A new breed of Kiwi-made wood fires is winning friends in New Zealand’s clean air environment – and around the world.
There have been surges in the popularity of wood fires over recent years, particularly following the Christchurch earthquakes and the introduction of new minimum heating requirements under the Healthy Homes Act.
New Zealand industry advocate Mike Daish (Managing Director of Glen Dimplex NZ Ltd, owners of Masport and Nectre wood fire brands) says the case for wood fires once revolved around the sole provision of heat and ambiance. But now, there is a growing appreciation for wood fires as a carbon-neutral, energy alternative. Unlike some other fuels, burning wood in a clean burning model generates no more carbon dioxide (CO2), than if the material was left to decompose naturally.”
Daish says previous criticisms to do with potential for air pollution now seem out of step with recent advances in technology, which have led to the production of today’s ultra-low emission burners (ULEBs) - which can be 4-5x cleaner burning than other standard wood fires. The latest ULEB technology is compliant across New Zealand, including areas with the strictest emission regulations like the Canterbury region. We export our NZ made wood fires to Australia, Canada, and the United States where they have a strong following.
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“This industry sits at the cutting edge of Kiwi design, innovation and manufacturing. We see our ULEB wood burners as the future.”
Yet Daish says, Kiwi manufacturers have had to “pull up their socks” in one important area. There is inconsistency in the way wood fire output is marketed by manufacturers. Which can potentially lead to misleading performance claims, especially around the expected peak output and compliance against the Healthy Homes standard.
Daish notes that ‘the time has come to provide greater transparency about the output of wood fires and give buyers more transparency into their true performance.’
‘Quoted maximum peak performance figures are technically possible to achieve under controlled laboratory conditions, but are not wholly representative of real world usage and how people use them in their homes. It is commercially beneficial for manufacturers to market the maximum peak output of their wood fire but it’s time to ‘Be Real’ about what this figure means and how unrealistic achievement of this is.’
To provide greater clarity, Masport and Nectre have worked together to create the "BeReal" campaign to clearly communicate what output buyers can expect to get from the wood burner they purchase. The advertised average kW output will be the same as the compliance plate on the fire or the "BeReal" sales tag. In addition to highlighting the compliance plate data on all marketing materials, Masport have also produced a "BeReal" Buying Guide which provides more detail about output measures and the tests carried out to achieve them (download free from bereal.co.nz).
“Be wary of any promoted maximum peak kilowatt output figures that are not supported by the official compliance plate - found on the back of your fireplace,” suggests Daish. “To achieve some advertised rates, you need to re-fuel your fire every 15 minutes (and to 75% of full load capacity) which is not feasible in everyday usage, nor would this be a cost-effective way to heat your home.”
With the advances in ULEB design, Daish sees no need to quote maximum peak output claims any more.
"BeReal" is about simplifying things – ultimately what size home the fire will heat in an everyday scenario. By using the standardised compliance plate figures on the back of the fire, buyers can compare across manufacturers to get a fair indication of performance. This is also a useful measure when comparing against other forms of heating, like heat pumps.
“It's important for us to lead this change so reliable and trustworthy information is easier to find when purchasing a wood fire. Feedback we are getting from those who sell our fires is that they wish they’d had this information years ago.”
For more information about wood fire output and how to understand the data on your compliance plate, please visit bereal.co.nz
