New European directive for fireplaces coming in 2012European Commission is preparing a new directive for fireplaces in Europe. This

directive will set minimum limits for the efficiency of a fireplace and regulate how much

carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, particulate emission, and nitrogen oxide can be

released to the air from a fireplace.

Old fireplaces are excluded from the directive, but many fireplace manufactures, like

Uunisepät from Finland, have been taking these harmful effects already into account

in their production. This means that the directive will not affect the big and reliable

fireplace manufacturers, who have been maintaining higher standards in their product

design: for example Uunisepät have manufactured over 100 000 fireplaces that are

already according to the upcoming directive.

The new regulation for fireplaces in the EC will come into use in 2012. All fireplaces,

apart from sauna stoves and grills, will be under this directive. In Finland itself, there

are 2,2 million fireplaces – and most of them will not fulfill the upcoming EC directive.

Fireplace manufacturers from Finland have set up campaigns in order to get old

fireplaces under the same regulation as well. Most of the manufacturers have already

followed similar kinds of, or even stricter, regulations in their product design, and they

see old fireplaces as a risk for the whole industry.

The reason for this directive is both environmental and health related. According to

some estimates, in the year 2000 there were 200 premature deaths in Finland caused

by particle emissions released incorrectly from burning wood. The real numbers are

hard to count, as old fireplaces are seldom tested. It’s telling of the importance of this

issue by that the government of Finland started its own law-drafting for fireplace

standards in 2006. The project was cancelled when the European Commission’s

drafts were published.

The Finnish fireplace manufacturer Uunisepät has taken into use a new testing

laboratory for fireplace testing. This laboratory is equipped with all the modern

measuring devices for concluding the tests related to burning processes and fireplace

safety.

This new laboratory for fireplace research makes it possible to run long term

experimentations on fireplaces and fire burning processes. One of the main objectives

of the laboratory is to study how the cleanest possible burning process is conducted.

These tests are important for the nature and for fireplace users; it was estimated, that

in year the 2000 there were 200 premature deaths in Finland caused by particle

emissions released from burning wood incorrectly. One can only imagine what these

numbers are worldwide.

The importance of studying the burning process is underlined by the fact that the new

European Commission’s directive for fireplace emission values will be introduced in

the year 2012. The new directive will set the limits for the level of fireplace carbon

monoxide, hydrocarbon, particle emission, and nitrogen oxide that are released into

the air during the burning process. The focus of this new directive is on new

fireplaces, so it will have a direct effect on fireplace manufacturers. Companies like

Uunisepät, who have been maintaining high standards and running tests since the

beginning of the company, are not affected much by this directive: for example,

Uunisepät has produced already over 100 000 fireplaces that are following the limits

of the upcoming European Commission’s directive.

Since the beginning of the company, Uunisepät has been running tests to optimize the

safety and ecology of their fireplace products – so this laboratory is just one step

further in the research conducted by Uunisepät on the subject. In product testing,

Uunisepät co-operates with VTT, The Technical Research Center of Finland.

Uunisepät has also been an active member in all national development projects

related to fireplace development.