Wood Pellet Fires Approved for Clean Heat Subsidies - Switch Energy

With Autumn only a matter of weeks away, the deadline for Christchurch homeowners and landlords to switch to cleaner heat sources is rapidly approaching.

From 1 April 2010, residents in Christchurch's Clean Air zone 1 (most of Christchurch city out to Belfast, Yaldhurst, Hoon Hay Valley and Sumner) won't be able to use open wood fires or solid fuel burners older than 15 years over the winter.

The Clean Air ban was put in place in April 2009 but will be enforced for the first time from 2010 by Environment Canterbury staff. The ban extends from 1 April until 30 September each year and people who use their fires during this time may face enforcement action.

Outside of the city, Kaiapoi home owners with open fires and older wood burners won't be able to use them from 1 May 2011, while in Ashburton they will be banned from 1 May 2012.

As one of the main suppliers of approved wood pellet fires around New Zealand, Christchurch based Switch Energy is pleased with the significant interest in pellet fires across the region.

“Figures from Environment Canterbury suggest that nearly 20% of people taking out open fires and non-compliant woodburners are choosing to replace them with eco-friendly pellet fires,” says Switch’s national operations manager, Dougal Ferguson.

“Now we want to spread the word about the benefits of pellet fires to the rest of New Zealand, as we know that Canterbury has set a stringent emissions standard for the rest of the country to follow.”

Ferguson says families choosing wood pellet fires are usually those who enjoy having a fire rather than gas or electricity to heat their homes, but also appreciate the eco-friendly benefits, convenience, cleanliness and safety of wood pellets.

"Wood pellet burners are incredibly effective at heating the whole house, instead of simply overheating the immediate area - as do logburners, or letting most of the heat escape up the chimney like an open fire.

"Once the room and house have warmed up - about an hour after starting the fire, it can be turned down to low to maintain the heat, and still runs just as efficiently and cleanly. Turning down an old-style logburner is one of the worst things that you can do in terms of pollution, particularly if you don't have firewood that is dry enough, as the wood will simply smoulder and smoke."

Anyone considering installing a pellet fire in their home can view a list of ECan authorised solid fuel burners here.

All Clean Heat Project heating appliances must meet the standard of 40mg of particulate per megajoule of energy produced (40mg/MJ OUT).

Clean Heat Subsidies are available to help home owners and landlords who are replacing existing open fires and non-compliant logburners with pellet fires and other forms of non-polluting heat.

To find out more about pellet fires and what is involved in installing one in your property, you can visit the Switch website or one of the company’s dealers nationwide.