August 4, 2024 • 14 mins
This week on iHeart Tassie, John Fabris explores the state's illegal firewood trade and the arguments for and against wood heating.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I Heart Dazzy.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm John Fabris Hallo there on this week's episode. Wood
Heating and Firewood. Now, this is a more contested topic
than you might think. For a start, the Asthma Foundation
has been pressing for a ban on wood heaters and
new property builds four years. Does that unfairly portray wood
heaters for their past performance and not their new designs
(00:23):
and standards? Randal Heating in Lonceston to join us as
will bertocologist Eric Erler with his thoughts on a legal
firewood collection destroying Tasmanian habitat. I Heart Dazzy. Our first
guest is Paul Edwards, who with his wife have their
old Dina brand in Wynyard, running nursery, landscaping and firewood. Paul,
(00:46):
your business in Wynyard is so much about the most
impeccably credentialed firewood environmentally sustainably. Can you describe what that
entails for you? It's a lot of work, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Look at so longing contractors. So all our timber that
we get for our blocks is certified, which isn't cheap.
As you can imagine how.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Much does that cost or add to the price of
what you're able to put to the market.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Well, it varies a bit. There's that four or five
dollars a time extra we've got to pay to have
it certified. That way, then we're covered and any timber
we sell is all legitimate. We know where it comes from,
and there's a traceability element to it all.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, when you see utes and trailers on the side
of the road loaded with thighwood with a for sale sign,
no regulation, no sourcing credentials, what's that feel like for you?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
They probably make more money out of what I do,
because if they can get it from the right place
and don't have to pay anything, the profit mard is
much higher, and it's not regulated, and you don't know
where it comes from and whether it's legitimate or not.
Some is, but there's definitely a lot that isn't.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Is it your understanding? Illegal woodhooking is trashing preserve forests?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Definitely. There's areas around home here where we know they
go up during the daytime and sometimes even got their
nighttime and work under lights to get their wood and
poach it.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And you know exactly where that's happening.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Then, like I say, around the winded area where I'm from,
it's not hard to go back on a weekend or
sometimes week days and you see a ute and a
trailer and the bush loading up, and you know perfectly
well it's not legitimate or on a prescribed area by forestry.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The government seems to want to put regulations on just
about every facet of our lives these days, to get
their beak wet, as it were, And yet this goes
on unabated decade after decade.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Honestly, I know it's an expense to do it, and
the government don't want to probably worry about it, and
forestry don't want to go to the expense. If someone
went around and every trailer loader load wood on the
side of the road and said, well, we're need a
traceability of this wood. Can you approve where it comes from?
It'd be very interesting to see what was said.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I suppose there'd be people listening to us right now saying, no,
we don't want more regulation around this. It'll actually push
the cost of wood higher. But really, we've come to
the stage where we're all talking about having to do
something for the environment, climate change. The politicians just rattled
this on and on. Here we are allowing this to
happen in our own backyard.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's exactly right. The x amount of people and politicians
that want to stop logging in Tasmania, but they don't
want to seem to stop illegal firewood gathering in Tasmania
if all the people on the side of the road
weren't there. Some are legitimate, some aren't. They can sell
their wood for a lot less than what I can.
I've got to pay a mortgage and for machines and
all the other costs that go with it. We pay
(03:30):
our GST. A lot of people say you're too expensive,
will buy it elsewhere, but that's only brought on because
they can go and buy it elsewhere from people that
maybe shouldn't be actually selling it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And what's your feeling around the general use of wood
heating and firewood now with rising power prices, are people
returning in your opinion, to wood heating because it is
fairly fuel efficient cost efficient?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Definitely. We've went through a big turn around there where
people are pulling wood heaters out and putting the heat
pumps in, which yeah, it's great, it's easy, but they
don't get the same kind of heat from it price wise.
I've never really compared it personally. Yeah, I've got a
heat pump and I've got my wood heater.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I use the wood heat that.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Heats the house a lot better. But yeah, power is
not cheap, and it's getting more expensive. Wood's not cheap either,
But it is awkward for people, and pension is especially
how struggle and a lot of other people that struggle
with haven't got a lot of money. And I know,
life of stuff for everybody, but sometimes you're better off
to pay and buy it if a reputable dealer, at
least if it's something wrong, you can call up, go in,
have a talk, work it out and get it sorted out.
(04:32):
Where a trailer or a ut in the side of
the road, that's probably the last time you're going to see.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And just finally, Paul, what's the deal around the seasoning
of the wood? I know on occasions I've had green
wood and I've thought, no, bug it, that's not going
to burn properly. How long after cutting should it be
left to season up and be ready for burning?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, it varies on the species of wood, but are
all the fun like what we do. We try to
have everything cut by that we're going to sell in
the winter. We want cut by the end of January.
That way, it's got most of the year too dry,
So you're looking at a six to twelve month drying
rotation if you've got your wood cut by October, like
we've got separate piles we put in place and we
(05:12):
work our way through it. So it's got a minimum
of six months. A lot of it's got twelve months,
and someone's got eight en months in drying time. But
it does very a bit on the species of timber.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And it's important too, because if you're burning green wood,
you're not doing right by the environment in terms of
how much smoke it's producing. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
That's one hundred percent correct, And you get no heat
out of greenwood. It doesn't burn very good. It just
smolders away and just puts smoke into the atmosphere, which
is good for nothing either. Onyly got to look ahead
a little bit and they can be organized. It's all
taken care of and they've got good dry wood. The
environment's looked after and most people are happy.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Paul Edward's offering sustainable loan certified firewood in the wind area.
A quick break on I Heart Tassi still to come.
We get the lowdown on today's improved tech around wood heaters. Next,
Birder cologist Eric Birler on the scourge of illegal firewood
harvesting and the importance of sourcing firewood from the correct avenues.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I heard Dazzy.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I heart as firewood.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And wood heaters this week on I Harp Tazzy up soon.
Randall Heating in Loncestem puts the case for their efficiency
and environmental credentials. Now, as we've been discussing illegal woodhooking
for firewood is a separate matter. We're joined now by
Tasmanian bird ecologist Eric Erler. You've told me previously, Eric
(06:33):
that firewood for sale on the side of the road
not always, but could be an ecological nightmare for threatened species.
We should, if we're environmentally minded, try and avoid wood
off the side of the road unless we're absolutely certain
it's legitimate.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Look, John, I completely agree with that assessment. I was
up in the north of the state this weekend and
the number of youths and small trucks I saw driving
along with firewoods have been collected somewhere. It was just
raising alarm belts for me that almost certainly a large
proportion of the wood that you see on the side
of the road or on the back of a truck
driving around on the weekend. Has almost certainly been illegally collected.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Now, the last time we spoke, I think it was
a year or two ago, there was definitely threatened species
habitat that had been trashed by woodwooking. Where was that exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
We were talking about a study area that the Australian
National University team were working on up on the East
Coast of Tasmania. They had a study site or swift parrots,
which are a critically endangered species, and they had a
study site on the East Coast Highway. One day when
the team went in to monitor the birds and check
on what was going on with the population in their
study area, there was no study area. The trees had
(07:43):
all been hooked illegally for firewood.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
See those woodhookers probably went in there not knowing that
at all, because they're not conversant with this sort of information.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Sure, but at the same time, most of this woodhooking
that occurs occurs on crown land, and most of the
time the crown land has some degree of reservation on it.
It's either a reserve of some sort, and so you
end up having essentially a small number of people destroying
something that belongs to the public.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Eric, do you find it disappointing there isn't some sort
of regulatory control and monitoring of firewood resources, much like
we manage recreational fishing. It just seems odd that there
isn't governmental control here.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I think we really do need to do much better
when it comes to firewood, whether it's government intervention, government regulation,
or simply in the easiest way to do is people
only buy firewood from a credit wood merchant rather than
buying it off the side of the roads. If you
take away the demand for illegal firewood, they won't be
going out cutting firewoods is they're not going to make
any money for their hours of chainsaw in tree.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There'd be a lot of people listening to us right
now screaming at the radio or listening to this as
a podcast because it is their way of life, and
some of them do the right thing and pay for
doing it above board. Do we have to find a
middle ground there?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, So you'll have some people that, like you said,
that will go to the property owner say look, here's
a couple hundred bucks, let me cut a couple of
tons of firewood there. That's fine, But as is always
the case with these sorts of issues, John, you end
up having the minority ruining it for everybody. You know,
all you need is a couple of people doing the
wrong thing, as we've talked about before, cutting down habitat
(09:25):
for a critically endangered species, and then surprise, surprise, there's
a backlash and suddenly there's potentially over regulation or over
restriction on what's going on. If people were to do
the right thing, talk to the land owner, get permission,
or buy wood from a credited wood version, we wouldn't
be having this conversation.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And just finally, Eric, how do you personally feel about
the entire notion of wood heating in this day and age?
Do you have a personal position on it?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I grew up as a child with a wood box
in the kitchen and we would as kids sit around
and enjoy the wall. We also know now that those
wood boxes are very inefficient.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
But a college ysteric verler on iheartasy. Now for the
final word our now wood heating special Mike James from
Randall Heating in Lonceston, a city where once upon a
time property owners were paid subsidies to remove their wood
heaters that didn't last long, and the story goes that
many of those people reinstalled wood heaters in the long run. Anyway,
(10:22):
Mike James, are you finding rising power prices playing into
your favor actually strengthening demand for wood heaters at the moment?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, woodhou to sales in the long system area, especially
over the last couple of years, has risen slightly, mainly
because of the cost of living pressure of many people
backing up their electric oat wood heater.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Everyone who has a wood heater will tell you that
it's a different kind of heat, definitely.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Obviously, compared to something like a heat pump, where it's
coming out of the vents at about twenty two degrees,
it's coming off the wood at about two hundred and
fifty ago, So I guess a lot more heat for
your money.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Are the latest models of wood heaters more efficient and
better environment mentally for their emissions these states?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Oh, definitely. Look the current standards for any wood out
of that sold in Australia. It's got to be a
minimum of sixty percent efficient and it's got to be
under one point five grams. The old standards were four
grams and no efficiency requirements, so definitely a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
More efficient on that level. Do you think wood heaters
need to get a better wrap in this day and
age that we're looking back at the past of how
things might have been, certainly the way fiwood was collected,
and now we have to have a different point of view,
a different mental way of approaching wood heating.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
For sure. The CSIRO for a few years that conducted
a research on wood eating and determine that firewood produces
less greenhouse gas than any other domestic heating options. So yeah,
they are a good options.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Do the more expensive units perform better than the cheape's
that are offered by those high turnover places with sausage
sizzles not naming names? They may meet Australian standards those ones,
but is that the entire story necessarily?
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Look, there is a lot of overseas product on the
market today and we do sell a lot of it
as well, as well as a lot of Australian product
as well. There's really not a lot of difference, So
they're all running ten to fifteen year warranties on those days.
Some of the stuff from overseas is just as good
as some of the more expensive units generally find what
happens is that there'll be generally picked on looks efficiency
(12:22):
and their emissions.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
These days, should we be able to set the fire
at night, go to bed, and wake up to a
fire in the morning still burning away? I have problems
in that respect. It seems that mine runs out about
two or three o'clock in the morning. Does that tell
you that I don't have a particularly efficient wood heater,
do you think?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
No? Not really.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Generally, what you'll find is that some are better than others.
Some of the American stuff on the market actually does
specify a burn time. It'll actually burn for one particular
one and coming out of Minnesota, or burn for twenty
one hours. Just the technology is a lot better and
a lot of the European and American.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Stuff, Wow, twenty one hours, that's fantastic. And would necessarily
then mean it's more efficient or does it not work
that way?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Yeah, No, it's still efficient. Everything's got to get under
that that sixty percent efficiency. So yeah, it's got to
be at lesal Sorry, I over that sixty percent efficiency.
You've all got to have that meat that standard.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But they can't result And what about the idea of
pellet heaters. Are they catching on in the market now?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Definitely, There's still be a time, probably in the near
future when there'll be a lot more pelletalhizers on the
market because they're soe efficient and you're burning a waste
product because pretty much the many pelots are just compressed
sort ust, so that waste is around and you're going
to be using that up.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Are we at the behest though of the pellet supplies
and then possibly going up in price, perhaps more so
than firewood or.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Not potentially, but I mean, you'd like to think that
the more pellet phizer and the more people who are
start producing pellets are competition is good.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Mike James from Randall Heating in one system, that's wrap
of our look at wood heating and firewood on a
tassi Until next time, My hearts as he
I Heart Dazzy.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm John Fabris Hallo there on this week's episode. Wood
Heating and Firewood. Now, this is a more contested topic
than you might think. For a start, the Asthma Foundation
has been pressing for a ban on wood heaters and
new property builds four years. Does that unfairly portray wood
heaters for their past performance and not their new designs
(00:23):
and standards? Randal Heating in Lonceston to join us as
will bertocologist Eric Erler with his thoughts on a legal
firewood collection destroying Tasmanian habitat. I Heart Dazzy. Our first
guest is Paul Edwards, who with his wife have their
old Dina brand in Wynyard, running nursery, landscaping and firewood. Paul,
(00:46):
your business in Wynyard is so much about the most
impeccably credentialed firewood environmentally sustainably. Can you describe what that
entails for you? It's a lot of work, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Look at so longing contractors. So all our timber that
we get for our blocks is certified, which isn't cheap.
As you can imagine how.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Much does that cost or add to the price of
what you're able to put to the market.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Well, it varies a bit. There's that four or five
dollars a time extra we've got to pay to have
it certified. That way, then we're covered and any timber
we sell is all legitimate. We know where it comes from,
and there's a traceability element to it all.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, when you see utes and trailers on the side
of the road loaded with thighwood with a for sale sign,
no regulation, no sourcing credentials, what's that feel like for you?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
They probably make more money out of what I do,
because if they can get it from the right place
and don't have to pay anything, the profit mard is
much higher, and it's not regulated, and you don't know
where it comes from and whether it's legitimate or not.
Some is, but there's definitely a lot that isn't.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Is it your understanding? Illegal woodhooking is trashing preserve forests?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Definitely. There's areas around home here where we know they
go up during the daytime and sometimes even got their
nighttime and work under lights to get their wood and
poach it.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And you know exactly where that's happening.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Then, like I say, around the winded area where I'm from,
it's not hard to go back on a weekend or
sometimes week days and you see a ute and a
trailer and the bush loading up, and you know perfectly
well it's not legitimate or on a prescribed area by forestry.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The government seems to want to put regulations on just
about every facet of our lives these days, to get
their beak wet, as it were, And yet this goes
on unabated decade after decade.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Honestly, I know it's an expense to do it, and
the government don't want to probably worry about it, and
forestry don't want to go to the expense. If someone
went around and every trailer loader load wood on the
side of the road and said, well, we're need a
traceability of this wood. Can you approve where it comes from?
It'd be very interesting to see what was said.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I suppose there'd be people listening to us right now saying, no,
we don't want more regulation around this. It'll actually push
the cost of wood higher. But really, we've come to
the stage where we're all talking about having to do
something for the environment, climate change. The politicians just rattled
this on and on. Here we are allowing this to
happen in our own backyard.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's exactly right. The x amount of people and politicians
that want to stop logging in Tasmania, but they don't
want to seem to stop illegal firewood gathering in Tasmania
if all the people on the side of the road
weren't there. Some are legitimate, some aren't. They can sell
their wood for a lot less than what I can.
I've got to pay a mortgage and for machines and
all the other costs that go with it. We pay
(03:30):
our GST. A lot of people say you're too expensive,
will buy it elsewhere, but that's only brought on because
they can go and buy it elsewhere from people that
maybe shouldn't be actually selling it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And what's your feeling around the general use of wood
heating and firewood now with rising power prices, are people
returning in your opinion, to wood heating because it is
fairly fuel efficient cost efficient?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Definitely. We've went through a big turn around there where
people are pulling wood heaters out and putting the heat
pumps in, which yeah, it's great, it's easy, but they
don't get the same kind of heat from it price wise.
I've never really compared it personally. Yeah, I've got a
heat pump and I've got my wood heater.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I use the wood heat that.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Heats the house a lot better. But yeah, power is
not cheap, and it's getting more expensive. Wood's not cheap either,
But it is awkward for people, and pension is especially
how struggle and a lot of other people that struggle
with haven't got a lot of money. And I know,
life of stuff for everybody, but sometimes you're better off
to pay and buy it if a reputable dealer, at
least if it's something wrong, you can call up, go in,
have a talk, work it out and get it sorted out.
(04:32):
Where a trailer or a ut in the side of
the road, that's probably the last time you're going to see.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And just finally, Paul, what's the deal around the seasoning
of the wood? I know on occasions I've had green
wood and I've thought, no, bug it, that's not going
to burn properly. How long after cutting should it be
left to season up and be ready for burning?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, it varies on the species of wood, but are
all the fun like what we do. We try to
have everything cut by that we're going to sell in
the winter. We want cut by the end of January.
That way, it's got most of the year too dry,
So you're looking at a six to twelve month drying
rotation if you've got your wood cut by October, like
we've got separate piles we put in place and we
(05:12):
work our way through it. So it's got a minimum
of six months. A lot of it's got twelve months,
and someone's got eight en months in drying time. But
it does very a bit on the species of timber.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And it's important too, because if you're burning green wood,
you're not doing right by the environment in terms of
how much smoke it's producing. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
That's one hundred percent correct, And you get no heat
out of greenwood. It doesn't burn very good. It just
smolders away and just puts smoke into the atmosphere, which
is good for nothing either. Onyly got to look ahead
a little bit and they can be organized. It's all
taken care of and they've got good dry wood. The
environment's looked after and most people are happy.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Paul Edward's offering sustainable loan certified firewood in the wind area.
A quick break on I Heart Tassi still to come.
We get the lowdown on today's improved tech around wood heaters. Next,
Birder cologist Eric Birler on the scourge of illegal firewood
harvesting and the importance of sourcing firewood from the correct avenues.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I heard Dazzy.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I heart as firewood.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And wood heaters this week on I Harp Tazzy up soon.
Randall Heating in Loncestem puts the case for their efficiency
and environmental credentials. Now, as we've been discussing illegal woodhooking
for firewood is a separate matter. We're joined now by
Tasmanian bird ecologist Eric Erler. You've told me previously, Eric
(06:33):
that firewood for sale on the side of the road
not always, but could be an ecological nightmare for threatened species.
We should, if we're environmentally minded, try and avoid wood
off the side of the road unless we're absolutely certain
it's legitimate.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Look, John, I completely agree with that assessment. I was
up in the north of the state this weekend and
the number of youths and small trucks I saw driving
along with firewoods have been collected somewhere. It was just
raising alarm belts for me that almost certainly a large
proportion of the wood that you see on the side
of the road or on the back of a truck
driving around on the weekend. Has almost certainly been illegally collected.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Now, the last time we spoke, I think it was
a year or two ago, there was definitely threatened species
habitat that had been trashed by woodwooking. Where was that exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
We were talking about a study area that the Australian
National University team were working on up on the East
Coast of Tasmania. They had a study site or swift parrots,
which are a critically endangered species, and they had a
study site on the East Coast Highway. One day when
the team went in to monitor the birds and check
on what was going on with the population in their
study area, there was no study area. The trees had
(07:43):
all been hooked illegally for firewood.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
See those woodhookers probably went in there not knowing that
at all, because they're not conversant with this sort of information.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Sure, but at the same time, most of this woodhooking
that occurs occurs on crown land, and most of the
time the crown land has some degree of reservation on it.
It's either a reserve of some sort, and so you
end up having essentially a small number of people destroying
something that belongs to the public.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Eric, do you find it disappointing there isn't some sort
of regulatory control and monitoring of firewood resources, much like
we manage recreational fishing. It just seems odd that there
isn't governmental control here.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I think we really do need to do much better
when it comes to firewood, whether it's government intervention, government regulation,
or simply in the easiest way to do is people
only buy firewood from a credit wood merchant rather than
buying it off the side of the roads. If you
take away the demand for illegal firewood, they won't be
going out cutting firewoods is they're not going to make
any money for their hours of chainsaw in tree.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There'd be a lot of people listening to us right
now screaming at the radio or listening to this as
a podcast because it is their way of life, and
some of them do the right thing and pay for
doing it above board. Do we have to find a
middle ground there?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, So you'll have some people that, like you said,
that will go to the property owner say look, here's
a couple hundred bucks, let me cut a couple of
tons of firewood there. That's fine, But as is always
the case with these sorts of issues, John, you end
up having the minority ruining it for everybody. You know,
all you need is a couple of people doing the
wrong thing, as we've talked about before, cutting down habitat
(09:25):
for a critically endangered species, and then surprise, surprise, there's
a backlash and suddenly there's potentially over regulation or over
restriction on what's going on. If people were to do
the right thing, talk to the land owner, get permission,
or buy wood from a credited wood version, we wouldn't
be having this conversation.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And just finally, Eric, how do you personally feel about
the entire notion of wood heating in this day and age?
Do you have a personal position on it?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I grew up as a child with a wood box
in the kitchen and we would as kids sit around
and enjoy the wall. We also know now that those
wood boxes are very inefficient.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
But a college ysteric verler on iheartasy. Now for the
final word our now wood heating special Mike James from
Randall Heating in Lonceston, a city where once upon a
time property owners were paid subsidies to remove their wood
heaters that didn't last long, and the story goes that
many of those people reinstalled wood heaters in the long run. Anyway,
(10:22):
Mike James, are you finding rising power prices playing into
your favor actually strengthening demand for wood heaters at the moment?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, woodhou to sales in the long system area, especially
over the last couple of years, has risen slightly, mainly
because of the cost of living pressure of many people
backing up their electric oat wood heater.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Everyone who has a wood heater will tell you that
it's a different kind of heat, definitely.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Obviously, compared to something like a heat pump, where it's
coming out of the vents at about twenty two degrees,
it's coming off the wood at about two hundred and
fifty ago, So I guess a lot more heat for
your money.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Are the latest models of wood heaters more efficient and
better environment mentally for their emissions these states?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Oh, definitely. Look the current standards for any wood out
of that sold in Australia. It's got to be a
minimum of sixty percent efficient and it's got to be
under one point five grams. The old standards were four
grams and no efficiency requirements, so definitely a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
More efficient on that level. Do you think wood heaters
need to get a better wrap in this day and
age that we're looking back at the past of how
things might have been, certainly the way fiwood was collected,
and now we have to have a different point of view,
a different mental way of approaching wood heating.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
For sure. The CSIRO for a few years that conducted
a research on wood eating and determine that firewood produces
less greenhouse gas than any other domestic heating options. So yeah,
they are a good options.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Do the more expensive units perform better than the cheape's
that are offered by those high turnover places with sausage
sizzles not naming names? They may meet Australian standards those ones,
but is that the entire story necessarily?
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Look, there is a lot of overseas product on the
market today and we do sell a lot of it
as well, as well as a lot of Australian product
as well. There's really not a lot of difference, So
they're all running ten to fifteen year warranties on those days.
Some of the stuff from overseas is just as good
as some of the more expensive units generally find what
happens is that there'll be generally picked on looks efficiency
(12:22):
and their emissions.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
These days, should we be able to set the fire
at night, go to bed, and wake up to a
fire in the morning still burning away? I have problems
in that respect. It seems that mine runs out about
two or three o'clock in the morning. Does that tell
you that I don't have a particularly efficient wood heater,
do you think?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
No? Not really.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Generally, what you'll find is that some are better than others.
Some of the American stuff on the market actually does
specify a burn time. It'll actually burn for one particular
one and coming out of Minnesota, or burn for twenty
one hours. Just the technology is a lot better and
a lot of the European and American.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Stuff, Wow, twenty one hours, that's fantastic. And would necessarily
then mean it's more efficient or does it not work
that way?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Yeah, No, it's still efficient. Everything's got to get under
that that sixty percent efficiency. So yeah, it's got to
be at lesal Sorry, I over that sixty percent efficiency.
You've all got to have that meat that standard.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But they can't result And what about the idea of
pellet heaters. Are they catching on in the market now?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Definitely, There's still be a time, probably in the near
future when there'll be a lot more pelletalhizers on the
market because they're soe efficient and you're burning a waste
product because pretty much the many pelots are just compressed
sort ust, so that waste is around and you're going
to be using that up.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Are we at the behest though of the pellet supplies
and then possibly going up in price, perhaps more so
than firewood or.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Not potentially, but I mean, you'd like to think that
the more pellet phizer and the more people who are
start producing pellets are competition is good.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Mike James from Randall Heating in one system, that's wrap
of our look at wood heating and firewood on a
tassi Until next time, My hearts as he
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