HEATING, VENTILATION & SERVICES FOCUS


Sustainable steps forward for fires


imon ower of ercy Doughty discusses how the stove and fireplace industry has worked tirelessly to reduce emissions and improve sustainability


O


n 1 January 2022, only wood burning stoves that comply with the Ecodesign Regulations


were able to enter the UK market. This regulation (welcomed by all stove manufacturers), meant that all stoves placed on the market after this date must be compliant with the regulation. If you purchased a stove before this date, the regulation did not apply. The Ecodesign provision for local space heaters came into effect in 2022 on a national basis, while replacing existing provisions under the Clean Air Act 1993, which applied only in smoke control areas. The regulation derived from the European Union’s broader efforts to update their standards to improve air quality and reduce emissions through more environmentally friendly products that we use and rely on every day, covering a wide range of products including boilers, space heating appliances and wood burning stoves. In 1993 the EC Directive 2009/125/EC on energy-related products or ErP (which replaced the Energy using Products or EuP directive at the time) provided a mechanism for setting minimum criteria including air quality pollutant emission limits. The focus was energy efficiencycarbon reduction, included several products with combustion emissions and the process aimed to set minimum standards for air quality pollutant emissions. The EC Regulations included emission limits for  from gas and oilfired appliances initially but laid the foundation to include small solid fuel appliances and non-solid fuel room heaters. Defra’s Clean Air Strategy 2019 (section 6.3.2 on page 59), published on 14 January 2019, promised that in 2022 the new EU Ecodesign regulations would come into force, and meant that all new stoves would need to meet agreed emission standards, regardless of where they are used. The aim of this was to


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raise the standard of appliances across the whole country, and not just in smoke- controlled areas.


These new emission limit requirements for solid fuel appliances would be coupled with an effective approach to testing. Measuring emissions of particulate matter from wood stoves was a recognised challenge and Defra set about working with industry sectors to review different methods for testing stove emissions to determine which test methods are most reliable and most importantly, effective.


The industry in anticipation had


already made several advances in testing and in collaboration with the Stove Industry Association, it introduced its Ecodesign Ready brand ahead of the implementation of the Ecodesign provisions due to be introduced in 2022. This showed consumers which stoves


were already compliant with the key components of the new legislation.


This information was crucial for consumers and subsequently it demonstrated that you could achieve up to 90% lower emissions than an open fire or old stove when purchasing an Ecodesign ready stove.


Education was also a focus and part of the key delivery strategy, to show how the new limits were met. In some cases, manufacturers such as ourselves went a step further and exceeded the set emission levels. Manufacturers also worked with chimney sweep organisations to provide advice to chimney sweeps and householders. The industry came together to relay a consistent message, developing informative websites and various guides to provide clear advice on how to save money and reduce pollution by following certain simple rules. Doing so also improved the energy efficiency and enhanced the durability and recyclability of the stove.


sep/oct 2024


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