Warm Home Clean Air means healthy family

Tokoroa mother-of-four Holly Daine initially knew nothing about the effect smoke from old woodburners was having on the town’s winter air quality. But she sure noticed the difference a new woodburner made to her family’s health.

Holly saw a story in the local paper that her old burner was likely to be contributing to this problem, and there was a scheme where she could upgrade, for free, to either a new compliant low emission woodburner, gas heating or a heat pump.

She chose a new woodburner, because the family had access to firewood, and hasn’t looked back since it was installed in September last year.

“We actually like staying in our house now,” said Holly, who grew up in her family’s home.

“We noticed that my husband and daughter don’t use their asthma pumps as much. And we don’t get headaches – we used to get headaches. We used to smell burning wood. I think it probably was releasing a bit of carbon in the house.”

Holly says the new woodburner doesn’t just have health benefits.

“We burn half the amount of wood. We only need to put one or two pieces in rather than stock it right up, and it heats the whole house, even the bathroom if we leave the door open.”

Tokoroa’s main air contaminant of concern is fine particulate matter that is contained within the smoke. These airborne particles are small enough to inhale into the lungs. The national environmental standard is breached when the 24-hour average concentration of these particles exceeds 50 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) two or more times in a 12-month period.

Last year, Tokoroa had 12 exceedances.

One of the ways Waikato Regional Council has been helping to manage air quality in the Tokoroa is with funding incentives to replace inefficient wood burners. The On the House scheme was set up in 2008 as part of the Warm Homes Clean Air Project, a partnership with South Waikato District Council, the South Waikato Pacific Island Community and Raukawa.

More than 436 retrofits have been done under the current contractor since 2012.

“I think it’s awesome. It’s expensive to get a new fireplace and at the time we had five children in the house, so it wasn’t something we could afford,” says Holly.

To be eligible for the On the House scheme, you have to be a homeowner occupying your home within the Tokoroa airshed and hold a Community Services card, or had a rates rebate, in the last two years.