Heating with wood for the climate

When wood burns in a stove, only as much CO₂ is released as the tree has removed from the environment in the course of its life. In Germany, there is more wood available each year than can be used as material. Wood not used as fuel would rot and release the bound CO₂ in the same way as if it had been used as fuel. Since the renewable trees in turn bind the CO₂, this is referred to as a closed cycle. A modern DROOFF wood-burning stove therefore burns almost "climate-neutrally" by taking forestry work, transport etc. into account.

When oil or gas is burned, on the other hand, climate-damaging CO₂ is released, which was bound as carbon in the fossil fuels for millions of years. Fossil fuels are largely responsible for global warming. One cubic metre of beech wood saves our climate about 184 litres of heating oil or 210 m³ of natural gas!

Furthermore, fossil fuel reserves are finite and highly threatened by geopolitical crises. Gas and oil reserves are located in countries such as Russia, Syria or Iran. In order to extract one litre of heating oil in the Persian Gulf, transport it to Germany, process it and then distribute it to households over long distances by truck, an energy loss of approx. 15 % must be taken into account. For the provision of stove-ready logs only about 1 %!

By operating all the DROOFF stoves we have sold from 1997 to the present day, the environment has been saved more than 600,000 tons of CO₂ (compared to using fossil fuels for the same number of kWh*). And every year around 30,000 tons are added!

Assuming that the DROOFF stoves in the inventory are operated with an average of 2 cubic meters of wood per year and that heating oil and gas are saved accordingly.

A mature beech has removed around 1,800 kg of CO₂ from the atmosphere. It filters about 7,000 kg of dust out of the air every year and produces 4,600 kg of oxygen. Of this, an adult can breathe for more than 13 years. Is it climate-conscious to use these marvels of nature as fuel in our fireplaces?

Definitely yes!

Regular logging is essential for the healthy development of the forest as part of sustainable forestry. In reforestation, trees are initially planted very close together. This is for the following reasons: Firstly, the trees protect each other in this way. Secondly, it creates a competitive situation that encourages the seedlings to grow straight and as "straight" as possible. It also enables a selection process.

In order to make room for the growth of the healthiest trees, smaller or unhealthy trees are constantly harvested. These are unsuitable as construction or furniture wood and can be used excellently as firewood. In addition, when a mature tree is felled, 36% of the mass (especially the crown) cannot be used as logs or industrial wood, but can be used wonderfully as fuel. An important contribution to climate-neutral heating!

By the way: only a part of the used firewood comes from the forest at all. The rest is "waste" from sawmills, your own garden or timber harvesting.

Wood enables nearly climate-neutral heating, but it also avoids the environmental impact of extraction (oil platforms, fracking, etc.) and transport (pipelines, trucks, etc.) of fossil fuels.

The expansion of renewable energies is an important pillar of the energy transition. However, the ambitious goals of the German government can hardly be achieved without wood as a fuel.