Wood Heater, what do you think?

Nothing beats wood heaters for ambience and throwing out heat, but we lived with one for 8 years and are now very pleased to be pressing a button to heat our house. My 2 cents on the pros and cons of wood heaters are

Pros
Great heat output
Looks great
Cheap to run when you have availability of free wood.

Cons
Lots of work, collecting, chopping, storing wood.
Lots of dust and dirt in the house (I was vacuuming jarrah dust off my walls every spring) and wood chips dropping on the floor near the wood bucket.
Environmental pollution, if wood is too green it smokes. (We lived in a valley town where almost everyone had a wood heater, and some days you couldn't see 100 m away!!)


kezza

If you were going to use it for heat, then you wouldn't use one like that. A coonara type on would be more efficient.

Hi Pebbles,
As per Al said, these glass fireplaces are great - but they are for show and tend to burn a lot more wood than the equivalent other styles for heat output.

You really need what is known as a combustion fireplace to be of any use if it is your 100% heating resource in winter.

One with lots of heater blocks also work better as they store lots of heat that is relaesed during the night/day when on low.

They also have glass fronts.

Once lit - you let it burn 24x7 stoke it up at night (the fire !!! I mean) Then when it's burning well, you close it down for the night and a gentle heat keeps the house warm, and then in the morming you stoke it up again, (the fire as well )
Then you shut it down when you walk out the door, and that night when you get home frowork it's still burning and ready to do it all again.

A wood heated house is actually warm all the time - but yes there is the dust and work involved - that keeps you fit

I used to use around the 3 ton per year in the cold Adelaide hills. But I know of others who use 5 ton.

My fireplace when shut down with good coals going lasts 2 days and I can open it up - pop in some paper, twiggs etc, the coals fire up again and away it goes.

Check out these brands which I have used and like - plus more info at the fireplace association web site.

Nectre - SA Made
Kent
Coonarra - Vic
Saxon - Tassie

http://www.homeheat.com.au/

Steve

Hi Dukemeyer,
Sorry but wood heaters aren't very green at all.
We promote the RTA Solid Fuel heater buyback program here at work, and the following is info straight out of the brochure:

"Residential wood burning (the use of fireplaces, pot-belly stoves and open fires) causes up to 40% of winter air pollution in the Sydney metro area. This pollution is made up of very small particles that can be taken directly into the lungs and contains a number of toxic and cancer causing agents. The smoke not only pollutes the air but also reduces visability and causes physical discomfort for those with respiritory problems, especially older people."

The brochure goes on to suggest cleaner heating alternatives that are eligible for the $500 rebate to replace your wood heater and the best are (in order)
Solar active (using solar panels)
Solar passive (good design)
Pellet fires

If you're looking in the $3-4000 range, I'd consider the Eco-smart Fire, an Aussie invention which uses de-natured alcohol (metho) to run on. The only by-products are heat, and a bit of steam and a little bit of co2. More info at www.ecosmartfire.com.au I saw one at the Home Show and LOVED IT! They look fab. I'm saving my pennies for one for my new place.

If you are interested in the RTA's $500 wood heater rebate visit www.rta.nsw.gov.au
For tips on cleaner wood burning, you can get a copy of the brochure Hot Tips For Cleaner Wood Burning from the RTA website too.

Here are some tips to reduce wood smoke
1. Use good dry wood as it will provide up to 40% more heat
2. Start out using plenty of paper and kindling. Paper produces a hotter fire more quickly than firelighters.
3. Keep fire burning slightly by setting the air controls high enough to prevent the flame dissapearing
4. Only use larger pieces of when when the fire is established
5. Check your chimney and flue every evening to make sure the fire isn't producing too much smoke. If you are creating too much scmoke, you may be given a Smoke Abatement Notice from an authorised officer which can result in fines.

Also, I'm pretty sure you can't install a wood heater in a new house in Sydney because of the pollution they cause.

Pebbles, not quite so.....

The modern combustion fires actually do a thing called second stage burning, ie the wood burns, which releases gases and a good combustion design will also burn this gas (versus going straight up the chimney) so a good combustion fire uses less wood per heat output than than the glass one you've pictured would, and with a lot less emissions.

But as said above- you need good dry timber and to run it properly - as it's not a press the button device that will automatically do the job.

Steve

It'd be interesting to see if they have an efficiency rating for it.

They seem to have most of the needs of a good fireplace - except the thermal mass to store and release the generated heat.

There is some detailed information here, that also talks about pellets and their low pollution and suitable environments.

http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosphere/airquality/publications/report4/chapter3.html

Ideally we should not need any heating on OZ.
I've lived in a modern house in sweden with zero heating, yet a constant indoor temp of 22 degrees remained while outside temps of 8 at night and 15 to 20's during the day.
Most of our oz housing needs temperture range could cope with that.

But old habits die hard don't they - fireplaces are nice,

so is saddling up the horse and buggy to go to work.
Steve

How is this proving fires not GREEN? Some pollute the air with smoke but smoke doesn't damage the environment, just peoples lungs.

Using smartburn and/or a slow combustion fire, smoke can be almost entirely eliminated. An average forest fire will dwarf almost any citys fire pollution.

CO2 is used in a cyclical way with home fires so no extra gets put into the system. Any soot actually reduces the tempreature by reflecting the suns rays. Compare this with gas or coal generated electricity and it becomes clear that from an environmental point of view particuarly WRT add to CO2 levels, fires are worth considering.

Just an alternate perspective.

Wood heater (slow burn) is the only heating we've got in the old house. We've had it for close on 20 years now. It took us a few of these years to figure the best way for nights and mornings. What we do is to wait for the wood to burn down to embers (a decent heap of them) just before going to bed, then bury them under a few centimeters deep layer of ash from the rear of the stove. They keep pretty well till the morning (still providing some warmth), and need just uncovering and throwing in some kindling and there's a roaring fire in minutes. Softish native wood, from the garden off-cuts is the best for this purpose, jarrah most often goes off. Matter of fact, these off-cuts provide almost half of our fire wood in winter, but we've got a few large, mature trees that need a lot of pruning. All in all though, wood fire is a pain in the butt, just as people here say. We're going for a gas log fire in the new house!

Chris

Properly, Metho is wood alcohol or methylated spirits - CH3OH, not Ethanol - C2H5OH and it used to be produced by the dry destillation (ie heating to something like 400C) of timber waste. This is a nerdish/factoid comment, but I had a gorgeus young bird chemistry teacher in High School, was for a time a keen student and still remember some stuff.
If that's the way they still produce it, it's a relatively green product.

Chris

There are some great, efficient wood heaters about - eg Euro Fires - using European technology that ensures a long burn and won't use too much wood.

HOWEVER - DO NOT EVEN THNK ABOUT buying a STOVAX RIVA STUDIO, really only decorative as they go out quickly and cannot really keep your house warm. All bottom fire bricks on ours were shattered after less than 12 burns - guess what - we were told by the retailer in Mornington Victoria and the distributor there was no warranty!!! Really bad heater and really bad service, we are devastated and very unhappy. An EXPENSIVE MISTAKE!!!