Due to concerns about freezing in winter, stoves are in greater demand than ever before in the wake of the Ukraine war. Furnace builders can hardly save themselves from inquiries. In an interview with ntv.de, head of the association Müller talks about the challenges facing his industry and to what extent an oven is worthwhile in order to save costs.
ntv.de: The Ukraine war and the concerns about the energy supply unsettle the citizens. For fear of freezing in winter, more and more people want to buy an additional wood stove. Are the members of your association already registering increased demand?
Andreas Müller: The 2000 stove builders who are organized in our association report an extraordinary demand. The main trigger is in fact the energy shortage and the associated explosion in prices. The demand for wood firing has always been high because comfort is popular. At the moment, however, it takes an average of three months before a customer request can be responded to and an offer can even be written.
Can stove builders and installers keep up with the demand?
The books are full of orders that still have to be processed. Not only the high demand is to blame, but also delivery problems and production bottlenecks. Electronic parts are now also installed in new stoves, which, for example, control the combustion air electronically. Here, too, there are currently bottlenecks, just like with refractory fireclay bricks, which are used to line the hearth of a furnace. However, this is beyond our responsibility.
Fuels such as firewood and wood pellets are also affected by the general increase in prices. Is it worth installing an oven at all to save costs?
Even before the Ukraine crisis, customers were paying 75 euros for a cubic meter of wood. Prices have now risen to between 150 and 170 euros. The prices have easily doubled here as well. Each of the eleven million stove owners in Germany is currently ordering more wood than before. If you compare one cubic meter of wood with gas, that corresponds to around 200 cubic meters of natural gas or 200 liters of heating oil. If you buy this amount of natural gas today, you pay almost 300 euros. So there is already a saving when using wood.
New studies show: ten percent of the fine dust pollution is due to the use of wood firing. Is the furnace boom throwing us back in the energy transition?
Long before the crisis, the Federal Environment Ministry tightened a regulation. In the course of this there was a so-called classification measurement by the chimney sweeps. All wood-burning stoves have been classified and verified that they meet the new particulate matter requirements. There are currently around 4.5 million wood-burning stoves that no longer meet these requirements. Old stoves emit over 350 milligrams of particulate matter per kilowatt hour. The new legal requirements are below 40 milligrams. However, it must also be said that wood is not the main emitter when it comes to particulate matter. There are other areas that emit far more, such as mobility, agriculture and industry.
Can stoves be a permanent alternative to other heaters?
Certainly not the classic individual fireplace. In principle, this is designed so that stoves are occasionally operated, for example in the evening or at the weekend. They are not designed as slow-burning stoves. There are, but they are constructed differently. Cold water is also connected here so that the water is heated and can then be distributed to other rooms. Then there are the classic pellet heaters. But these are central heating systems. They offer enormous potential and due to sustainable forest management we still have room for improvement. But of course it is also fair to say that in Germany we cannot only heat with wood. Of course that’s not possible.
Juliane Kipper spoke to Andreas Müller
