Ready to Burn Wood Legislation in the UK

19/5/2021

What is the Ready to Burn legislation and what does it mean to you if you own a fire pit and want to burn wood?

In summary, this legislation is about reducing harmful unburnt wood particulates in the atmosphere. Emissions of these particulates are particularly high when burning wetter wood in home appliances for heating such as wood stoves and wood burners. Some recent research shows that particles from wood burning appliances are more prevalent than emissions from cars.

The upshot of the legislation is that from 1st May 2021 it is illegal to sell logs in small quantities with a moisture content greater than 20%. What are smaller quantities? Less than 2 cubic metres, which covers most wood sales except when buying by the truckload!

Read on to find out how this affects you as a fire pit user...

The legislation is going to mean wood is a little more expensive to buy in the shops than previously, but also means you'll get a better burn as wood will be dryer. It's really a win-win for fire pit users: Better health & better burn with less smoke.

Lower moisture content allows wood to burn more efficiently and more completely. Besides improving health, it has many side benefits, not least reducing chimney fire risk, prolonging the life of wood burning heating appliances and getting more heat out of the same quantity of wood making it cheaper to run these appliances.

For fire pit owners it means less smokey and hotter fires when burning wood with lower moisture content. You can read my article on reducing the smoke in your fire pit here.

If you have your own wood sources there is nothing to stop you from using that wood for your fire pit. However, you need to consider the advice from DEFRA and Woodsure and be aware that burning wetter wood can be harmful to you, your family and more generally to the environment. In my experience most people who burn their own wood are well aware of the benefits of burning seasoned and dry wood and this is not really an issue for that community of users.

Smokeless Wood Burning Fire Pits

If you are really worried about the harm from smoke particles, then there are other options to burn wood using smokeless fire pit technologies.

We've just launched the first UK made smokeless fire pit which until recently have only been available in the USA.