Andy Genovese of Hove Wood Burners compares wood burning with other heating methods.
Heating accounts for nearly half of Europe’s carbon emissions. It’s quite a stark fact and one of the main reasons why domestic heating and carbon reduction is such a hot policy issue for industry, government and lobbyists. Ultimately, we are arguing about which particular by-product of solar radiation is better for us in the short term.
Our candidates in this endeavour are the usual oil, gas (natural and LPG), wood and biomass and, of course, electricity, generated in part by one of the former. About 40% of the UK’s electricity is currently decarbonised (produced from low or near zero carbon sources/renewables). Electricity is problematic from the start in that if 60% of it is produced from non-renewables, stored, transmitted and ultimately used, the efficiency is likely to be poor and therefore high carbon. The figure from the Government is 0.136g CO2e per kW/h, although it will fall further over time
Surprisingly, heating oil is in the same bracket as electricity generating 0.298kg CO2e per kW/h, which shows that despite all the effort to decarbonise the electricity grid, it has only just eclipsed carbon heavy heating oil. LPG scores better but not substantially at 0.241kg CO2e per kWh. Mains gas, the backbone of UK domestic heating, with all the implied infrastructure, comes in better, but not substantially, at 0.210kg CO2e per kWh.
When it comes to wood-burning we have two different types to consider – pellet and traditional log. Pellet occupies both the room heating and system heating categories, whereas due to the ecodesign legislation, there are very few wet or system stoves available, making log burners overwhelmingly a room-heating option only. Wood, as implied in the carbon cycle, cannot emit more carbon than it originally absorbed from the atmosphere, usually over a 50-year growth period. In strict terms it is carbon neutral; in reality there are harvesting and processing overheads which prejudice this but not by much. Wood logs are considered to produce 0.028kg CO2e per kW/h and pellets 0.053 kg CO2e per kWh.
The message is clear, burning wood for heating does NOT contribute to climate change. It can be problematic in urban areas in terms of air quality – hence the DEFRA legislation – but equally, it boosts to the local economy, employs retailers, installers, engineers, sweeps and log producers. An overwhelming percentage of UK firewood is domestically produced, circulating money in the local economy and the producers tend to be small, domestic businesses not multi-national corporations.
Andy Genovese trained in solid fuel in 2010 and has traded as Hove Wood Burners since then. Operating from his premises in Hove, Andy has three part-time employees. Self-taught, Andy has also trained four other installers and specialised in antique appliances for a while. He mostly operates in and around Brighton and Hove but has worked as far afield as South Wales, Cornwall and Birmingham.
Data from the SIA
Image credit: Andy Genovese
