Novel Method Evaluating Real-Life Performance of Firewood Roomheaters in Europe

In Europe, the official-type test method (oTT) according to the standard European Norm (EN) 13240 evaluates the emissions and thermal efficiency of firewood roomheaters only under optimal conditions, that is, heated up and at nominal load. In this study a novel test method, called "beReal", is presented which was developed to reflect real-life operation within the testing procedure. The beReal test concept consists of a heating cycle with eight consecutive batches and covers all typical phases of real-life operation. A specific procedure based on volume flow measurements evaluating the emission and the efficiency of the whole test cycle was defined. A comparative assessment of the beReal and EN test protocol was conducted with a serial-production stove and compared with oTT results. The repeatability of EN and beReal test results regarding emissions and thermal efficiency was evaluated. The EN test results of this study were more than 200% higher compared to oTT results of the used stove model. Hence, it seems that the tested product during oTT differs from the serial-production products. The thermal efficiency of beReal tests was significantly lower compared to EN test results. However, regarding emissions, no significant differences were observed by the comparative tests according to both test protocols with the serial-production stove. An implementation of the beReal test protocol as a quality label or standard combined with market surveillance should be considered as an instrument to push innovation and technological development further and to enable better differentiation of good and poor products for the end customer.