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Lil Miss A
Gas logs? Wood? Electric? and why?
Answer
Gas, coal or electric will be using fossil fuels (or nuclear etc), and although the fire itself may produce little or no pollution they are all dumping CO2 into the air (even nuclear does this, because of the resources needed to build them, mine the fuel and deal with the waste afterwards).
Wood also produces CO2 (as well as some other pollutants) -- however, this carbon has been fixed by the tree from the air, so it is renewable.
The question then is, whether the timber was from a sustainable source.
If it's from a woodland which has been cleared, and replaced with grassland, buildings or whatever, then that is carbon which used to be safely tied up in the woodland, and is now in the air -- it's additional CO2, and so not sustainable. If it's a primary (ancient) wood, that's destroyed an important natural habitat too.
However, if it's from a wood managed to produce timber, for example by sustainable logging or coppicing, then that's an efficient and acceptable biomass harvesting technique. Better than using good farmland. Woodland is not the trees themselves, but the land-use -- trees will always grow again if the woodland is still kept as woodland. In many woods (such as most UK ones), management from harvesting is necessary to maintain the wildlife.
If you do burn wood, do it the most efficient way you can. An open fire loses heat badly, as it pulls much more air up the chimney than the fire needs, dragging cool air into the room all the time. On the other hand a closed stove can be adjusted to pull only enough air to keep the fire going, and so is very much more efficient. More heat, less smoky pollutants, and the fuel last longer.
Gas, coal or electric will be using fossil fuels (or nuclear etc), and although the fire itself may produce little or no pollution they are all dumping CO2 into the air (even nuclear does this, because of the resources needed to build them, mine the fuel and deal with the waste afterwards).
Wood also produces CO2 (as well as some other pollutants) -- however, this carbon has been fixed by the tree from the air, so it is renewable.
The question then is, whether the timber was from a sustainable source.
If it's from a woodland which has been cleared, and replaced with grassland, buildings or whatever, then that is carbon which used to be safely tied up in the woodland, and is now in the air -- it's additional CO2, and so not sustainable. If it's a primary (ancient) wood, that's destroyed an important natural habitat too.
However, if it's from a wood managed to produce timber, for example by sustainable logging or coppicing, then that's an efficient and acceptable biomass harvesting technique. Better than using good farmland. Woodland is not the trees themselves, but the land-use -- trees will always grow again if the woodland is still kept as woodland. In many woods (such as most UK ones), management from harvesting is necessary to maintain the wildlife.
If you do burn wood, do it the most efficient way you can. An open fire loses heat badly, as it pulls much more air up the chimney than the fire needs, dragging cool air into the room all the time. On the other hand a closed stove can be adjusted to pull only enough air to keep the fire going, and so is very much more efficient. More heat, less smoky pollutants, and the fuel last longer.
If an electric fireplace would make our bill go up alot?
Janet
Answer
Electric fires are usually 2 or 3 kilowqtts. That is, each bar is 1000 watts which means if you have ONE bar on for ONE hour it will cost you around 20p (UK). You can see what YOU are paying per KWh on your bill.
So , for example, if on a cold evening you have two bars on for 5 hrs it would cost you 2 x 5 x 20p= 2.00 pounds
Electric fires are usually 2 or 3 kilowqtts. That is, each bar is 1000 watts which means if you have ONE bar on for ONE hour it will cost you around 20p (UK). You can see what YOU are paying per KWh on your bill.
So , for example, if on a cold evening you have two bars on for 5 hrs it would cost you 2 x 5 x 20p= 2.00 pounds
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Title Post: Fireplaces? Which type is better for the enviornment?
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Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thank FOr Coming TO My Blog
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