News
New limit values for particulate matter
Is it worth retrofitting old stoves?
Less damaged wood
10.3 percent less wood harvested from forests
Wood-burning stoves emit more soot and particulate matter into the air across Germany than all diesel vehicles combined. Axel Friedrich, head of department at the Federal Environment Agency for 30 years, an expert in measuring air pollutants and instrumental in uncovering the diesel scandal, has also been measuring exhaust fumes from wood-burning stoves for years. He has found that the air in rural communities is often more polluted with particulate matter in winter than on main roads in large cities.
This is why the black-yellow coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to introduce a new law in 2009: Every manufacturer must prove in the laboratory that their appliance complies with new limit values for particulate matter. Appliances without this type test must be decommissioned at the end of 2024.
Blue Angel for environmentally friendly combustion
According to data from the industry association HKI, modern stoves sold since 2010 produce on average around half as much particulate matter in the laboratory as their predecessors - a relatively small improvement. At the same time, the Straubing-based Competence Center for Renewable Resources has proven in countless studies and publications that the values in everyday practice are significantly higher than in the laboratory, depending on the set air supply and wood quality.
According to Friedrich's measurements, it is questionable whether there is any improvement at all in practice. In order to really reduce particulate matter significantly, special stoves are needed, which are still rare to find today and far more expensive than classic models. These have been awarded the Blue Angel for particularly environmentally friendly combustion. They achieve this with technical measures, above all a fine dust separator in the exhaust pipe. But such a device can be installed on any fireplace, making even old stoves significantly cleaner than new models without this technology.
How specialist stores react
A reporter from ARD Plusminus posed as a normal customer in various specialist fireplace stores and asked if they could sell him a dust extractor. Only one offered this. The others explained that a new stove would be better in any case, and that retrofitting would be too expensive anyway. There are four manufacturers, but they currently only sell small quantities, largely produced by hand. This means that separators are still comparatively expensive. Including installation, they cost a similar amount to a new stove without the Blue Angel, around 2,500 euros.
However, exhaust gas expert Friedrich points out that the first catalytic converters for cars cost thousands of euros in the early years and became much cheaper when mass production began. Manufacturers interviewed by ARD Plusminus also confirm this: If real mass production were to get underway with quantities of 'tens of thousands of devices per year, the price could definitely be halved. Such a solution would not only be cleaner than buying a new oven, but also clearly cheaper.
Ministry: No funding planned
In the case of similar new environmental technologies, the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) has so far almost always promoted the market launch through financial incentives. If the state were to pay around half the purchase price for the first 10,000 devices as a subsidy, this would cost a few million euros but would kick-start mass production. However, when asked, the BMU stated that such funding was not planned because it was not convinced of the effectiveness of this technology.
However, for larger wood-fired systems, precisely such separators are prescribed in some cases and are subsidized by the state. Plusminus has numerous measurements that clearly show that retrofitting a fine dust separator, even for small wood-burning stoves, produces significantly better fine dust values than buying a new stove. The spokeswoman for the German Chimney Sweeps' Guild also explains that if an old stove is still technically intact, she would definitely recommend retrofitting a fine dust separator.
Author: Michael Houben, WDR
Status: 29.04.2024
Source: https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/kaminoefen-holz-emissionen-umruestung-100.html
Pests and storms damage trees. Indirectly, they influence how much wood is felled. Less of this so-called damaged wood has led to a decrease in the amount of timber produced.
Last year, fewer trees were felled in Germany than in 2022. 70.6 million cubic meters of wood were felled, a decrease of 10.3 percent. According to the Federal Statistical Office, this is partly due to the fact that fewer trees were damaged in the forest, for example by storms. This so-called damaged wood accounts for the largest share of how much wood is felled in Germany.
2020 and 2021 were the last years in which a particularly large number of trees were felled. This was mainly due to the bark beetle. It particularly attacked forests in which only spruce trees were planted, so-called monocultures. Between 2020 and 2021, over forty million cubic meters of wood had to be felled because insects had infested trees. In 2023, over 27 million cubic meters of wood were felled for this reason.
Wood as a source of energy
Storms also damage forests and trees. Last year, this resulted in almost five million cubic meters of wood. A decrease, as strong winds caused more than twice as much damaged wood in 2022.
Over 50 percent of the wood from Germany is processed in the sawmill and veneer industry, for example into pallets or parquet. The proportion of wood used to generate energy rose again last year - by 1.4 percent to just under twenty percent.
Status: 15.04.2024
Source: https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/holszeinschlag-wald-schadholz-100.html