Burners versus pumps: the reckoning

The climate police in the UK has a new target: wood-burning fireplaces. Apparently, while the climate police worked tirelessly to advance clean sources of heating, sneaky Britons were buying wood burners. Between 2017 and 2023, Brits bought 35,000 new wood burners and that’s a tragedy because they are not being bought for heating purposes but for aesthetic reasons — according to the climate police.

Now, first of all, something tells me that the fact most wood burner buyers already had another source of heating when they bought the burner does not necessarily mean they bought the burner for aesthetic purposes. I mean, we have electric heaters but we burn wood for the bigger portion of our heating needs.

Second, and more important, of all, while wood burner numbers in the UK rose by 35,000 over seven years, sales of heat pumps rose much faster and more strongly, to hit a total of 200,000 in 2023. That’s a record and it was achieved quickly. Yet the climate police, featuring the government, is still not happy. No, Brits must be buying heat pumps at a rate of 600,000 per year by 2030 for the police to be happy. Unless they find another reason to be unhappy in the meantime.

In any case, 600,000 heat pumps in a year would be a steep demand given prices and finite government money for subsidies. I guess wood burner numbers are going to keep creeping up. Stay tuned for reports about people clearing forests of dead wood for heating purposes as a G7 economy turns into an Eastern European village.