As you learn more about air quality and the cleanheat programme in Hawke’s Bay, you may come across some words that you are not familiar with. These definitions can help you to understand air quality within your neighbourhood a bit better. Definitions are from the glossary within the HB Regional Resource Management Plan.
µg/m3 or microgram per cubic meter is how scientists measure the amount of chemical vapours, fumes, or dust in the ambient air.
Airshed:
a) the region of a Regional Council excluding any area specified in a notice under paragraph b),
b) a part of the region of a Regional Council specified by the Minister for the Environment by notice in the Gazette to be a separate airshed.
(from Resource Management (National Environmental Standards Relating to Certain Air Pollutants, Dioxins, and Other Toxics) Amendment Regulations 2004).
Boundaries of the Hawke’s Bay region’s air sheds gazetted as per (b) above, are shown in Schedule XIV of the HB Regional Resource Management Plan.
Gazetted - Legal notification.
Greater region airshed: This covers those parts of the region which have not been specifically gazetted by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.
Hastings airshed: The area specifically gazetted over the Hastings urban area for the purposes of managing local ambient air quality; this area is identified in Schedule XIV of the Regional Resource Management Plan.
Heat pump (inverter): Unlike conventional heaters, the power isn't converted into heat - it is only used to power the pump that circulates the liquid through the system. The same principal is at work in your refrigerator. Even on bitterly cold days, its heat exchanger unit can extract 'warmth' from cold air outside and transfer it into a heated room, just as your fridge keeps extracting heat from your freezer even when it's below zero.
Incinerator: A device that is capable of burning solid fuel and waste, but the combustion is not able to be controlled and is not totally enclosed.
Multifuel burner: An appliance designed to burn more than one type of solid fuel.
Napier airshed: The area specifically gazetted over the Napier urban area for the purposes of managing local ambient air quality, this area is identified in Schedule XIV .
National Ambient Air Quality Standard: A standard specified under the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards Relating to Certain Air Pollutants, Dioxins, and Other Toxics) Regulations 2004.
NESQA compliant burning appliance: A small scale solid fuel burning appliance that meets the standards in Schedule XII, and is specifically stated on the approved burner list which will be provided on request by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.
Open fire: Includes any small-scale fuel burning device or construction installed in or attached to any building that is capable of burning solid fuel, but the combustion is not totally enclosed.
Outdoor burning: The combustion of any material in the open air, other than in purpose-built fuel burning equipment designed to control the combustion process. Outdoor burning includes the use of any fire, or bonfire or burning in drums and backyard rubbish incinerators, but excludes the burning of fuels in hangi and barbeques for food cooking purposes.
Note: the NESAQ overrides any rules within the RRMP and prohibits the burning of certain materials in the open.
Particulates: Includes smoke, deposited particulates, suspended particulates, respirable particulates and visibility – reducing particulates. Particles range in size from 100 microns down to aggregations of molecules.
Pellet burner: Any small-scale solid fuel burning appliance that burns pellets of compressed wood sawdust, and where the pellets and air are mechanically delivered to an enclosed combustion chamber at a controlled rate. ‘Pellet burner’ and ‘pellet fire’ have the same meaning.
PM10: Particulate matter that is less than 10 microns in aerodynamic diameter (ie smoke).
Small-scale fuel burning appliance: Any appliance which burns: solid fuel, diesel, oil or other liquid furls for cooking, space or water heating or other purposes, where the net heat output from the combustion is not greater than 70 kilowatts (kW) for any gaseous or liquefied gaseous fuel, or not greater than 40 kW for any other fuel.
Small-scale solid fuel burning appliance: A combustion appliance, with a heat generation of up to 40 kilowatts (kW), in which solid fuel is burnt for heating or cooking, and is primarily used in residential dwellings. It includes (but is not limited to) appliances for interior space heating in buildings, such as wood burners, pellet burners, pot belly and domestic ranges and stoves, water heaters or central heating units, multi-fuel (coal and wood), and similar appliances, but excludes small-scale domestic devices for smoking food. A small-scale solid fuel burning appliance does not include any incinerator or open fire as defined in this glossary.
Solid fuel: A solid substance that releases useable energy when burnt (e.g. coal and wood).
Solid fuel burner: Cooking stoves, wetbacks, multifuel burners and woodburners.
Thermal efficiency: Ratio of useable heat energy output to energy input. The more efficient heating units will require less energy (electricity etc) to create heat.
Vegetative matter: Includes but is not limited to: stalks and stubble (stems); leaves; and seed pods; prunings; and wood.
Wood burner: A domestic heating appliance that burns wood, but does not include:
(a) an open fire
(b) a multi-fuel heater, a pellet heater, or a coal burning heater
(c) a stove that is designed and used for cooking and is heated by burning wood.