Many readers will have seen the recent two articles in ‘The Post’ (Tuesday 8 August 2023) highlighting corporately owned Funeral Homes in Wellington (and Kapiti) and issues with cremations, Friday (4 August 2023) a front-page article which captured the issues of an older style cremator with air quality and smell. In contrast our Funeral Home and crematorium are independently owned, with a modern pollution control system on our cremator.
“Not all Cremators are created equal”
Many older cremators are ‘Cold Hearth’ cremators, a hearth (floor) and an anti-chamber. These cremators are older technology. In contrast, the newer cremators, like our ‘Kapiti Crematorium’ cremator, are usually a ‘Hot hearth’ design and have a secondary chamber underneath the cremator floor to re-burn emissions, with a pollution control system. It is computer monitored and controlled however there is still always a chance for human error in the setup, but we are proud of our record of less than 0.02% issues over its 12 years in operation.
How does it work? During the cremation the underfloor chamber ‘draws’ the emissions down under the floor to ‘re burn’ them, ensuring 99+% clean air is emitted. You would expect this type of cremator to be quicker, however the ‘clean air’ focus (rather than speed) means the cremation time is often longer. Our average cremation is between 3 and 4 hours, depending on factors of weight, gender and casket type. Why do these make a difference?
Come on one of our crematorium tours and we will tell you more. To book our next tour on Sunday 27th August at 2pm, contact us on
04 298 5168.
The final piece to the ‘clean air cremation’ is the ‘air emissions controller’. This is an additional piece of equipment added. It is a special camera on the base of the cremator stack that looks through a porthole to the receiver on the other side. This camera looks for emissions and if any it advises the computer which alters the controller. This technology is so clever we can even turn the entire unit on remotely.
With all this you would expect more expense, however, being slightly out of town with a long-term lease in the Awa Tapu Cemetery grounds in Paraparaumu, helps keep overheads low, and cheaper than our Wellington counterparts. Now with transmission Gully connecting us quickly with Wellington, this means this cheaper cost and a ‘clean cremation’ is more readily available to ‘Wellingtonians’.
When recording your funeral wishes, consider a ‘clean cremation’ with Kapiti Crematorium, and funeral with independently and locally owned Kapiti Coast Funeral Home.
For more information go to:
www.kapiticrematorium.co.nz
www.kapiticoastfuneralhome.co.nz
