Wood heaters safe for now

smee said :

We’re thinking of getting a wood heater as a fallback in case of a failure in the electricity supply.

Huh? I’ve lived in Tuggeranong for 20 years and the only significant failure of the electricity supply I’ve ever experienced was in 2003 during the bushfires when the power was deliberately switched off by ACTEW. Even when the line connected to my house failed the power was out for less than 20 mins whilst it was being repaired.

On the other hand, if you had gas heating and faced the prospect of waiting three months for a repairman to be available……

We’re thinking of getting a wood heater as a fallback in case of a failure in the electricity supply. At the moment if the power goes out the only heating we have would be to park the BBQ in the back door or jump in the car.

I know its a fuddy-duddy thing but I cant get beyond the fact that they are called wood heaters.

Lived in tuggeranong for 33 years and in the last 10 it has been nowhere near as bad as it was. This past winter I didn’t notice it at all.

The (previous?) govt incentive to replace wood heaters with something else only applied if wood heating was your sole source of heating. I reckon the majority of people have a wood stove in the living room and other forms of heating elsewhere, but at night (because they are in the living room) they use the wood heater (and perhaps turn off the other heating).

So the incentive didnt really get rid of many wood heaters. And educating people as to how they are affecting someone else will never work. People who are jogging at night in the middle of winter – not going to get much sympathy . . .

So perhaps some rebate or incentive to replace any wood burning stove (or any wood burning stove that isnt a slow burn of a certain standard).

(yeah yeah, government handouts to the underserved. But if air pollution is a problem, its a relatively painless way to do something about it)

Buzz2600 said :

Is it possible for the govt. to stop you using your wood heater? How could they police this?

Where there’s smoke there’s fire.

The idiot directly over the road from me here in Tuggeranong often burns treated pine – mostly structural timber or treated pine sleepers. He is also a classic example of somebody who does not know how to use his wood heater – he sends up some impressive smoke signals from his chimney in winter. The sooner they are phased out and banned the happier I will be.

Whatever works for you, JB!

We just had our open fireplace (utterly inefficient) converted to an enclosed slow burn ‘clean air’ wood heater. It’s about the best there is for efficient wood heating. We plant trees each year on a friends rural property and do the Greening Australia tree planting each year (so we figure we’re using a carbon neutral renewable energy source by replanting what we burn).

Is it possible for the govt. to stop you using your wood heater? How could they police this? Luckily I don’t live in Tuggers, I live in Downer, so I figure we’re safe – for the moment anyway.

It is really bad in winter in Tuggers. The smell is so horrible, and I had to stop going for runs at night as the smoke was making my asthma worse. Disgusting.

*snort*

Only targeting ‘young’ women? :p

So, it’s okay in the city though, right?