BioHousing EIE/05/067/SI2.420197

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Sustainable, comfortable and competitive biomass based heating of private houses (”BioHousing”)

Coordinator: Jyväskylä Innovation Ltd, Finland, www.jklinnovation.fi

Partners:• VTT, Finland, www.vtt.fi

•Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences, Finland, www.jamk.fi•ETA – Energia, Transporti, Agricoltura srl, Italy, www.etaflorence.it

•Association Regionale Biomasse Normandie, France,www.biomasse-normandie.org

•ESCAN, S.A., Spain, www.escansa.com•Österreichisches Forschungsinstitut für Chemie und Technik, Austria,

www.ofi.co.at

The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not represent the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

BioHousing EIE/05/067/SI2.420197

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Background:Lack of knowledge, disregarding requirements of biomass heating and absence of standard technicalsystems are the greatest barriers in promoting biomass based energy in private houses.

Aims:BioHousing aims to remove the barriers via designing of standard and commercial technical systems andby producing tools and information material for sustainable biomass heating. Project encourages energyservice entrepreneurship and train energy actors to increase their professional skills to advice housebuilders and decision-makers. Use of stoves as auxiliary or main heating system is common in Europe.Selection of stove and firewood storage and good firing practices are essential to avoid emissions, toget efficient combustion and comfortable heat.

Selected achievements during the project (1.1.2006-31.12.2008):• Several different kinds of prefabricated boiler room unit concepts have been developed and / or

promoted– EnergyCabin – combining solar energy with wood pellet or wood chip technology in a prefabricated boiler house– TT-Group – the unit is installable inside the house– Biocompact unit from the Italian manufacturer Ecotecnologie provides a plug and heat solution fed by both

pellets and woodchips• A web-based catalogue of heating related equipment (stoves, boilers, burners, splitters and

chippers) was published in Finnish, English, German, Italian, French and Spanish and promoted (www.biohousing.eu.com/catalogue).

• New business concepts were developed to encourage entrepreneurs to start-up or enlarge biomass related business (http://www.biohousing.eu.com/ > Entrepreneurship)

BioHousing EIE/05/067/SI2.420197

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Selected achievements continue …

• A wide range of Information material for sustainable heating by biomass is published (www.biohousing.eu/stoveheating)

– A manual and PowerPoint slides of Efficient and environmentally friendly biomass heating were published in Finnish, English, German (slides), Italian, French and Spanish

– A guide for private houses on storage of firewood was published in Finnish, Swedish, English and French,– A guide for connecting several houses to a micro-heating network was published in Finnish, English, German,

Italian, French and Spanish

• Several taylor-made training courses (theoretical and practical lessons) have been organised for e.g. chimney sweepers, hpac (heating, plumbing, air-conditioning) planners, architects and civil engineers, house manufacturers and retailers. Altogether 1044 persons have been trained. Extensive training material packages were published in Finnish, English, German, Italian, French and Spanish.

• A web-based Heating Tool – a calculator of CO2 emissions, investment and heating costs is published in Finnish, English, German, Italian, French and Spanish and promoted (www.biohousing.eu.com/heatingtool). It is used as an advisory tool to support technical decisions and cost estimations of biomass heating systems.

• The website of the project (www.biohousing.eu.com) is developed into a user-friendly service containing all produced material published by the project.

Project duration: January 2006-December 2008 (36 months)Further information: Tytti Laitinen, Jyväskylä Innovation Ltd, tytti.laitinen@jklinnovation.fi