The Off Topic Topic

[The Larch]

Sad to discover we need to purge the middle class

Wood burning at home now biggest cause of UK particle pollution

Fires used by just 8% of population but cause triple the particle pollution of traffic, data shows
[...]
Two-thirds of the people burning indoors used a stove, while a third had open fires, and 96% had alternative sources of heating such as gas or electricity. Most of the indoor burners used seasoned wood but 20% were using wet wood, the research found.

"The most common reasons they gave for using their indoor burning appliance were to create a homely feel, so they could heat just one room, to save money, and/or because they liked the look of a fire," the report says. "Habit also seemed important: 79% of indoor burners reported having a fire at home when growing up as opposed to 23% of [those never burning at home]."

Almost half the indoor burners (46%) were from the highest AB social grades, which represent about a quarter of the population overall. The researchers identified five types of indoor burners, including people who burned as a "lifestyle choice" for aesthetic reasons (28%) and for reasons of tradition (18%). A small number, who tended to be older, less affluent and more rural, had no other heating (8%). The rest burned at home to save money or supplement other heating.

Heating the house by burning wood is a lifestyle choice? 

I'd rather say that it's a countryside thing or, alternatively, a very posh one. 

[Sheilbh]

Heating the house by burning wood is a lifestyle choice? 

Oh no the fire isn't to heat the house. It only heats the living room. You'll have central heating to properly heat the house and then, for aesthetic reasons, a wood stove

Edit: Yeah - 96% of people had alternative sources of heating and only 8% were doing it for practical reasons

[The Larch]

Heating the house by burning wood is a lifestyle choice? 

Oh no the fire isn't to heat the house. It only heats the living room. You'll have central heating to properly heat the house and then, for aesthetic reasons, a wood stove

Edit: Yeah - 96% of people had alternative sources of heating and only 8% were doing it for practical reasons

Even worse then! 

[Josquius]

My parents have a wood burning stove.
Fits well with my dad's lifestyle choice of being a carpenter.

[Sheilbh]

So do mine and similarly my dad's an ex-carpenter so....

When I was a kid and we lived in Scotland we had an open fire and our own peat bank. I don't think my dad would look at a house without a fire.

[The Larch]

When I was a kid and we lived in Scotland we had an open fire and our own peat bank.

And you lived in a Dickens novel? 

[Sheilbh]

When I was a kid and we lived in Scotland we had an open fire and our own peat bank.

And you lived in a Dickens novel? 

Peat cutting's a good rural day out

[The Larch]

When I was a kid and we lived in Scotland we had an open fire and our own peat bank.

And you lived in a Dickens novel? 

Peat cutting's a good rural day out

In the XIXth century. 

[Sheilbh]

In the Highlands

Everyone was farming or farming adjacent - unless you worked on the rigs. I went lambing too. We used to get extra holiday in school because all the farmers took their kids out of school anyway during peak times so they made it official

[Threviel]

We have a (tiny) forest and a 10*200m part of a peat bog. My parents in law heats their house with wood.

[Maladict]

DDR stamps were much easier to get hold of than West German stamps. They were often cancelled to order rather than postally used  They also had lots of nice designs. This was common with Warsaw pact countries, I think it was part of their propaganda effort. Going by the stamps the DDR was much better than the boring old Bundesrepublik 

I never thought about it, but I have no idea where I got all these stamps.

[The Larch]

In the Highlands

Everyone was farming or farming adjacent - unless you worked on the rigs. I went lambing too. We used to get extra holiday in school because all the farmers took their kids out of school anyway during peak times so they made it official

Continuing with the Dickensian theme, I see, now with child labour! 

[Sheilbh]

[Duque de Bragança]

Wood burning for heating is a possibility if one has a house in the outskirts of Bragança.

It's forbidden in Paris and Île-de-France, due to pollution concerns.

https://www.rtl.fr/actu/debats-societe/pollution-pourquoi-le-chauffage-au-bois-est-interdit-en-ile-de-france-7799815484

PS: from time to time it seems. Link is from early 2020.

[Sheilbh]

Just seen this opening paragraph of a judgment doing the rounds on Twitter - and I might have to go and find it now to read


Apparently it was just human error