Environment

Far from banning stoves the Government is now offering helpful advice on how you can use them to burn wood efficiently with the minimum impact on local air quality in Defra's 'Burn Better, Breathe Better' campaign... more

With the current crippling energy prices many of us are going to have to rely more and more on our stoves and, if we haven't got a stove, our open fires. There's going to be a real temptation therefore to burn whatever we can lay our hands on rather than pay out for kiln dried or seasoned wood and smokeless coal. After all it's free fuel, isn't it? ...more

All homes should have built-in energy independence

This is perhaps, the one lesson that should be learned from the war in Ukraine and the additional impact it has had on our energy prices. Energy prices go up all the time but this year the average homeowner can expect to see a staggering increase of £700 added to their £1300 annual bill. In the meantime wholesale, oil and gas prices are still rocketing (check out the graph below of the last 7 weeks)... read more.

Time to take a reality check about stoves and air quality. We recently came across this well-considered article 'Ban wood burning stoves? I think not' by Michael Bye at Ceramic Glass. In it he perfectly and reasonably challenges some of the hysterical press and TV coverage about stoves... read more

We've attached a link to great article with a comprehensive overview of everything to do with climate change and the future of energy in Northern Ireland, including what's likely to happen to your oil and gas boilers and if these fossil fuels are likely to be replaced by hydrogen. The article is featured on the Energy Saving Trust website and we would urge anyone interested in these topics to read it, especially when it comes to trying to understand the fundamental differences between the two competing NI Climate Change Bills. We certainly learned a lot. Read more...

At The Stove Yard we've been saying it for years (since we first opened our doors in fact): wood burning stoves deliver renewable, low carbon, affordable heat. Many of today’s wood burning stove owners are happy to tell you that they have been doing their bit for the environment long before carbon reduction and air quality targets made daily headlines. In the last five years it's estimated that nearly 750,000 homes have installed a new stove – many of them replacing open fires and older stoves, ensuring that stoves also make a genuine contribution to economic growth. It's vital therefore that we do not overlook this well-established and much loved method of heating our homes as the country rises to the challenge of the new carbon reduction targets that are soon to become law...read more