We recognize the necessity of doing everything possible to safeguard the environment. As well as building and promoting the use of efficient, clean-burning cookstoves, we’ve planted the majority of Homewood Farm in trees, and we reduce/reuse/recycle wherever possible. We hope you find these articles useful.

Wood has been safely used as a fuel since the beginning of recorded history – longer than any other fuel. Fossil fuels (gas, oil, coal) have only been used for heating since the early 1900s. Prior to this, wood had been the primary fuel for as long as Planet Earth had been inhabited by humans.

Let’s consider a few facts about wood burning… read more

The National Environmental Standards for Air Quality include a design standard for wood burners in urban areas. The standards apply to wood burners, but not to cooking stoves that burn wood. Therefore our stoves are exempt from the National Standards throughout the majority of New Zealand and can be installed anywhere on any size property.

Councils that have installed stricter standards than the National requirement are:

Auckland: Rural… read more

Modern technology means that wood, the oldest of fuels, can now be burnt efficiently, cleanly and with the minimum of fuss.
By choosing wood as your fuel, you will be helping the environment, helping the local economy and saving money on the ‘whole life’ heating costs for your building… read more

Increasingly, we’re being made aware of how the fuels we use affect the environment, particularly with regard to causing global warming by the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other ‘greenhouse’ gases in the atmosphere.

Most greenhouse gases are created by the use of fossil fuels like oil, coal, natural gas and propane. Burning such fuels produces CO2 from the ancient carbon they contain that was, until their extraction… read more