We were made so sick

At our old house, one neighbour’s wood heater smoke pipe was about 20 meters away from our bedroom window, and lower than our roofline. During the 12 years we lived there, all three direct (sides and back) neighbours installed new wood heaters.

There was so much stress and angst with the neighbour with the chimney near our bedroom window. He bought the house and installed the wood burning heater as his first renovation, obviously looking forward to a certain kind of semi-country-rural lifestyle. We were made so sick that first winter… Our bedroom leaked a lot of smoke, even through the fan in the ensuite.

In winter, there were weeks at a time when it was effectively impossible to open any windows without getting smoke in the house. To protect our health, we ran three air purifiers constantly.

Over the course of several years, I tracked down every smoke ingress point around doors, windows, architraves and skirting, and blocked them off.

Hanging any laundry outside was pointless, as it would end up stinking of smoke and have to be rewashed. Everything got dried in the expensive new condenser dryer indoors. This was required to keep humidity levels healthy in the home.

It’s absolutely outrageous that in urban areas, the 10% of homes that have wood burning heaters are responsible for 40% of winter pollution, imposed on the whole community.

The surge in popularity of fire pits in summer means I might never risk drying anything outdoors again, even at our new house.

Burners are only educated about “clean burning” (an oxymoron!!) by the council after a complaint is launched. And this totally inadequate response is the very best you can hope for in your suffering from the councils. The EPA has abdicated its responsibilities in this area, leaving councils uneducated and isolated in dealing with a situation, where your neighbours can install these potent toxic pollution generators without any notice to or input or naysay from those next door, who will be directly adversely impacted.