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The case against wood-burning heaters

A bluish and sometimes brownish-coloured smoke hangs motionless between the trees and houses and gives the air the characteristic smell of freshly burned wood.

Now the wind arrives and drives away the smoke - most of it. The swirling winds across rooftops carries some of the smoke into the neighbour's house. Like after a backdraught, the rooms fill with smoke and opening the windows makes matters worse.

Government clean air requirements have forced new designs of wood-burning heaters and more than halved the amount of pollutants the new models produce. Nevertheless, a recent study concludes that one certified wood-fire heater still produces as much pollution as 400 homes do with natural gas heaters.

How can you make less smoke?

You can have a wood heater and minimise the amount of smoke you produce if you:

- Burn dry, seasoned, untreated wood

- Stack wood under cover in a dry, ventilated area

- Use smaller logs instead of only one large log

- Keep the fire burning brightly so it doesn't smoulder and produce too much smoke

- Don't let the flame go out if you plan to keep the fire going overnight.

Source: Environment Australia (2002)

Winter is the time when high-pressure systems can dominate the weather pattern for many days, sometimes weeks. No rain in sight for the farmers but glorious afternoon sunshine. Unfortunately, this nice weather isn't very nice to your health at times. Light or no wind and a temperature inversion keeps pollution at home. The weatherman calls this a stable atmosphere, that is an atmosphere without updraughts. Instead of rising, the air actually descends and traps pollutants.

When air descends it also warms. This can create a relatively warm layer of air above the cooler air near the surface – a temperature inversion. Warm polluted air from a flue or chimney rises as long as it is warmer than the cooler surrounding air. When it reaches the warm layer it may have the same temperature and stops its rise. Instead, it spreads below the temperature inversion.