It is important to choose the stove with the heating power best suited to the space to be heated. It is a matter of determining which stove will be lit as often as possible, making it the most economical and most environmentally friendly.

How to determine the power required ?
The power of a stove is expressed in kW and indicates the amount of useful heat (i.e. heat which actually heats the house) that this stove can produce.

This heat must effectively compensate, as closely as possible, for the heat that the building naturally loses. The power required to heat a room varies depending on outside temperature, the size of the room, which way the property faces, geographical location and the standard of insulation in the building ...On the other hand, greater power would be required for a second home, which would have to be heated up quickly at the beginning of the weekend.

A stove that is too small will not be able to heat up (or reheat) the room in cold weather. Alternatively, a stove that is too powerful will often work at a low rate in conditions that are not very beneficial. Sometimes it will overheat the room even at a lower rate. Choosing a 20 kW stove where a 10 kW model would be sufficient would be a very bad decision.

These various factors mean it is not easy to carry out a simple calculation. The best way to make sure you choose the Stûv best suited to your requirements is to consult your supplier. He will be able to assess your needs on site. Explain how you intend to use your stove and he will be able to advise you in your choice.

The stove's efficiency indicates the percentage of heat produced by the combustion of the wood which is actually used to heat up your house : A stove with 80 % efficiency releases 80% of the energy from the wood for heating the house. Did you know that an open fire, for example, rarely has efficiency greater than 10%, which means that 90 % of the energy consumed goes into the atmosphere ?

It is important to understand that the efficiency drops when the stove operates at a lower rate and that combustion is less complete.
This is why public authorities, who are committed to fighting global warming, are encouraging the replacement of older low-performance stoves with highly efficient ones.

It contains heat and various gases including CO2, CO and fine particles that affect the respiratory passages. With high-performance stoves that are used correctly, these emissions are very limited, but they increase as soon as the efficiency falls and combustion is less complete.

To sum up, a stove well suited to the room to be heated works most frequently at its optimal rate and therefore produces good combustion and high efficiency. This means that consumption is minimal and emissions into the atmosphere are greatly reduced.

Providing a point of comparison
Stûv stoves are officially tested according to the European standards EN 13229 (for inserts) and EN 13240 (for stoves), which provide a safety guarantee for people and property. As well as checking safety, the laboratories measure power and efficiency and analyse the smoke, enabling consumers and professionals to make valuable comparisons of products.