Member Comments

You could always get a Pyroclassic IV Woodfire, these clean air fires have no air controls or dampeners to throttle back the fire which means that the fire could not be "tuned" to the test and it still came out the cleanest woodfire on the NZ market.

If you knew that you have replaced a perfectly good wood burner, spending thousands of dollars on one that has been passed under conditions that are more suited to summer what would you think? This is what is happening. No winter conditions are accounted for in the dilution tunnel test. You are being blamed for the wood you burn. Installers are being blamed for not installing correctly. Smoke is being breathed into the lungs of those with new burners, inside their homes because a lot of these new fires cannot draw. They cant due to the winter atmospheric conditions.

The World Bank created a Clean Air Initiative program to be taken seriously. Just a hunch but I think we are trying to make it work, going through the middlemen who gain to profit from the emissions taxation scheme. The US EPA/ Clean Air Act did not complete the science in stopping wood smoke. They cut corners using an existing test already in place in the wood heating industry to test a particular type of wood stove. This 20 - 30 year old program was faulty from the start due to it ignoring the atmospheric influence on the flue system. I do not blame councils or central government. I blame those who have or should have tested the validity of this standard. I blame education and integrity Wood heating has a single flaw and it can be fixed effectively and cheaply. Why is it being made so complicated?

The Condar Dilution Tunnel Test produces what Californians called the Florida Bungalow Syndrome 20 years ago. Atmospheric conditions are not accounted for in the test and its more than just the quality of firewood that is causing the failed results. Fireboxes are tested in controlled optimum burning conditions. These conditions are not that of winter but rather that of which the Californians attributed to the weather of Florida. There is a cowl called a FlueCube which is being successful at fixing the atmospheric issues. This cowl combined with seasoned wood not only is allowing wood fires to burn in optimum conditions but reducing the emissions to almost zero if not completely at all. This does not intend to advertise but rather criticise the standard which is lacking in credibility. Firewood is important, correct use of the appliance is also but adverse weather conditions are playing a major part. The correct cowl can certainly make life easier.