Australian Fireplace Regulations – What You Should Know

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Wood burning fireplaces can’t be rivalled when it comes to an authentic, multi-sensory experience. Choosing a fireplace for your home must be done carefully, though, because there are stringent regulations in place in Australia to ensure that safety and emission standards are met.

Australian Home Heating Association (AHHA)

The AHHA ensures that the industry is responsible and sensitive to consumer and community attitudes. It also coordinates policy formulation and the development and implementation of standards to ensure consistency with the legal, technical and environmental requirements of each state and territory.

Manufacturing standards: AS/NZS 4013

Wood combustion creates gases and smoke. To ensure that all smoke emissions are within reasonable and safe limits, every wood heater manufactured since 1992 must comply with this standard.

Installation standards: AS/NZS 2918

The installation of wood heaters is regulated by this standard.

AS/NZS 2918:2001 states that:

  • The flue height must be a minimum of 4.6m above the floor on which it is located.
  • The end of the flue cannot be near any windows or doors. This is to prevent expelled air from being pushed back into the home.
  • A flue must be exhausted in a vertical direction.
  • Dampers should not seal the flue shut.

Smoke emission standards

  • A chimney or flue must clear your roofline by a minimum of 600mm.
  • It must be at least one metre taller than any neighbouring homes within three metres of your property, although this may increase to six metres in the future.
  • To prevent excess smoke escaping back into your home, the flue and chimney must also be the appropriate size for the fireplace.

A new approach to burning wood

After nearly two years of research and development, Quadra-Fire came up with a solution that sets a new standard for clean, fuel-efficient heating with wood. It burns and re-burns gases in four different zones and, because it’s non-catalytic, the performance doesn’t degrade over time.

Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)

The average Australian household will burn between four and six tonnes of wood per heating season. For 20 consecutive years, Quadra-Fire stoves have been the cleanest-burning non-catalytic wood stoves tested by the EPA.

The average slow combustion unit has an efficiency rating of 55%, while Quadra-Fire’s rating is up to 82%. This equates to saving around two-and-a-half tons of wood per year. Contact us about a safe and a more environmentally-friendly solution for your home.