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>> No. 2991 Anonymous
5th February 2022
Saturday 9:39 am
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I get a lot of drafts from the open chimney through the fireplace. I'm considering boarding the chimney up with some plywood or plasterboard, leaving a slight gap for circulation. Is this the best idea? Or should I use a chimney draft excluder? Or do both?
Expand all images.
>> No. 2992 Anonymous
5th February 2022
Saturday 11:12 am
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Just bung a few old duvets up there. What's the worst that could happen?
>> No. 2993 Anonymous
5th February 2022
Saturday 1:54 pm
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Does your fireplace not have a damper? It's essentially a lever-operated flap at the bottom of the chimney flue that opens and closes access to the upper part of your chimney and thus allows hot air to escape when the fireplace is in use and prevents cold air from wafting down into your livingroom when you are not using it.
>> No. 2994 Anonymous
5th February 2022
Saturday 2:20 pm
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>>2993
Don't think it has a dampner. No levers I can see. It's a disused/decommissioned hearth.

>>2992
Damp.
>> No. 2995 Anonymous
5th February 2022
Saturday 4:14 pm
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>>2994

You can ask your local chimney sweeep or look in your yellow pages for companies that insall chimneys and dampers.

Bit tricky to do yourself, if it's installed incorrectly it will probably violate loads of different elf and safety regulations. Could even give you CO poisoning while the fireplace is in use.

If your fireplace is disused, why not put it back into use. A fireplace is a very nice feature to have in a house. Wouldn't want to be without ours.
>> No. 2996 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 9:58 am
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>>2995
This is terrible advice, I definitely wouldn't trust the average .gs user with fire.
>> No. 2997 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 10:45 am
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>>2996
hang on, I fucking love fire, and as 33% of the userbase, that must bias the stats a bit?
>> No. 2998 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 10:58 am
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>>2995

It might be nice but a wood burning fireplace puts out more pollution than several HGVs.

I don't want to sound like no Greta maniac or nowt, but I reckon not having a wood burning fireplace is one of those little things we can all do to help fight climate change. It's certainly easier than giving up meat or using public transport, like some kind of shipping forecasting hipster.
>> No. 2999 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 1:28 pm
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>>2998
I think wood burning fireplaces are perfectly fine for people who live out in the country and have access to their own supply of wood, but that's a tiny minority of people in this country. Having a wood burner in the middle of a city is dumb, especially when you consider that you're relying on a car or van to regularly deliver wood to your house to burn.
>> No. 3000 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 1:42 pm
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>>2998
Just use it for burning junk mail and takeaway menus like all people who have fireplaces.
>> No. 3001 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 1:51 pm
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I just wouldn't want to be breating any of that shit in. Sure, most of it's going up the chimney, but not all of it. I don't even like having a gas cooker.
>> No. 3002 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 3:01 pm
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>>3001
If you have a modern enclosed stove thats not a worry, it's the rest of the street downwind of you who has to breath it in.
>> No. 3003 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 6:36 pm
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>>2998

The only real problem of an open fireplace is bad thermal efficiency, in that only about 25 percent of the heat energy that is released by burning wood in it actually ends up heating the room that the fireplace is in. The rest just goes out the chimney as hot air. Most homes today have enclosed fireplaces for that reason, which have about 50 to 70 percent energy efficiency. But you can't beat the feeling of sitting in front of an open wood fire in the middle of your livingroom IMO. There's just something primordial about it.

Firewood is actually a sustainable energy source because you aren't burning fossil fuel and are only releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere that was relatively recently absorbed by the tree that your wood came from. And you can probably fire up your wood fireplace every other night year-round for the amount of CO2 you produce by flying to Magaluf once a year.

We've got a back garden with stately old trees like Norway maple, yew, larch, cherry and hornbeam that need to be trimmed back every few years and thus always yield enough wood for the few times every winter that we actually use the fireplace, which kind of makes it doubly sustainable.

And maybe it's just me, but I love the smell of burning wood, even when somebody else down the street has their fireplace going. I also like the way the way it lingers in the livingroom the next day.
>> No. 3004 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 8:14 pm
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>>3003

You might want to actually look up the numbers mate. Burning wood is possibly the single worst thing you, as an individual, can do in terms of carbon emissions. That flight to Magaluf still goes with you on it or not, but burning the wood is an active choice on your part.
>> No. 3005 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 8:36 pm
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>>3002
That's a good point. I'm imaging something more traditional like in the OP because I grew up in a house with one like that.

>>3003
That makes no sense. Plants don't solely absorb carbon to grow, nor do great big particles of soot get absorbed by plants like CO2 molecules would. Whilst you might enjoy the smell of smoke, I suspect you'd tire of it quite quickly if your street started looking like pic related. If you wouldn't mind it you're clearly mad and your opinion isn't worth the pixels it's written on.
>> No. 3006 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 9:22 pm
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>>3003
>Most homes today have enclosed fireplaces for that reason, which have about 50 to 70 percent energy efficiency.
The other downside is that even with an efficient stove, they still draw in air from the room which means you have to have a large amount of ventilation to let cold air back into the house.
There is such a thing as balanced flues which draw cold air in from outside but I think they're only really available for wood pellet and gas stoves.
>> No. 3007 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 11:19 pm
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>>3004

>That flight to Magaluf still goes with you on it or not, but burning the wood is an active choice on your part.

Yes, but if nobody went to Magaluf, that plane wouldn't fly in the first place. And while your body weight plus luggage will probably not be significantly more than 100 kg combined, it is still mass that needs to be moved and for which you need to burn fuel. Without you on that plane, the plane would use slightly less of it. And it's still a conscious choice to go on a holiday by plane. You could just take a climate friendly train to Blackpool and shag a fat lass in a chip shop toilet


>>3005

> Whilst you might enjoy the smell of smoke, I suspect you'd tire of it quite quickly if your street started looking like pic related

That's a silly point to make though, because that picture is clearly from a time when most homes were heated permanently with coal, oil or wood. Open fireplaces nowadays don't normally have the primary function of actually heating part of a house, it's more a recreational feature that you only use occasionally for atmosphere.

There is also a difference between burning wet wood and dry wood. Wet wood produces much more soot and fine particles than dry wood, and if you've let your wood dry for two or three years in a basement boiler room like we do, it's bone dry by the time you put it in your fireplace.

Even with the 2021 revised Government regulations on home-use heating fuels, dry wood is still tolerated.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/restrictions-on-sale-of-coal-and-wet-wood-for-home-burning-begin
>> No. 3008 Anonymous
6th February 2022
Sunday 11:45 pm
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>>3007

None of that makes it suddenly any less harmful to burn wood lad. Stop trying to deflect.

Just use the central heating like normal people and then tou can drive anywhere you like instead of riding the covid box to a shithole like Blackpool.
>> No. 3009 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 12:15 am
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>>3008

>Just use the central heating like normal people

You're again missing the point that an open fireplace isn't normally used as a permanent heat source for everyday temperature regulation inside a home. Our house was built around 1980 and it has always been heated with natural gas. We use the fireplace maybe three or four times a month every winter, and decidedly just for the fun of it, not primarily for the heat it generates.

Let's make a simple calculation. When you've got the fireplace lit for about four hours, which is about as long as you'll want to have it on because you have to give it another one or two hours to watch the fire go out safely, you'll go through about 10-15 kg of dry wood. 1kg of wood when burned produces between 1.65 and 1.8 kg of CO2 (source: https://www.kaltimber.com/blog/2017/6/19/how-much-co2-is-stored-in-1-kg-of-wood ). So on average, let's say that's about 20 kg of CO2 each time. One return flight to Magaluf will probably produce around 250 kg of CO2 per passenger (source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year ). So in other words, in order to release the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere as one trip to Magaluf per person, we can have the fireplace on three or four times a month for the whole of winter.

I'm all for saving the environment, lad. But you have to have some discernment to keep it from getting ridiculous. Why not just go back to being cavemen entirely.
>> No. 3010 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 12:44 am
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>>3009

I think you're entirely missing the point that not using an archaic heat source "for the fun of it" is far more easily achieved than avoiding the use of everyday infrastructure on which modern society depends.

It's a bit like me saying "Well I don't go abroad so I can afford to burn tyres in my back garden every now and again!" I love burning me some tyres but if you ask me which one to give up- going on holiday or burning tires- I know which one I'm picking.

Maybe sticking some wood in a fire really is that pleasurable to you that it means more than going on holiday, fair play, but you know you're relying on dodgy logic to make a flawed argument, instead of just admitting the truth. I'd have a lot more respect if you just said "Yeah I know it's not great for the environment but I don't care."
>> No. 3011 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 12:35 pm
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>>3010

I just don't like environmental bigotry. Yeah, so I like to light up the fireplace because it's fun to have a controlled open fire in the middle of my livingroom. So what. Harmful, yes, in the sense that anything producing CO2, however unnecessary in order to partake in modern civilisation, raises potential arguments that it could be avoided.

But even while I acknowledge that, I don't see why I should stop doing something that produces a relatively small amount of CO2, i.e. burning 10 kg of wood turning into 18 kg of CO2, three times a month, while some goat herder in Africa in the mean time is slash-and-burn clearing an acre of tropical rain forest, and even somebody visiting their auntie in Blackpool on a weekend outing in their VW Polo produces twice the amount of CO2, and add to that their monthly carbon footprint if they choose to use their car for their daily commute.
>> No. 3012 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 12:58 pm
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It just wouldn't be Britfa.gs without a cunt-off about the environment.
>> No. 3013 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 4:19 pm
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The car drivers in this thread eager to point out how polluting wood burning is are like thieves or murderers in prison going on about nonces.
>> No. 3016 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 8:35 pm
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>>3013

Bit like the argument we've had on .gs that dolescum shouldn't get 40'' TVs, because being out of work should be absolutely no fun, ever. And in that same puritannical kind of mindset, I guess nobody should get to just burn ten kilograms of wood in their livingroom for no other reason than personal enjoyment, because every gram of CO2 exacerbates climate change, and we can't have that sort of thing.

I'm all for saving the planet. Don't get me wrong. But I can't remember you lot being put in charge of playing carbon police.

I hope you'll forgo all your barbecues this summer. Because believe it or not, making one kilogram of barbecue charcoal produces up to 9 kg of CO2 (source: https://energypedia.info/wiki/Cooking_with_Charcoal#Health_and_Environmental_Impacts_of_Charcoal_Burning_for_Cooking ). Something to keep in mind while you're enjoying your vegan grilled sausage.
>> No. 3018 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 9:08 pm
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>>3016

I don't think you'd be this bumsore about it if you didn't feel at least a little bit guilty, lad.

It's a fair point that it's a small and infrequent enough luxury that you'd hardly feel giving it up. Your counter argument is that if you're not doing it often it's not a problem, but has already been pointed out, that's missing the point. Giving up something like eating meat would be a pain in the arse for most people, giving up the car would be a pain in the arse for most people, whereas not burning your stove makes really no difference to your life at all. When it comes to the environment,much like anythingelse in life, I'm all about the easy gains.

I, for one, don't even own a fireplace.
>> No. 3019 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 9:33 pm
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>>3016

It's not about the CO2, it's about the health effects of local particulate emissions. It has been illegal to burn wood or coal in an open appliance in most urban areas since 1956, because thousands of people were dying from the effects of smog. Wood fires emit about 25% of the most hazardous particulates in London, which is quite remarkable when you consider the number of diesel engines still clagging about.

If you live in the middle of nowhere then sure, burn what you like. If you don't, think about the effects your smoke might have on your neighbours. Use smokeless fuels if at all possible, otherwise try to use only well-seasoned firewood. Avoid burning on still days and never burn when there's fog.

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/assets/documents/reports/cat05/1801301017_KCL_WoodBurningReport_2017_FINAL.pdf
>> No. 3020 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 9:40 pm
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>>3018

>I don't think you'd be this bumsore about it if you didn't feel at least a little bit guilty, lad.

No, I don't feel guilty, but it irks me that people like you obviously think I should.


>whereas not burning your stove makes really no difference to your life at all

There it is again. That puritannical sense of one's own superiority. People like that will tell you in the same sentence that going vegan or getting a vasectomy also make "no difference to your life at all".

I, for one, don't want to live in a world where you're not allowed to at least occasionally have fun doing very mildly irresponsible things.
>> No. 3021 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 11:02 pm
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>>3020

>There it is again. That puritannical sense of one's own superiority

Nah, you're definitely projecting a bit by now mate, I'm literally just saying that in the grander scheme of things, this is by far one of the easier luxuries to live without.
>> No. 3022 Anonymous
7th February 2022
Monday 11:32 pm
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>>3021
> this is by far one of the easier luxuries to live without.
Maybe he doesn't want to live without them.
>> No. 3023 Anonymous
8th February 2022
Tuesday 12:24 am
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>>3019

>If you live in the middle of nowhere then sure, burn what you like.

We live right on the edge of a midsized city in the Southeast that isn't a smoke control area, and there are fields and woodlands for miles right behind our street. So you're right in that most of the time, the wind just carries it off into wide open space.

One point I made in this thread is that the wood we burn is directly locally sourced, in that it comes from various different trees right here in our back garden that are cut and trimmed regularly and always yield enough wood every year to keep up a three times a month schedule during the winter season without ever needing to buy in wood from other sources. Which at least slightly mitigates the carbon footprint.


>>3022

>Maybe he doesn't want to live without them.

Not while other people's luxuries are significantly more harmful to the environment, no.
>> No. 3024 Anonymous
8th February 2022
Tuesday 1:08 am
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>>3022

Then maybe he should just say that and stop trying to pretend there's some kind of morally relativistic argument about other people going to Magaluf to justify it.
>> No. 3026 Anonymous
8th February 2022
Tuesday 11:10 am
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>I don't think you'd be this bumsore about it if you didn't feel at least a little bit guilty, lad.
Lord Farquad - this is spurious reasoning. Being annoying towards someone and then telling them you must be bang on if they start getting annoyed at your annoying behaviour is purely annoying, it's not indicative of any greater truth.

They/you are not achieving anything for the environment at this moment, you're just being obnoxious. The stakes are so incredibly low that it doesn't come across that you're concerned for the environment, just that you're using that as cover to be a spacker.

>I'd have a lot more respect if you just said "Yeah I know it's not great for the environment but I don't care."
They don't care about your respect, nor were they posting for the sake of respect. They were posting to discuss chimneys and woodburning. You're about as helpful as someone joining in a conversation about Plato and bringing up pederasty at every turn.

>Burning wood is possibly the single worst thing you, as an individual, can do in terms of carbon emissions.
You're a histrionic twat.
>I suspect you'd tire of it quite quickly if your street started looking like pic related. If you wouldn't mind it you're clearly mad and your opinion isn't worth the pixels it's written on.
You're an uninformed twat.
>None of that makes it suddenly any less harmful to burn wood lad. Stop trying to deflect.
You're a yappy twat.
>"Well I don't go abroad so I can afford to burn tyres in my back garden every now and again!"
You're a monumental twat.
>It just wouldn't be Britfa.gs without a cunt-off about the environment.
You're right.

>I, for one, don't even own a fireplace.
Neither do I, so I can clearly see that they're a twat.
>> No. 3027 Anonymous
8th February 2022
Tuesday 12:41 pm
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>>3026

Goodness me someone really is anally aggrieved. There, there, m9. It's okay.
>> No. 3028 Anonymous
8th February 2022
Tuesday 7:23 pm
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>>3024

I wasn't quite aware that burning wood is such a contentious issue. Even nonces get less unmitigated hatred on .gs.

It doesn't change the fact that burning dry wood is actually more eco friendly and carbon neutral than gas or coal.

https://sweepsmart.co.uk/are-wood-burners-bad-for-the-environment/

https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/are-wood-burners-bad-for-the-environment/

The only true disadvantage of an open fireplace is its poor energy efficiency of about 25 percent. But again, this only being a once in a while thing for us for a few hours, it hardly matters.
>> No. 3029 Anonymous
8th February 2022
Tuesday 7:44 pm
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>>3026
>about as helpful as someone joining in a conversation about Plato and bringing up pederasty at every turn
You had one chance to say that someone is as useful as a chocolate fireguard, and you fucked it.
>> No. 3030 Anonymous
8th February 2022
Tuesday 7:52 pm
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>>3026
Tell me, 3026lad, do you have a wet nurse?
>> No. 3031 Anonymous
12th February 2022
Saturday 2:33 pm
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Just finished trimming one of our yewtrees in the back garden and cut the thicker branches into logs to use as firewood. It yielded well enough wood for one fireplace night. It's now in the basement boiler room, which has excellent conditions for wood to dry.

Yew is quite decent firewood, although it's not used much. It gives off a nice earthy smell as it burns. It was held in very high regard in past centuries due to its hardness and flexibility and was used for longbows in particular as well as furniture and veneer. Which drove yewtrees to near-extinction in Britain, because at some point in the Middle Ages, per royal decree every man over the age of 14 was required to have his own yew longbow. Logging was intense, while the tree itself is very slow growing, much unlike other conifers like spruce or pine. Also, yew is highly poisonous, a few twigs of it contain enough toxin to kill an adult horse, which meant it was a hazard to feeding cattle or horses, so it wasn't normally grown as ornamental trees outside forests.

Burning yew is no problem though despite its toxicity, because the heat from the fire completely breaks down the toxin before it can escape into the ambient air.

Self sage for pointless rambling.

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