The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has found that the Stove Industry Association (SIA) made misleading and unsubstantiated claims about newer modern wood stoves.
The SIA’s website home page had included the statement: “Choosing a modern stove and dry wood fuel can significantly lower emissions and improve efficiency compared to an open fire or older stove.”
Elsewhere on the website, the SIA had a page for a “#positivewoodburning campaign.” There they stated: “Used in the correct way, a modern wood burning stove is a very low emission way to heat the main living space in your home.”
The ASA ruled that the statements breached advertising codes against misleading consumers, making unsubstantiated claims, and making unclear or unsupported environmental claims.
The ASA looked at recent data for greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants that are emitted when dry wood is burned in older stove types, a modern Ecodesign stove, and an open fire. The advertising regulator stated:
The data showed modern stoves emitted significantly less PM2.5 than open fireplaces. However, it showed modern stoves emitted more PM2.5 than the older stove types listed. It showed a comparative decrease in some emissions, such as methane, nitrogen oxides, and black smoke. However, it also showed that other emissions were higher, and in some cases significantly higher, for dry wood burned in a modern stove as opposed to an open domestic fireplace, such as sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and several other toxins. Between modern stoves and older stoves, the data showed increases in pollutants such as carbon monoxide, methane, and sulphur dioxide. The data therefore did not show a significant decrease in all relevant GHG and other air pollutant emissions between older stoves and open fireplaces, and Ecodesign stoves.
The ASA further stated that they had not seen evidence that the emissions achieved in laboratory conditions would be replicable by consumers using a modern wood stove at home, nor that the types of fuels used during laboratory testing would be representative of how real people were likely to use the stoves.
The ASA advised the Stove Industry Association that the ads “must not appear again in the form complained of.”
