Clearing up myths about wood-burning stoves

SIR – The Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, is preparing to restrict the sale of wet wood for domestic use (Comment, January 14). How can ministers be so uninformed?

No one uses wet wood in their wood-burning stoves, or on open fires, because it is dangerous and will not burn. Soot and clinker block the chimney, leading to raging chimney fires. Also, no responsible supplier even sells uncured wood. Timber is cut one summer and cured until at least the following year before sale for the coming winter. Most sellers offer kiln wood, which burns cleaner and hotter and is lighter – an advantage when transporting it. Caroline Charles-jones

Dinas Cross, Pembrokeshire

SIR – They can’t ban log burners. I buy dry hardwood and off-cuts from a local sawmill, and try to keep a winter in mind. I have enough for winter 2020-21 and I shall buy green oak, ash and birch this year for use in 2021-2.

Keep timber under cover in an open-sided store. Protect it from rain by hanging framed bug-mesh from the store roof or lid: the rain runs down but the draft blows through.

Never burn rubbish, but do burn wood at a good speed to avoid tarring the chimney. Make sure that the chimney is lined and swept regularly.

Best of all, you will keep warm five times – cutting, splitting, carting, storing, then burning. Roger Fowle

Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

SIR – Clive Aslet might love his woodburning stove (Living, January 15), but I bet his neighbours don’t.

Every time our neighbour lights his my bungalow is enveloped in noxious fumes, and on a still day they don’t disperse. I dare not open any windows or spend any time outside as I suffer from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Any legislation on controlling these nuisances is well overdue. Carole Chamberlain

Caernarfon, Gwynedd