Wood Burners As A Modern Heating Technology? Are You Mad?

Yes, it sounds absolutely bonkers doesn't it? A clunky metal contraption that was developed over 250 years ago to improve on the basic idea of setting fire to logs. You would assume that a wood burner would fit into the shiny new world of tomorrow about as comfortably as Danny DeVito in one of Lady GaGa's frocks.

But putting that distracting and slightly disturbing image to one side, let's first ask a simple question. Why on earth is said contraption still around all this time later anyhow? We've since invented gas and oil fired boilers, nuclear power, solar panels and hamsters on wheels. Surely it should have long ago been fly-tipped on to the slag heap of history, rotting away alongside the wooden plough, vinyl records and what little there ever was of Simon Cowell's charm.

There are many advantages of wood burners and among those that explain why they've stuck around so long are:

• they work (very well as it happens)
• they're surprisingly environmentally friendly (we'll get to that in a bit)
• they're much more attractive that a gas boiler (heck, even Simon Cowell beats a gas boiler - no wait, seems he doesn't after all)
• they're cheap to run

Whoa! Back up a bit, did someone say "cheap"? Your average cynic might think THAT would be the primary reason for their enduring popularity and in this case your average cynic would be spot on the money.

Wood burners initially took off because they produced twice as much heat from three times less wood - in those days (we're talking Ben Franklin's home town of Philadelphia circa 1740) wood was pretty much it as regards fuel, so the wood burning stove represented a colossal six-fold fuel bill saving.

It took a long time for alternatives (coal, oil and gas) to push the wood burner to the margins, but no sooner had these new kids on the block presumptuously settled in than something came along to burst their bubble. Oil crises first flared up in a big way in the1970s and have since been teaching herpes a lesson in how sticking around and making a proper nuisance of yourself should really be done.

So guess what happened? No, it didn't involve Simon Cowell, a dose of the clap or a tap on the shoulder from the Grim Reaper (nor are these in any way connected other than they all seem to naturally follow the words "As welcome as..." - spooky). What it did of course involve was a lot of folk dusting off the old wood burner again, for much the same old reasons again.

Except that it wasn't quite so easy this time around. The intervening two centuries had given rise to not only newer technologies but also pesky new regulations regarding efficiency and pollution and the wood burning boys had to comply, same as everyone else. Which is precisely what they set about doing, until wood burners were pretty much on a par with regular fossil fuel powered systems with respect to efficiency of combustion and (thus also) emissions.

There things might well have remained, with wood burners quietly and competently occupying an unremarkable niche alongside the dominant conventional heating systems, but for a small matter of climate change worming its way up the global agenda.

Once folk started to seriously focus on CO2 emissions it became obvious that where burning hydrocarbons (coal, oil and gas) is a totally one-way process, burning wood can be managed as a balanced cycle. Each tree grown to replace one used as fuel re-absorbs the CO2 released by the first tree.

Furthermore, to sustain a steady supply of wood, it is necessary to be constantly growing trees in order to ensure there are always mature specimens available to be logged. It gets better too, since not only does managed forestation to support wood burning result in a neutral or even positive carbon cycle, but trees are inherently renewable. Trees only require CO2 and sunlight, both of which are plentiful and free.

Already there are official incentives to encourage the installation of wood burning boilers and many property developers now introduce wood burning stoves into their designs deliberately in order to make it easier to comply with tough new building regulations regarding CO2 output.

So, not such a daft idea after all?