The first Ethos woodfire came about because ECan could see no other way to reduce winter emissions and improve Christchurch's air quality other than to impose a blanket ban on all woodburners.
Designer Paul Sintes’ idea was that if he could design a stove that did not smoke there would be no reason to continue with this policy. In 2002 he designed the original Genesis Ethos stove which returned laboratory test results of previously unheard of low emissions and high efficiency.
The Ares Insert stove improved on this even further. At the time ECan's allowable emission limit was 1.5 grams of PM10 particulate per kilogram of wood burnt. The Ares tested at 0.3 grams per kilogram, or one fifth of the allowable maximum.
Paul was presented with an "Achievement Award" in 2003 by the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand for "making a significant contribution to achieving improvements in the quality of the air environment".
ECan then set a limit of 40 milligrams of emissions per MegaJoule of heat out for their Clean Heat Project. As Ethos stoves were well within this new limit ECan awarded a tender contract to supply and install Ethos stoves to replace old and inefficient open fires and old technology woodburners.
ENI Engineering is the sole manufacturer of these fires and continues working with Paul to further improve the range of fires, which now extends to 7 different models, including a wetback.