Your FAQs

Most Chilli Penguin Stoves are approved for burning seasoned wood and smokeless fuels for closed appliances (from the HETAS approved list).

However the Woody Eco (catalytic convertor version), the Stock cube and the Chilli Billie are wood only.

For advice about smokeless fuel suitable for a closed appliance like a stove, ask your local coal merchant and consult the HETAS approved list.  Avoid solid fuel with a high sulphur content.

For local suppliers of seasoned wood contact WoodSure or ask around locally for recommendations. There are a number of companies offering kiln dried wood such as Certainly Wood. Seasoned wood must have been cut and stored for at least one year and be dry.

Three ways to tell that wood is dry is:

1. Use a moisture meter, moisture of less than 25%

2. Should sound hollow when logs are banged together

3. Visible cracks in end of log

No, under no circumstances burn house coal on a closed appliance such as a stove. It is not possible in a closed appliance to get enough oxygen for complete combustion. This can result in a build up of volatile gases in the stove and chimney. These are potentially explosive.

Seasoned wood refers to wood with a maximum moisture content of 25%. This is achieved by storing it for between 12 – 18 months once cut, prior to burning. This will vary from species to species. If the wood is not seasoned you will be creating a lot of smoke and steam with very inefficient combustion. The following are useful tips to help you identify if your wood is dry enough to burn:

• look for visible cracks at end of the logs
• bang two logs together, you want a hollow sound
• use a wood moisture measuring device

If you are looking for a local wood supplier, www.woodsure.co.uk has a list of certified fuel suppliers

This is the ability of a stove to burn off volatile gases given off by the fuel which would otherwise go up the flue and into the atmosphere. This is usually achieved by introducing additional pre-heated air at the top of the combustion chamber. This function gives maximum efficiency and heat output from the fuel, together with having less detrimental impact on the environment.

There are a number of environment issues with wood burning, they usually fall into these three categories; the carbon footprint, the emissions and forest land clearing

Carbon Footprint
A carbon footprint simply means how much carbon a given activity adds to or subtracts from the atmosphere. The effect of burning wood is close to neutral with regards to carbon.

As they grow, trees remove carbon from the atmosphere. That carbon is released into the atmosphere when the wood is burnt as fuel.
The tree grown to replace that tree will reclaim the carbon from the air. Therefore supporting wood growers who practise good forestry management and re plant what they cut down makes sense
It is worth remembering that we can’t avoid the carbon being released into the atmosphere. Even if a tree is left to grow old, die and rot in the forest, the carbon in it will be released as it decomposes. Burning in a fireplace is a rapid form of oxidation. Rotting on a forest floor is also oxidation, just slower. Wood burning needs to be viewed as part of an ongoing system or cycle, not as a snapshot.
(There will be fuel used to used to harvest the wood, usually non bio-fuels so the carbon footprint isn’t entirely neutral, but this is relatively small. In addition there is the transport from the forest to your home, so the more locally wood is purchased the better).

Emissions from burning wood
This is the issue that has been in the news since the Clean Air strategy 2019 was launched. Among other things this strategy looks at the emissions produced by different industries including wood and solid fuel burning stoves industry. Emissions had to be reduced in a number of categories including particulates, (or dust particles). All stoves had to meet  Ecodesign criteria by 2022.

Particulate matter is everything in the air that isn’t a gas, a suspension of particles which are solid, liquid or somewhere in between. It can come from natural sources such as pollen, sea spray and desert dust, and human made sources such as smoke from fires, soot from vehicle exhausts, dust from tyres and brakes, as well as emissions from industry. The following article by Hetas has further  information.

All of our 5kW – 7 kW stoves are Ecodesign stoves. The Chilli Billie will be the last stove to undergo the re design process.

Forest clearing
Good forestry management means investing in renewal, re growth and offering diverse eco-habitats. Source wood from well managed forests.

All of the Chilli Penguin stove range were re-designed and independently tested to meet the Ecodesign criteria.  There is one exception to this, the little Chilli Billie. The Chilli Billie will go through the re-design process last, it may be early 2023 when there is an Ecodesign version of this available.

We manufacture a catalytic converter stove. This is called the Woody Eco (Cat). This is a wood only stove. A catalytic converter is a honeycomb structure that has a special coating which chemically converts harmful gases and super heats to burn off smoke particulates. The result is a marked reduction in the smoke particulates.

The requirement of the Eco design standard it for the particulate figure to be below 40 mg/m3.
The figure for the Woody Eco (Cat) is 11 mg/m3.
This is the cleanest burning stove that we produce.

The Ecodesign regulations effect most domestic energy related products, including solid fuel stoves. As far as stoves, they specify new seasonal energy efficiency levels and maximum emission requirements. It will be illegal to manufacture and sell new stoves after 1st January 2022 that do not comply with the Ecodesign requirements, unless they are already in the supply chain. Although an EU generated piece of legislation it will be adopted into UK law.

The measures covered by the Ecodesign regulations are particulate matter (PM), organic gaseous compounds (OGC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and seasonal efficiency.

In order to be an Ecodesign stove, a stove must be independently verified as meeting these stringent emission requirements. Particulate matter or PMs are the most commonly recognised of these measures. The maximum limit for these is 40 mg/m3. All these measures are listed in our technical details tables at the foot of each of the stove product pages.

There is no indication that legislative changes to ban domestic wood burning are likely. The wood-burning industry is represented at a government level by  HETAS. The following article by HETAS has some useful information https://www.hetas.co.uk/ban-on-wood-stoves/