Whether you’re heating your home, or enjoying a fire pit s’mores party in the yard, what you burn can be as important as where you burn. Indoors or outside, natural wood is considered carbon neutral since it only releases the amount of carbon dioxide that the tree required over its lifetime.
However, it’s not so much the wood, but the smoke that can be the problem with natural wood. Remember, when it comes to natural wood, the dryer the better. Pre-fabricated Firelogs are also an option, and there are quite a few brands on the market that use recycled material like saw dust and coffee grounds as the main ingredient. You just want to avoid the brands with petroleum wax because of their significantly higher carbon dioxide emission. Artificial logs can burn longer and hotter, but as with all fires, you should never leave them unattended.