Wood smoke pollution can be harmful to people’s health. Wood heater owners have an obligation to reduce smoke from wood heating. You should also consider:
- your neighbours’ health when using a wood heater
- other ways of heating your house, especially on calm days with not much wind. Smoke from wood heaters can build up in these conditions.
To reduce smoke emissions from your wood heater, follow these steps.
Choose the right wood heater
Use a certified wood heater. This helps reduce wood smoke emissions.
Use a wood heater that meets the Australian Standard for heat efficiency ‘AS 4012’ and smoke emissions ‘AS 4013’. The Australian Home Heating Association has information on how to find certified wood heaters that meet these standards.
Use a licensed professional
Make sure a licensed professional installs your heater, using the Australian Standard for installing wood heaters. Follow your wood heater’s manufacturer instructions.
Maintain your wood heater well
Maintaining your wood heater well helps reduce wood smoke emissions and impacts on health.
- Check your chimney occasionally for smoke emissions.
- Clean your flue before winter, professionally if needed.
- Make sure creosote doesn’t build up in your wood heater's flue. Creosote is leftover mixed char and oil that burning wood produces. Over time, it can block the flue. This means less air flows through the flue and the wood heater emits more smoke.
- Ash can also build up on top of your wood heater's baffle plate. The baffle plate is the metal part inside the top of the wood heater. It helps produce more heat when burning wood. Ash on the baffle plate stops the wood heater from working well. You can self-clean the baffle plate by taking a metal coat hanger and bending it so you can sweep around and clear ash from the baffle plate.
Refer to how to light and maintain your wood heater for more information.
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Reviewed 29 May 2023
