Summary and conclusions

Brugerundersøgelse brændeopbevaring – håndtering og – fyring

Most stoves and furnaces are operated correctly, only few are incorrectly operated.

This positive surprise is the main conclusion of this project, made as a user survey in the field of users, stove dealers, chimneysweepers, fire-wood dealers and authorities.

Those, who do not operate their stove correctly, are easily spotted as the chimneysweeper knows where they live.

Authorities can reduce the impact of wrong operation and -burning by a proactive effort and pinpoint the sanctions towards those few, who continue to burn incorrectly.

The comfort and coziness of having a stove in the house is a top priority and means more than the economical impact to the users.

The users are very conscious about the environmental impact and show responsible behavior by following the 4 points of advice:

Use only clean and dry firing wood
Make sure, that there is a surplus of air at the combustion.
Burn a little fire-wood at a time
Check the smoke from the chimney – it must be almost invicible.

Go directly after the few, where there is a problem

A direct action can be made towards the few users, who do not follow the rules. By using the chimney sweepers more actively and as example increase the frequency of the home visits made.

Few users are using waste wood, commercials etc. in smaller quantities. Not as primary fuel though. Increased information towards these users could be one way to decrease this problem, but realistically this problem will always be there.

Wet fire-wood is a problem, which can be solved.

Wet firewood on pallets is sold even though it is not ready for use. The dealers should be met with requirements for specific marking of the fire-wood in order to prevent burning in wet state.

A lot of work = a lot of comfort.

The users generally spend a lot of time with the fire-wood preparation and handling. But they do not mind, as the comfort of the stove/fireplace has top priority and even outperforms the economic factor.

The comfort factor is vital to the users. This is very important to have in mind when planning information campaigns or other actions towards the users.