Armidale will play a leading role in Asthma Australia’s push for nation-wide incentive scheme to replace wood heaters in homes with air conditioners. However since the initative was announced, local debate about wood smoke has been stoked up once again.
Armidale has been chosen as the home for Asthma Australia’s first Make the Switch trial, which involves 25 homeowners receiving a subsidy of $3000 to replace their wood heater with a suitable reverse cycle air conditioner.
Anthony Flynn, who leads Asthma Australia’s research program, said the trial will also include participant surveys and collecting data on indoor temperatures, air pollution and energy costs.
“Asthma Australia has been interested in the wood smoke issue and how it affects people with Asthma since 2010 when there some work done to model the impact of wood smoke from heaters in comparison to other sources of air pollution,” Mr Flynn said.
“It was quite remarkable to us at the time to hear that wood smoke contributed more air pollution that a combination of traffic and industry pollution. It’s been a policy focus for us since then.”
When wood is burnt for heating, fine particles known as PM2.5 are released into the air. PM2.5 is known to trigger asthma attacks and is a leading environmental risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.
Mr Flynn said Asthma Australia has dedicated research grant funding to finding out more about the health impact of wood heater smoke and equip policy makers with accurate evidence.
That includes a recent $250,000 grant for Dr Penelope Jones to lead a University of Tasmania research team to provide that evidence about community perspectives, costs and benefits of wood heater replacement.
“That research included a comprehensive survey of people’s attitudes to wood heater use in their homes and the replacement of those wood heaters.”
Asthma Australia says Australian policy makers have struggled to find effective replacement schemes and need evidence to build the case for large scale investment.
“By providing policy makers with evidence and tools to design effective wood heater replacement schemes, this project is highly likely to lead to policies that reduce pollution and improve the health of people with asthma in the short and medium-term.”
“That’s why we are going ahead with a trial in Armidale to provide real word evidence and learnings by evaluating a best-practice replacement scheme in Armidale.”
“Armidale has a severe wood smoke problem, linked to 14 premature deaths per year and an estimated annual cost of $33 million.”
“The results from this trial should be really compelling to take to government. There is a precedent to this trial with a project in Launceston through the University of Tasmania that resulted in 38 per cent reduction in wood fire related air pollution.”
“That project gave us the confidence to invest in this Armidale trial. It’s a project that we are really proud to be a part of.”
“With only about 10 per cent of households using wood heaters as their main source of heating, supporting people to switch to less harmful heating options is an excellent investment in Australian health.”
Expressions of interested from householders wanting to participate will close 30 May. You can apply at https://www.armidale.nsw.gov.au/Development/Works-and-projects/Making-the-switch-wood-heater-replacement-program.
Project fires up wood heating debate
Armidale was chosen because it has the worst air quality in the nation, in large part because of a high concentration of wood fire heaters, and in part because the topography of the valley frequently forms an inversion layer, or temperature inversion, which traps wood smoke polution in the valley.
This issue is a well known scientific phenomenon experienced all over the world, however, moves to reduce wood smoke pollution are sometimes seen as a cultural or ideological attack on the New England way of living.
ARC Councillor Dorothy Robinson, a longtime advocate of improving Armidale’s air quality, hopes Asthma’s Australia trial results will reach the halls of the NSW Parliament.
“The NSW Government is ultimately responsible for air quality, and they should be helping local councils with the problem,” Cr Robinson said.
“Armidale has many days when its air pollution does exceed World Health Organisation standards, and it is impacting our health.”
“The Asthma Australia trial will find out what participants like about their new heating and provide definitive information about running costs and other relevant issues.”
“Participants will also be able to take advantage of the additional rebate of about $500 from the NSW government for installing energy-efficient appliances and get a free energy audit of their home.”
Cr Robinson said the wood heater industry has been spreading misinformation about the benefits of new pollution reduction technology used by manufacturers.
“Although many people think that new Australian heaters are significantly cleaner than older models, this is not the case, as explained in a report in 2021 by 11 of Australia’s leading experts on air pollution and health. The report advised that current Australian wood heater standards are insufficient to protect health.”
“Wood heater manufacturers often use the results of the AS/NZS test to claim that new heaters are clean. This test is the only one we have, and it has little or no relationship to real life emissions. The test is done in a laboratory under ideal operating conditions.”
“That has been proven in New Zealand, where they found that real life emissions were eight times worse than laboratory testing.”
President of the Australian Home Heating Association, Tim Cannon, said modern clean burning wood heaters are not the smoky, polluting monsters of the past.
Mr Cannon said advanced heating technologies have reduced emissions by as much as 75 per cent compared to those 10 or more years ago.
“The new wood heaters burn much hotter. Wood smoke is combustible and is part of the fuel for the new efficient and clean burning heaters rather than being released into the air,” Mr Cannon said.
“Unfortunately, all wood heaters get tarred with the same brush. A lot of the new systems also introduce preheated air above the log to burn off wood fire gases, and that also generates more heat. There are lower emissions while a fire is burning hot.”
Mr Cannon said new emission standards will come in June this year will further reduce the maximum allowable PM2.5 level by 30 per cent or from 1.5gram to one gram.
Mr Cannon agrees that current testing standards in Australia are not ideal.
“I know people are working on more real word testing methods in countries like the US and here in Australia with the University of Tasmania. There is optimism from the industry about this research.”
Mr Cannon any scheme that incentivises the replacement of old wood heaters is a “good thing” for improving air quality.
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