Evocative images of gathering around the fire on a winters evening, toasting your toes and dreaming as you watch the flames dance will soon be a thing of the past.
From next year, Ireland will be introducing tighter regulations on all forms of open fires and wood stoves. Carbon emissions and human health are the reasons for these somewhat unpopular measures. The pollutant PM2.5 is the offending culprit and the reason why sitting in front of an open fire can be as damaging to your lungs as wandering through rush hour traffic. For over thirty years, medical research has indicated the link between air pollution and breathing difficulties, respiratory disease, eye irritations and cardiovascular disease. A damning European Air Quality report in 2016 linked 13,000 premature deaths a year with poor air quality, although this did include traffic pollution, as well as solid fuel emissions. Five years later, and following extensive public consultation, the Irish Government has announced new regulatory approaches to solid fuel. from 2022, coal, coal-based products, any manufactured solid fuel or peat briquettes will be required to have a smoke emission rate of less than 10g/hour, reducing to 5g/hr by 2025. The sulphur content on permitted fuels will be reduced from 2% to 1% and wood will have to have a moisture content of less that 24%. Low smoke zones are already in place in urbanised areas with a population above 10,000. and you can check if you are in a smoke free area using your air code here. Smoke free coal and other polluting solid fuels are banned in these areas, although it is a difficult directive to impose.
The fireplace has been designed out of new Irish homes. The impending end of the open hearth will not come as a shock to anyone who has been following Irelands efforts to reduce carbon emissions. New building regulations introduced in 2014 have effectively banned the open fire from newly built homes as we comply with European Union energy performance and building directives, which aim to have zero-energy buildings. Stoves and enclosed fireplaces which meet the environmental standards may be permitted but by 2022 only Eco-Stoves (formerly Eco-Design models) with proven high burning temperatures and complete domestic combustion which guarantee lower emissions, will be sold in the UK and Europe and the use of older stoves will be tightly regulated.
As the open fire and wood burning stoves are relegated to history, it is not all bad news. Apparently, they were never a very efficient form of heating with 80% of the heat produced literally going up the chimney. Cleaning out and disposing of the ashes from yesterday’s glowing fire has always been a nasty job. Better insulation and heating systems have long replaced the open fire as an effective method of heating the family home. There are now so many more alternatives to getting your BER rating to an acceptable level and keeping your family cosy and warm. However, those who love the aesthetic of the cheery fire may never replace that warm romantic glow. Netflix and YouTube offer a number of videos featuring the crackling fire for those desperate to replicate the romance of a real log fire. It’s a poor substitute for a lovely fire which for many of us, evokes memories of childhood, of good times, of warmth and of home. Ambient heat from a clean source is now the way forward.
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