1. Ultra-low emission burners - Balancing climate change responses and urban air quality.
- Author
-
Pearce, Steve and Scott, Vanessa
- Subjects
CLIMATE change ,LIQUEFIED petroleum gas ,CARBON offsetting ,HYDRONICS ,DOMESTIC space ,SPACE heaters ,AIR pollution ,AIR quality - Abstract
In 2019, New Zealand passed “The Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act” which included establishing the Climate Change Commission, a Crown entity to provide independent advice to Government to help Aotearoa transition to a climate-resilient and low emissions future. The Climate Change Commission’s first draft advice was released in January 2021 and, amongst other things, highlighted the opportunity to transition away from fossil fuels for domestic space and water heating. Compared to natural gas or LPG the use of wood burners for domestic heating, while a carbon neutral heating option, has the disadvantage of contributing to the deterioration of local air quality. In order to improve winter air quality, Environment Canterbury (ECan) has introduced a pseudo real-life wood burner authorisation test method known as Canterbury Method One (CM1). Appliances passing the CM1 test method qualify as Ultra-low Emission Burners (ULEBs) and are the only wood burning appliances allowed to be installed into houses within clean air zones in Canterbury. This paper provides updated information on the numbers and design trends of ULEBs authorised to date, and comments on how manufacturers have achieved the ULEB performance limits. The ongoing improvement of ULEBs provides the opportunity to transition away from fossil fuels toward a carbon neutral fuel without generating adverse air pollution impacts. This paper provides a summary of the journey to-date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021