Research and reports

July 2009

University of Otago

A report looking at what interventions would be needed to bring NZ houses up to World Health Organisation recommended standards, in all parts of the country.

Prior to 2008 Cashmere High School was heated by two coal fired boilers. These boilers had reached the end of their economic life and the schools discharge consent for coal firing was soon to expire. Cashmere High School needed to seek a clean heating alternative. Wood pellet boilers were selected by the school as being the best alternative to coal and a pair of wood pellet boilers were installed in 2008. This monitoring report contains data collected from the first year of the boilers operation.

The Landcare Research space heating is currently derived from coal boilers that are located at the Crop and Food facility. The desire to pursue a carbon neutral fuel that is in line with their policy, along with improving the level of heating that is currently available from the
current system, are the key drivers for this feasibility study.

Wood used for energy does not fit well with a payment system that works using non-energy (eg. volume or weight).  The energy content of wood is closely related to moisture content, and this can vary substantially, depending on the origin and storage history of the material.  This study looks to determine the effects of moving from a weight-based payment system to a specific energy-content-based payment system at a large industrial site, using woody biomass as a fuel source on a large scale.