 14 - 15 months.

Good video, there will be a smell each first burn if stove is left unused over summer as dust burns off. Dif used don't put fire lighters directly on the iron grate, it will corrode and distort them. Top down burn best to start. Buy from an established manufacturer, spares will be required long term. Don't over size fire, or you won't be able to run it at a temperature that will clean the glass.

I have had a couple of woodstoves in different houses and could still smell something "off" from them even after curing time. So with the more recent one I had it shot blasted to remove all the paint and residues. This worked, but you obviously have to accept the varied patina of heated bare metal. I do find though, that with long evenings of stove use I end up with a dry, slightly irritated throat. I think these kind of stoves work best in older, leaky houses. Even though I provided a local external air supply to the stove, my draught free living space can feel a bit airless with it burning. My future plan is to have a masonry style burner that has low surface temperatures. This avoids over heating the air and dust particles being burned on the stove body and circulated by convection. They are more costly and complicated to install though.

Interesting and the opposite to what I thought would happen. With huge volumes of air going up the flue and being replaced with external air drawn in, l expected the air to be cleaner.

Great video. Very informative. I think it might be best to get a wood burner installed during the late spring or summer so the breaking in can be done with all the windows open. 😃

Use a HEPA + carbon filter air purifier in the room. It will keep the levels to background levels.

Point about HETAS not strictly true - I self installed our (4.5kW) stove and then Building Control came round (for a "small" fee of £140 🙄) took a look and issued a certificate - I explained how it complied with Part J which they were clueless about 🙄 Total cost of stove and accessories was around £500 less the BC fee (fortunately the chimney and flue were good so no liner needed). We have a small woodland and plenty of prunings that we handsaw and air-season - totally self sustaining. I don't understand the premise of 'saving' money by newly installing a stove and then buying imported, kiln-dried logs to burn - unless as you do, you have 'spare' fuel it's seems completely mis-guided to me that folks think they are saving money somehow 🤔 I would also add that the next season when you've had the flue swept and you fire up the stove again for the new season, you'll get the same weird smells and everything burns off and settles again...

We have a woodstove at the cottage and me wife is always complaining about the dry air wood stoves create.

I'm a Heating Engineer, self employed, quite surprised at that cost of install tbh !! You won't believe how hard it is to close a sale for a new combi boiler, a product that is full of technical parts and knowhow, not to mention all the pipework and gas that's part of the install, and a 10 year parts and labour warranty with the premium brands .. and customers still wince at a 2500 install price !!! And a simple, old fashioned log burner with an open flue is pulling the same money ... I think I'll do my HETAS ticket and start offering log burners 😁👍

I bought a house with an old fireplace. 80% of the heat went straight up and out of the chimney. Only 20% went into heating the house. When I replaced it with a wood burner stove 20% of the heat was lost. I live in an area of the UK that has a lot of storms. I get power failures all the time. When it's -10 outside and there is a power cut my wood burner is a lifeline. However, saying that, I also installed underfloor heating and I mainly use that. It is rare when I use the wood burner. With the milder winters we are experiencing I only used my wood burner 20 times last Winter. This year has seen an even milder winter. Also I cook on my stove as well. I also heat water on it for washing dishes by hand or cleaning surfaces. It is also used on Christmas day simply because it's nice to have a real wood fire. So far this Winter I have used my stove 3 times and it is already the 26th of November. If the temperature keeps rising I could see it not getting used at all. I would estimate that more pollution is generated from people burning garden cuttings in Autumn or 5th of November bonfires and fireworks. As I do neither I am certain I produce less pollution than most. I also work from home which means less car exhaust pollution.

wood stoves have to be 'cured' to remove all the manufacturing oils and paint finishes. I have even seen stoves being burned outside, before installation, to make sure the stove is 'clean' when brought indoors. Love your set up but would consider something on the walls behind the stove. Consider one of the fans on top to distribute air better. Finally, you are right that it is like a vinyl record not streaming...and I love it.

I have a meter in my basement shop & have never had it above 50. If I get above 10, I turn on a box fan with a hepa filter & it gets back down to the normal 0

We've got a Dyson air purifier and keep it on auto mode. It barely does anything when our woodburner is on. Made sauteed potatoes the other day and it went crazy. It supposedly filters down to PM0.1 as well

Interesting readings and it is not an area I had even considered before. Having had a wood burner for the past 30+ years, I have only looked at making sure smoke or smell did not enter the room. When lighting I get it going and then do not open it until it is well established. Then, I never fling the door open quickly, just a crack and then slowly. I am puzzled as to how there is any rise in the reading within the room. The air is moving from the room into the fire, there is none coming from the fire into the room. All I can think of is anything when opening door or dirt/dust burning on the outside of the stove. I was rather troubled by your curtains being rather near to the stove! I guess it has all been done to regs. I had a fire in an open hearth like that in my last house and the wall behind got too hot to touch.

Just had mines installed today and I was quite worried by the smell coming off it until I read about the first few burns

Interesting information. We have one existing wood burning stove and ate just about to fit a second one in the kitchen area. I have a particle meter so will start measuring and see if we get similar alarming readings.

Hetas only required in England and Wales - legal to fit your own in Scotland still recommend a sign off even so

That is really interesting. Well done for putting this together!

Very interesting, it would also be useful to see if an internal chimney fan makes a difference

Hi Keith, I agree with the points you raised here. I can confirm that most of the pollutants/smell are from the curing process of the paint. I know this as we were unlucky enough to have a chimney fire a couple of years ago and after the fire brigade put water down the chimney to put out the fire, I needed to repaint the stove that rusted. This resulted in the same smell as on first burns, so like you we opened windows for these burns and stayed out of the room (IMO these burns only have to be short so no cause for concern). So just a word of caution on having your chimney swept, you need to do it at least once a year, we had,only gone 13 months when we had the chimney fire that was a scary experience. This will also be a little known clause on your insurance. Well maintained we absolutely love ours. We’ve had it for 10 years and wouldn’t be without it.

We had a major dust collection clog at work recently. A coworker set my PM2.5 monitor on the infeed table of the planer/drum sander and it reached 850!

I seen a thing that said one small wood burner is worse than 18 small diesel cars for the environment.

I have the Hampton 5. Cost approx £600 with delivery and £1000 to have it installed / commissioned. For such a small stove, the room gets extremely toasty. Burn Pine on it that has a moisture level of about 10% and it keeps the downstairs toasty and the upstairs "keeping the living room door open" at about 21 - 22 c. get wood free from work so winner winner.

Very informative, thank you. We live in a small all electric 200+yr old stone in-fill/cob house in the south west. Oil or gas central heating isn't an option for us. We have a storage heater, small electric heaters and a stove. Last year we did without the stove and froze. This year we are not using the storage and other heaters and relying on the wood stove. We use wood from a 'wood sure' supplier (

My Mum's has the flue inside the existing chimney breast which obviously affects how quickly the flue warms up, quite often it will take ages to get a fire going because the cold damp air just won't let the flue warm up enough to create the draw for the fire to burn clean. I bet the readings on those days are horrendous.

Had a wood stove in my last home. Part way through a full solo renovation of my new home and have a wood stove (multi fuel) on the list of things to install. Everything about them is just magic, and after the collecting, chopping of wood and making the fire, you get to enjoy it. Glass of wine and Floyd on the turntable. Like you say if they are new, they do need to be burned in. Think of it like seasoning your wok, it’s a process.

Installed a stovak multifuel burner years ago delighted with it Noticed your burner is Installed close to your walls obviously to regs but are they non combustible ? Also the wood your burning looked like it wasn't seasoned If you burn construction timber it can burn too hot and damage the inner flue Good informative vid tho 👍

Very good, thank you for that. For me, even with central heating, I have a window open slightly, to allow ventilation and if we decide to install a wood burner, I/we will do the same, have a small window open in the room, allowing air to circulate and remove the bad air. Has anyone done the same, I’d like to hear your views.

Just a bit of advice. We had a wire mesh put around the top of the flue (like the chicken wire you used recently) as during spring in to summer birds looking for nesting areas get caught down the flue and the only way out is through the house. Had heaps ofstarlings until we put the mesh up.

You could argue your stove will be drawing air from outside (if it’s not got an air inlet connected), through your windows or air vents in the walls so your air quality may be even better? I installed my own stove and will get building control to sign it off. It was not a difficult process if you’re the practical type. It’s a 9kw Saltfire Peanut 8. Your stove looks great and seems to be working well.

Good Information, If I buy one, I'll burn some fires in it outside before install.

Interesting video thank you. Like yourself we recently moved to an oil burner property in deepest Cambridgeshire and have inherited two wood burning stoves! Thanks also for the air monitor link... I just purchased one. Hopefully its an affiliate link from your channel.

When the door is shut my Mila air filter detects no particulates, but as soon as the door is open it does. I try to keep the door opening at short as possible, and rely on the Mila to suck out the particulates from the air :) I get higher readings frying bacon, or pancakes though.

Hi, very good video and I really like your new burner...Please don't think I'm asking a silly question as you've had it professionally installed and that means all will be well! When I installed mine, myself I had to have a fire board installed all the way up to the ceiling and all around the back of the stove...I can understand not having a fire board protection around the wall behind twin insulated pipe as it progresses up the wall but...not to have the fire board around the wood burner itself does seem odd unless they have moved on with new types of woodburner?...I did my own install over 10 yrs ago and was extremely thorough with the install and had HETA check the whole install once completed and signed off. Costing for our essential utilities has become impossible and even though Electricity has become over 3 x more expensive than Gas trying to keep homes warm racks up just as much per month as using the electric...I'm now in the process of installing new Solar panels which are designed for the poor UK weather...Batteries are a bit expensive at around £4000 so it will take a bit of time to get our money back:) Please let me know about the fireboard question as it's would be very interesting to know the answer:)

Just to correct you on 2 points. A wood burning stove has to be installed by a 'registered engineer' in England and Wales only. NOT Scotland. There are 8 companies in the UK that can register you as an engineer, HETAS being one of them and the most recognised.

Thank you for the detailed information. i was not aware of it...

Good video I'm surprised they don't heat cure these at the factory! You can get a heat crystal fan to circulate hot air around the room better. No batteries required, generates electric from heat differential, have you Ever thought of putting a small wood burner or rocket stove in the workshop? Make it nice it there in winter!

Interesting video as this was also a concern for us having read the recent negative reports. We have an old but recently serviced Morso wood stove, new door seals etc., heating a large open plan area and have never seen the air quality PM2.5 meter go above 4ug/m3. When it is off our reading is 0 to 2ug/m3 - we're in rural Scotland. I think the quality of the wood/logs is important and keeping the stove hot. Also, with the stove drawing in air from outside, it's worth remembering that it can pull its own smoke back into the property depending on wind conditions, location of the chimney and air leakage/ventilation points. So even if you have no emissions into the room directly from the stove you might be drawing particulates in from outside, including from other peoples fires! We will certainly continue to use ours 😊

Moisture meter and when adding more wood open the door a little bit to equalise the air pressure. Stops smoke coming into the room.

I have a stove on my narrowboat and after applying the blacking to the flue and stove you have to burn it off with the windows and doors open. Once it has cured it's fine. I have had asthma all my life and my stove causes me no issues.

Hi Keith, interesting video. I have the same monitor (and I’m in a bungalow in Norfolk) so I decided to check our wood burner. It do appear to affect the air quality at all, the reading hovers around 3-5 whether the burner is alight or not. I am currently burning kiln dried logs as my supplier didn’t have any air dried left and even with the doors open the reading stays below 10.