Cooking with Wood

Nothing can compare with the flavour of food cooked with wood.

Wood heating stacks up

Buy your winter heat energy in advance. Avoid getting a nasty shock when you open your next electricity or gas bill

Caveman TV!

Nothing on the tube? Enjoy watching a wood fire instead. It's interactive as well.

Wood Fires

The key to human evolution

WARM YOUR HOME WITHOUT WARMING THE PLANET

A study of the greenhouse gas emissions of firewood was carried out by the CSIRO in 2003 for the Australian Greenhouse Office.  The report from this study Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Domestic Woodheating shows that firewood can release less carbon dioxide than all other sources of heat energy.  In fact firewood from plantations is greenhouse positive due to the carbon that is sequestered in the tree's root mass.  In other words the tree absorbs more atmospheric carbon dioxide than is released when the wood from the tree's trunk is burnt.  The reason that sustainable firewood is so good for the environment is that all of the carbon that is released during combustion is reabsorbed by trees as they grow.  The only increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide comes from the fossil fuels used to process and transport the wood.  It is worth noting that even "green" alternative energy generators such as wind farms, hydro stations and solar collectors create a lot of carbon pollution during manufacture and construction.

The report states "However, these results do indicate that in terms of limiting net greenhouse gas emissions, firewood is generally more favorable for domestic heating than other sources of domestic heating, such as gas and electriciity..."

A report prepared by George Wilkenfeld and Associates for the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment in 2007 titled  "Options to reduce greenhouse emissions from new homes in Victoria through the building approval process" highlights the greenhouse benefits of using firewood instead of fossil fuels such as gas and electricity from coal fired power stations (see page 51).