There are fewer polluting wood-burning stoves in Danish homes, but they are still found in large numbers, a study shows.
Every fifth Danish home has a wood-burning stove. This is shown by figures from Statistics Denmark, which are based on a representative questionnaire survey.
The survey, conducted in 2023, is based on 19,000 representative responses and shows that there are around 675,000 wood-burning stoves, fireplaces or similar nationwide – of which 538,000 are in year-round homes and 137,000 are in unoccupied holiday homes.
However, the number of wood-burning stoves has decreased from 775,000 to 675,000 since the previous census in 2021.
And back in 2015, a similar study found that there were a whopping 888,000 wood-burning stoves.
“The use of wood-burning stoves is associated with more particle pollution than other heat sources, and old wood-burning stoves are being phased out or upgraded to newer and more environmentally friendly models.”
“At the same time, we see a desire to switch from fossil sources such as oil and gas to heating with renewable energy through district heating and heat pumps,” says Henrik Huusom, special consultant at Statistics Denmark.
The study shows that in only 13 percent of homes equipped with a wood-burning stove is it the primary source of heat.
It also shows that there is great variation from municipality to municipality when it comes to the proportion of homes with wood-burning stoves.
In August 2021, it became required in connection with home purchases to remove or replace an existing wood-burning stove if it was from before 2003.
Since then, rules have also been introduced that allow municipalities to completely ban wood-burning stoves older than 2008 in areas where district heating or gas is available.
The rules have been introduced precisely to reduce the particle pollution caused by wood-burning stoves – both indoors and outdoors.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, wood burning is the largest source of particle pollution in Denmark.
In 2008, for the same reason, requirements were introduced regarding how many particles a new wood-burning stove may emit.
ritzau
