Wood heating has been part of Australian home life for generations. From country farms to modern family homes, it will always be a go-to choice for Aussies.
Wood heating is one of the oldest ways to keep warm and has existed long before ducted systems and heat pumps. The familiarity and reliability of wood heating has seen families gathering around a fire to get through winter for decades. Particularly in rural communities, where the frost settles in early and stays late. Wood heating has never been a trend or a lifestyle choice. It has simply been how winter works.
If you have a wood heater, then you already know what this kind of reliability feels like. The fire that keeps going if the power goes out. The warmth that settles into the walls and floors of the house by evening. The quiet confidence of having your heating sorted before winter arrives.
Currently, there is a growing debate around wood heaters and air quality. Some voices are calling for tighter restrictions. Others are pushing for bans. Much of this conversation is happening far from the communities that rely on wood heating most. Decisions discussed in metro circles can have very different consequences in regional Australia, where heating isn’t just about comfort, but about maintaining a safe and liveable home through winter.
The public discussion around wood smoke too often conflates old and new wood heaters as though they are the same thing. Until 2015 the Australian emissions standard sat at 4.0 grams per kilogram of fuel burned. That limit is now 1.5 grams, and more than half of all currently certified wood heaters already perform below 1.0 grams. When local air quality is impacted by wood smoke it can often be traced back to a single old non-compliant appliance burning unseasoned wood, not an entire category of technology. The conversation should be about identifying and replacing the old non-compliant heaters that are genuinely contributing to the issue, not treating every wood heater in the country as the same.
Wood is a renewable energy source when firewood is sourced sustainably. Just as importantly, the technology itself has come a long way. Today’s certified wood heaters are much more efficient than the older models, delivering more heat from less wood with a fraction of the emissions. This progress did not happen overnight. Over recent years manufacturers, researchers and the AHHA have been quietly and consistently raising the bar – improving combustion efficiency, tightening emissions standards, and developing cleaner technology with every new generation of certified heaters.
When it comes to poor air quality in winter, wood heater smoke is one piece of a much larger puzzle. Prescribed burns carried out by government and councils, backyard green waste burn-offs, traffic dust and vehicle emissions are all part of the picture too. Singling out wood heaters while these other sources continue largely unaddressed is not a complete conversation, and it is certainly not a complete solution.
Asthma Australia have acknowledged that biomass smoke in Australia comes from both wood heaters and landscape fires. If the goal is genuinely cleaner air, the conversation needs to include all sources.
To advance wood heating technology and improve air quality while keeping it as a viable option for Australian homes, RMIT and Deakin University, in collaboration with the AHHA and supported by Australian Research Council funding, are developing an Australian real-world testing and design protocol for residential wood heaters. The project aims to better understand how wood heaters actually perform under Australian conditions, develop new tools that help manufacturers design cleaner heaters, and give regulators more accurate data to work with. The result will be better heaters, lower emissions, and wood heating that continues to improve for the communities that rely on it.
With all this in mind, it may be worth looking at your own setup. If your heater is more than ten years old, it may predate current standards, upgrading to a low emission, more efficient, and certified model is one of the most practical steps you can take for your home, your community, and the environment.
How you heat your home, how you cook your food, how you keep your family warm through a regional winter, these are not decisions that should be made for you. That is the heart of what the AHHA is advocating for: evidence-based policy that improves outcomes without removing practical choices from the Australians who depend on them.
Not sure whether your heater meets current standards? Checking is quick and could make a significant difference to your home’s efficiency, emissions and heating performance.
Find out more here.
