Friday, February 11, 2022

The End of Firewood/Wood-Pellet Stoves?

 Well....there is this discussion going on, with the German Federal Environmental Agency.

What might happen?  Anyone's guess.  All they are saying is that the numbers over German cities....with nitrogen oxide and particular substances is at a all-time low currently.  Then they say....they'd like them 'lower'.

How many German companies currently manufacture wood pellets?  Around 163.  What they will say is that wood pellet sales went up around 13-percent in the past year.

Back in 2013, the numbers for fireplaces or wood-burning stoves was around 15-million.  

In my village....I'd take a guess that 25-percent of the homes have a fireplace, and probably half of those will have a fire running maybe once or twice a week.  

The wood-burning stove situation?  If you walk into an Obi/Hornbach (hardware stores in Germany), these are probably one of the twenty top selling items in the stores.  There's been a lot of interest in the past decade, and something that people use to augment their natural gas heat situation.  

For the federal agency to sell intense regulation and just totally forbid fireplaces/wood-pellet situations?  It's courting serious disaster with state elections coming up in 2022/2023.  If the Green Party wanted a serious issue to confront their candidates....this would be the problem-topic.

The odds of a 'tax' to frustrate fireplace/wood-pellet users?  I could see the agency being this stupid and cranking up a 300 Euro 'fee/tax' per house, to show they are concerned.

I could see more intense inspections on fireplaces/wood-pellet situations.  

This is when the typical German 'rocket-scientist' stands up and has this brilliant idea of a particle filter, and would capture 80-percent of all particles before they get out of the chimney.  Naturally, the filter will cost 250 Euro a year, and require a trained/certified 'junior-rocket-scientist' to install and certify.  

The gimmick here, if you admire this whole landscape.....heat of any type is evil and only affordable by those of a rich means.  You ought to be living under a bridge, with a blanket, and no heating device at all.  

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