Vogue Navara Easy Light System

We set out to create a wood heater to fit a Queensland Winter. Queensland homes are designed to release heat not retain it which makes them very cold overnight. Wood heaters are the most efficient and environmentally friendly method of heating compared to gas or electrical means. We designed a heater that could be easily started from a cold start every day as well as being able to burn efficiently overnight (over 8 hours). The heater also had to exceed the current Australian Standards regarding emissions and efficiency and all of this needed to be achieved on a limited budget.

We created a system that reduced smoke emissions to 40% of the level required by the current Australian Standard. This was achieved using pre-heated air through a uniquely designed baffle plate to achieve additional burn zones. We then created an elongated overnight capable burn using Boyle's Law of gases to match the escaping volume of air with incoming air over time and temperature resulting in a 12 hour burn time. Lastly, we created a method of quick ignition of the fire which was achieved using a fan assembly and bypass to help ignite the fuel in the startup process.

Environmentally, the new design achieves 1 gram of particulate matter (smoke / pollutants) produced per 1 Kilogram of wood burnt making it one of the cleanest burning fireplaces on the market in its size category. Socially, the fan ignition system makes starting the fire faster and convenient meaning more use of the fireplace for heating and therefore less reliance on fossil fuel generated heating methods such as gas or electricity. Commercially, this achievement maintains our competitiveness in the market as well as maintaining our Australian manufacturing with local jobs compared to a lot of our competitors who now import overseas brands.

The easy start fan system and baffle design are completely original designs and are unlike any other design currently on the market. The requirement for the design was to make wood heaters more pertinent to the way Queenslanders use them which is starting the fire of an evening from a cold start. Queensland homes are designed to release heat so often need a larger wood heater than southern states. Although it is designed for Queenslanders, the use is applicable in any climate. The design of the baffle to achieve the reduction of emissions and overnight burn was based of scientific principles to achieve the results and is part of a national effort to reduce emissions. Being a small business, we did not have the R&D budget to tweak tests based off observations so we relied upon a hypothesis driven methodology derived from gas, pressure and temperature equations to drive the design process and achieve the very low emission rate. Wood is the most environmentally friendly method of heating as it uses a renewable resource for the fuel. By achieving a lower emission rate, we are increasing the complete combustion process making the heaters more efficient and even more environmentally friendly.