Eco-friendly heating and cooling

Over 900,000 thousand Australian households use firewood for heating. This provides an important social benefit through low cost heating and improved thermal comfort. In most rural areas and smaller towns firewood offers the lowest cost energy source for domestic heating. The industry also provides about 9,500 jobs, many in areas of high unemployment.

In most rural areas, split, dry firewood is available from your local fuel merchant at a reasonable price. If people collect their own firewood, the cost is simply their own time and perhaps some fuel for transport and a chainsaw. Thus, the efficient wood heater offers people throughout rural Australia, including towns and small cities, a chance to heat their homes economically, at running costs far below any other energy source. The health benefits of the improved thermal comfort that this allows are difficult to quantify, but are almost certainly large and should not be overlooked. Colder homes mean more sickness.