Greens call for heater police

Now if only The Greens can take action to ban those pesky inversion layers that occur in the Valley in winter… Not only will woodsmoke heaters no longer be a problem, but neither will the emissions from cars…

Here we go again! Keep the minions in line with the “big stick” by fining them if there is too much smoke from their chimneys! Wake up, Amanda! With the impending “carbon tax” on electricity how many people do you think will opt for “solid fuel” heating? Now you want to hit them for improperly burning their wood? You do-gooders make me sick – how about you take all this extra tax income, listen to some realsitic solutions and put the dollars there. And by the way, when these “solutions” of yours make absolutely no difference, are you willing to stand up and say “I said it would?”

Even in our current comparatively smoke-free suburb I have noticed two things.
The smoke is worse after rain, ie when the wood is wet. Why isn’t it compulsory when installing a wood heater to also build adequate dry wood storage?
The chimney of the nearby house that was sold produces more smoke now than when the original owners lived there. When will the “education” they have been talking about for decades do some good?

Nightshade said :

Those of you who are incredulous every time this topic comes up must never have lived next door to someone who lets their heater smoke excessively. There may not be many people who do this, but being the unlucky neighbour is no fun and it’s not just a Tuggeranong problem.

Try:
– having a cloud of smoke wafting through your yard all weekend for 5 months of the year
– never being able to hang your washing outside unless you want it smelling worse than before you washed it (and having your living room permanently filled with wet clothes on airers as a result)
– having smoke blow inside your house through the ventilation holes

Been there, done that, moved house. Interestingly husband was not bothered by it much while we lived there but became very sensitive when we went back to the suburb to visit. I wonder if that’s why some people don’t have more compassion for the genuine physical discomfort others suffer. Does a proportion of the population develop a tolerance for it to the point where they are unaware of it unless taken out of the environment for some time? Yes, I know everyone gets a break in the warmer months. I don’t have a scientifically valid argument, just a vivid memory of husband saying “THIS is how you felt every winter? NOW I understand!”

Green wood doesn’t give out a lot of heat, either. You’re really just setting fire to something to see the flame. It isn’t an option for an entire 5-month constant source of warmth.

At any rate, you need more than garden prunings to keep going to 5 whole months.

Conceded: deliberately using green wood for 5 months probably isn’t due to talent as much as laziness or stupidity.

housebound said :

It takes a bit of talent to make a heater smoke as badly as that for five months straight.

No it isn’t. Freshly cut wood would do that.

Some people don’t realise that if you want to use your own vegetation waste then you need to leave it out to dry for at least a year, preferably longer. Otherwise they have a hard time catching light, and even if they do they produce smoke that stinks the whole neighbourhood due to the sap in them (which is why you need to dry them out in the first place).

The solution is to go to a proper supplier who will have dried woods that will burn efficiently, and mostly smoke-free. Otherwise, prepare to wait a year for the woods to be ready.

It takes a bit of talent to make a heater smoke as badly as that for five months straight. I don’t think we could manage it if we tried. It’s also a waste of wood and potential heat and, if you buy your wood, a waste of money. What did you do to your neighbour to warrant this vindictive treatment?

Your neighbour probably is also the type to drive commodores, push in in checkout queues, park in disabled zones, and speed through school zones.

Nightshade said :

Those of you who are incredulous every time this topic comes up must never have lived next door to someone who lets their heater smoke excessively. There may not be many people who do this, but being the unlucky neighbour is no fun and it’s not just a Tuggeranong problem.

Try:
– having a cloud of smoke wafting through your yard all weekend for 5 months of the year
– never being able to hang your washing outside unless you want it smelling worse than before you washed it (and having your living room permanently filled with wet clothes on airers as a result)
– having smoke blow inside your house through the ventilation holes (I’ve been able to tell when my neighbour refuelled their heater while standing in my kitchen at the far end of the house because smoke came down the range hood flue)
– not being able to spend time outside enjoying your garden for that 5 months a year
– not being able to do any gardening either (and then having to deal later with the jungle of weeds that grew, set seed and grew again in early Spring while you weren’t able to go outside and deal with them promptly)

I’m always surprised to see the sympathy most of you extend to people whose neighbours have front yards full of rusty cars or long grass, who make excessive noise, who build sun rooms that overlook their backyard or various other unneighbourly things … yet it seems so difficult to understand what a problem smoke can cause.

Poor baby –
For the 5 months of summer we had dust blowing through our backyard due to the suburb being a construction zone for new housing.
Laundry won’t dry for half of the winter months anyway, as it’s either raining or just too darn cold – get a clothes dryer.
If the smoke is coming into your house through vents and the rangehood, the green police should be knocking on your door as all that cold air would be giving your home a -3 star energy efficiency. Waste of natural resources.
If you can’t go into the backyard because of the smoke, how do you get to the shops? I dare say that the wind doesn’t ALWAYS blow into your yard and there are opportunities to get these things done. Wood fires have been around since man discovered flint, there will never be a better way to get warm. If the government made it easier and cheaper to get better burning firewood, instead of the semi-damp garbage people have to scrape for wherever they can find it, smoke will be a lesser issue. The problem is being made worse by the green’s campaigns, not better.

Those of you who are incredulous every time this topic comes up must never have lived next door to someone who lets their heater smoke excessively. There may not be many people who do this, but being the unlucky neighbour is no fun and it’s not just a Tuggeranong problem.

Try:
– having a cloud of smoke wafting through your yard all weekend for 5 months of the year
– never being able to hang your washing outside unless you want it smelling worse than before you washed it (and having your living room permanently filled with wet clothes on airers as a result)
– having smoke blow inside your house through the ventilation holes (I’ve been able to tell when my neighbour refuelled their heater while standing in my kitchen at the far end of the house because smoke came down the range hood flue)
– not being able to spend time outside enjoying your garden for that 5 months a year
– not being able to do any gardening either (and then having to deal later with the jungle of weeds that grew, set seed and grew again in early Spring while you weren’t able to go outside and deal with them promptly)

I’m always surprised to see the sympathy most of you extend to people whose neighbours have front yards full of rusty cars or long grass, who make excessive noise, who build sun rooms that overlook their backyard or various other unneighbourly things … yet it seems so difficult to understand what a problem smoke can cause.

Chop71 said :

infringement notices – for keeping my family warm on a -7 winter morning.

What are you talking about? Why would you get an infringement notice?

Erg0 said :

I like that she’s gone to the trouble of inventing the pejorative term “woodsmoke heater”, just to really drive home the point that they’re bad and stuff.

I suspect she was exercising restraint from going with “tree burning, toxic carbon polluting, baby killing warmth generator”