Use this page to find out what you can burn in your open fire or stove and the effects of wood burning to health.
Burning wood or other solid fuels at home emits dangerous pollution both inside and outside the home, known as fine particulate matter. Use national guidance to understand the affects of air pollution on health and the environment.
The City of Bath Smoke Control Area
The City of Bath is a designated Smoke Control Area, which means it’s illegal to burn smoky fuels such as wood and coal in an open fireplace or in a non-approved wood burning or multi-fuel stove.
It is an offence to use an unauthorised fuel in a non-exempt appliance or to purchase an unauthorised fuel for this purpose.
The Environment Act 2021 has introduced new enforcement provisions that apply to buildings that emit smoke from a chimney within a Smoke Control Area. These new enforcement provisions introduce a fine of £175 for a first offence, escalating to £300 for each subsequent offence.
To ensure that your burner is compliant with the requirements of the Smoke Control Area and to avoid the fines, it must be either approved or exempt, or compliant fuels must be burnt within it.
Therefore, you can continue to use your open fireplace within the Smoke Control Area as long as compliant fuels are burnt within it.
As the Smoke Control Area designation only covers chimney smoke, bonfires are not included this legislation. Please be aware we can still take action if a bonfire causes a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
You can find more information about smoke nuisances here.
Complaints about a bonfire, or smoke nuisance outside of the Smoke Control Area, can be reported through our Report a bonfire or smoke nuisance page.
What you can burn in your open fire or stove
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs provides a list of authorised fuels.
In a smoke control area, unless you are using an exempt appliance, you can only burn fuel on the list of authorised fuels, such as anthracite or low volatile steam coal.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs provides a list of exempt appliances.
In a smoke control area, you can only burn unauthorised fuels such as wood, wood chips and wood pellets in boilers, cookers and stoves that are approved by Defra as ‘exempt appliances’. However, you should only use the type of fuel that the manufacturer says can be used in it.
Use our Energy at Home service to enquire about financial assistance to make energy efficiency improvements to your home.
PM2.5 (particulate matter not exceeding 2.5 micrometres) is monitored on the London Road in Bath and most recent annual levels are equal to the World Health Organization’s guideline levels.
PM10 (larger particulate matter not exceeding 10 micrometres) is also monitored on London Road and Lower Bristol Road and are close to the World Health Organization’s guideline levels, but within the UK Nation.
There is no proven safe level of PM2.5 and it is not visible. So the more we can do to reduce emissions the better.
For more information on the work that Bath and North East Somerset are undertaking regarding the climate emergency, visit our Climate and Ecological Emergencies page.
The Burn Right campaign also provides valuable information about wood burning and air pollution.