The eco-friendly way to heat your home
Posted on
It’s the Canberra winter conundrum.
On one hand, it’s dang cold out there, and many homes really aren’t great at keeping the cool out and the warm in, leaving you to shiver through many months of the year. On the other hand, you may think twice about turning your heater on when you think about the rising cost of electricity prices, or the cost your heater could be having on the environment through emissions.
But there is an environmentally friendly way to keep warm that doesn’t involve layering up in everything you own. Meet pellet fireplaces; the more sustainable way to keep toasty.
Family-owned Burning Log out in Fyshwick are Canberra’s fireplace experts, and they stock the Italian-made range of Piazzetta Pellet Fireplaces. The range is not only stunning, and would look great in any lounge room, but they also pack a punch when it comes to eco-credentials.
So what is a pellet fireplace and what makes it kinder to the environment?
A pellet fireplace is a heater that uses wood pellets as a fuel instead of standard wood, or fossil-fuel-dependant electricity and gas. Unlike a traditional wood fireplace which will just burn all of the fuel (aka wood) that you put on it, the technology in a pellet fireplace allows it to make intelligent decisions about how much fuel it needs to achieve the temperature you want, and it adjusts how many pellets it burns accordingly. So you only burn what you need.
They do use a small amount of electricity to control the computer—only about as much electricity as a light globe—and the Piazzetta range is programmable, so it can turn itself on and off as you need it, making it as energy efficient as possible. It even has an app so you can control your fireplace from anywhere, and ensure you never accidentally leave it running when you don’t mean to.
“Firewood is becoming harder and harder to get. People also want to tap into renewable energy, but still want the comfort of a woodfire in their home. So pellet fireplaces are really the perfect balance because you get that traditional nice wood heat. And then you also get the convenience of being able to start and stop it,” says Lachlan Esplin from Recycling Technologies Group, wood pellet experts based in New South Wales.
And the real beauty is in the pellets themselves. They are small, highly-condensed pieces of wood, made up of completely natural products. They provide around three times the amount of energy as a piece of firewood, due to their density, and they offer very low emissions due to the drying process during processing. They’re also diverting waste out of landfill.
“To make the pellets, we take the waste from various sawmills, whether it’s sawdust, wood chips, or off-cut blocks. Alternatively, it would have gone to landfill, and when a piece of wood is biodegrading it releases methane gas, which is incredibly harmful to the environment,” says Lachlan.
Using a thermal compression process, they create the pellets, which are available to buy through Burning Log in 15 kilogram bags, and are exceptionally easier to lug around than traditional firewood.
“You’re getting a lot more out of your wood. Pellets reduce waste in the timber industry, and reduce the amount of good, under-utilised wood that usually goes to landfill and contributes to those harmful methane gases. And you’re turning it into something valuable that is well utilised.”
Lachlan says pellet fireplaces have been a popular choice for a number of eco villages, as they meet their stringent emission standards, but there’s a wide range of pellet fireplaces available to suit homes of all sizes, with built-in and freestanding options.
Looking for a pellet fireplace? You can browse the range here, or head in-store to Burning Log to get expert advice on the best heater for your space.
