Bioenergy is important in Norway and wood log combustion has long traditions in Norway, constituting above 40% of the total use of biomass for stationary energy purposes, and accounting for about 12% of the domestic heating. Using wood logs is important for security of supply in Norway, where we today rely heavily on the electricity grid to deliver the needed space-heating for our houses, which are typically wooden (with relatively low thermal mass).
With a high nominal power, wood stoves can significantly reduce power peaks in the electricity grid, prevent blackouts and act as backup heating system. In a context of increasing electricity use in households, including electric cars, reducing peak electric power is strategic as it enables to prevent or postpone large investments to reinforce the distribution grid. New houses, as well as retrofit/upgrading of old houses, have increasingly focused on improved energy efficiency. The space-heating effect (power) required for these highly-insulated buildings is drastically reduced, i.e. lower heating effect is needed compared to a new stove in an old house.
Previous projects have increased significantly the knowledge about wood log combustion in stoves to enable improving wood stoves with respect to emissions and energy efficiency, as well as combustion stability and optimum room and building integration. However, to ensure a sustainable wood stove future both in the existing building stock and the residential buildings of the future, further knowledge building within emission reduction, energy efficiency increase, proper building integration, and value chain, techno-economic and socio-economic assessments is needed. This will secure the continued use of wood stoves as an important, comfortable and sustainable heat source in the existing building stock (replacing old/poor stoves) and the residential buildings of the future, providing also substantial socioeconomic benefits. Therefore, SusWoodStoves is established.
Project partners:
See the project webpage for more details.
This is a Knowledge-building Project for Industry financed by the Research Council of Norway.