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The Stove Industry Alliance exists to promote and advise consumers, manufacturers and public services on the benefits of wood-burning stoves and biomass appliances.

The SIA is an alliance of manufacturers, distributors, advisory/test house bodies and other interested parties.

Airwash is a design feature that uses a specially placed vent or vents to draw in air from the outside to wash over the inside of the glass. This helps to keep the glass clean, allowing you to enjoy the glow and flames to the full.

Cleanburn is a system by which hot air is introduced into the firebox just above the normal height of the fire. This allows the combustion of unburned hydrocarbons in the smoke stream. This, in turn, provides not only a ‘cleaner burn’ (i.e. less soot particles going up the chimney/flue and into the atmosphere), but also allows you to enjoy even more flames.

A smoke control area is a legally defined area where only approved solid fuels or exempted appliances (eg wood burning stoves) can be used within buildings.

Your local authority will be able to advise you if you are not sure.

The air vent aperture required increases in size depending on the KW output of the stove (this being very approx. equivalent to a 50p piece for each KW – so a 5kw stove requires an area equivalent to 5x50p pieces). The exact figure is 550 square millimetres of vent hole per kw of stove.

In new build properties, or properties likely to be as airtight as such a property, there MUST be a PERMANENTLY OPEN air vent within the room (venting to outside). It should not be possible to close this vent and it should be sited in a place where a householder is not tempted to cover it up.