World of Fireplaces 2023 (WOF2023)

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New trade fair in Leipzig all about fireplaces!

From April 17th to 19th, the newly founded “World of Fireplaces” fair will take place in the Leipziger Messe. We from the RRF are of course also represented there and are available to you at our stand D57 in hall 5 at the fair.

The newly scheduled trade fair for fireplaces and a feel-good ambience is to become a business platform that focuses on European manufacturers of fireplaces such as fireplaces, pellet stoves and tiled stoves, heating fireplaces and decorative fireplaces, suppliers and service providers. The trade fair is organized by the independent trade fair organizer trendfairs GmbH. These focus explicitly on demanding industry events and special trade fairs. All groups, industry associations and industry players should see themselves as an important part of the new trade fair and get actively involved. This is the only way to ensure that all important topics in the industry are given attention.

There will also be a “special show” on the subject of “hybrid heat” at the fair. There they ask themselves the question that is currently on everyone’s mind, “How do we achieve the energy transition?”. The project is intended to be a platform to create a space for discussion between providers and visitors, to promote cooperation among each other and to present possible solutions to the decision-making politicians. There is also an expert hub for knowledge transfer and special services for trade fair guests.

The fair will be accompanied by a virtual edition, live streams with chats and lectures. Innovations and news on the live days of the trade fair will also be reported there.

Admission to the trade fair and the expert hub is free for all trade visitors.

We would like to invite you to visit us at our booth D57 at the fair and look forward to everyone who comes to visit us!

Your RRF-Team

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2023 – Our view of the new year

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The RRF wishes all customers, delivers and our partners a happy new year. In the following we want to give you a look into our year 2023.

At our firm place in Oberhausen, we are looking forward to work with our new employees. They will enhance our already existing strong team and we look positively forward to their future development within our company.

An audit from the accreditation authority awaits us in February. In addition to the re-accreditation of the test laboratory, the focus is on expanding the certification body for exhaust systems and chimneys.

In addition to the traditional ISH fair, we will be part of the newly founded “World of Fireplaces” fair in Leipzig. We are excited to meet you there in person! Our stand is D57. We would be happy to meet you at your own booth or on the fairground. You can of course contact us at any time in the run-up to the trade fair or during the trade fair period to arrange a fixed appointment.

We continue to watch the development of the EN 16510 with interest. We have set course, both technically and administratively, to be successfully prepared for the challenges coming ahead. Even with the doubt of many, we are looking forward to a positive future. We are convinced that with you together we can overcome the obstacles in the implementation.

We will make further investments this year as well, which will form another cornerstone for our high standards. Looking back, we are very satisfied with the investments from the previous year and the future-oriented orientation of our company. This includes measurement data acquisition systems, scales, electric work platforms, software and hardware for both locations.

We as the RRF, are excited on what the coming year has for us and wish everyone a healthy and successful year 2023.

EFA – Future workshop in Leipzig for energy efficiency and emission reduction

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From November 17th to 18th the European Fireplace Association (EFA) and the “Deutsche Biomasseforschungszentrum” (DBFZ) invited to the future workshop in Leipzig. Their joint is to find solutions for the two central challenges, energy efficiency and emission reduction in the branch. Representing the RRF was Christian Droll as a Member of the EFA board. Not only members of the EFA participate at the workshop, research representatives of various universities and institutions, testing institutes, chimney sweeps, craft companies, associations and the German Federal Environment Agency participated as well. The aim was to develop a concrete strategy so that the stove industry with products from industry and trade is a fixed component in the energy transition.

The participants were be prepared in two scientific excellent keynotes. Vinzent Egenolf from the University of Kassel began with an informing about the wood usage and their paths nationally and globally. The most important recognition out of his contribution is, that Germany is very far away from a wood shortage. But in the future, it is necessary to reduce the usage of wood. He added that forests are not an automatically CO2-sink. Depending on how the outer conditions and location are, both unmanaged and managed forest can become an unwished CO2-source. For example, forests near the equator are more capable to absorb CO2 at high temperatures while forests in higher latitudes are more likely to set CO2 free at a higher temperature. Therefore, a sustainable and controlled economically usage of wood for material and energetic purposes are necessary from an ecological point of view.

Prof. Dr. Heinz Kohler from the Karlsruhe University of Applied science informed in his lecture about the necessity of emission reduction and the great effectiveness of sensor-based combustion air controls. Extensive investigation in laboratory and in the field showed that already existing and market ready technology are capable to reduce air pollution and dust significantly. It will be challenging to create an effective combination and pricing. It was agreed that a greater market penetration would mean a massive reduction in purchase price of the components.

In five groups moderated by Prof. Dr. Hartmann, DBFZ, Dr. Johannes R. Gerstner, EFA and Christian Droll as group leader they took the topic of the future of furnaces one step further by using the controlling method of the “Strategy House”. With the knowledge and results from the past three future workshops concrete fields of action would be identified. These fields are “energy efficiency”, “emission reduction”, “furnace added value” and “innovation”. The persons responsible for this have been identified. In the future administration, the state and federal ministry and associations should be made responsible next to industry and crafting.

Dr. Johannes Gerstner marked that only a clear signal of the politics will lead that companies will be able to invest. The legal certainty will make things interesting for companies to invest in new products. He called on the Federal Environment Agency to clearly commit to wood as an integral part of the energy transition and not to put any obstacles in their way. In this way, the necessary framework conditions for an ecological future can be created in a constructive cooperation, which is necessary so that the industry can make its willing contributions. Professor Dr. Hartmann confirmed again towards all workshop participants, that the technology to reach these goals are already existing and it is now the right time to use them. To reach these goals the support of every present branch representative was insured. The results of the workshops will be carefully prepared and documented.

The next EFA-meeting will take place in Würzburg from April 27th to 28th 2023 and will report on the current status.

EFA – The woodstove branch meets together with the RRF to exchange and look into the future in Salzburg

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From 13.10. to 14.10.2022 the autumn conference was held in Salzburg, Austria by the European Fireplaces Association (EFA).

The RRF was represented by Mr. Christian Droll. As a member of the board of the EFA he took part of the earlier board-meeting at 12th of October.

At this symposium the current challenges were targeted. The EFA CEO Mr. Uwe Striegler opened the fully occupied conference. This time not only members participated, representatives of other associations, companies and research facilities.

Thomas Schnabel (HKI) began with the presentation of innovative heat combinations, within not only the HKI sees a sensible input to the energy shift in Germany. About the “draining condition” §19 der Bundesimmissionsschutzverordnung BImSchV informed Markus Schlichter from the ZIV. He showed us in his presentation that the impact is not as bad as expected. But there is still room to improve for some. He again said that only with the concentrated cooperation of the associations something much worse could be prevented. After that Dr. Volker Schmatloch form the company Spartherm informed everyone about the Eco-Design Regulation EN16510. He drew attention to the fact that politics and technical expertise must go hand in hand here so that the industries can prepare for this.

Prof. Dr. Ingo Hartmann from DBFZ told us about the project UVV. Research is being done here to sensors and clean combustion. He pointed out that only innovations will add an important input to the heating market. But also, it will take a supporting role. After that he invited everyone to the industry summit at 17th of November till 18th of November at the DBFZ in Leipzig. On this day a strategy offer is made from past workshops on the industry, politics and environmental organizations. The RRF will also attend at this appointment.

In closing a donation check over 5.500 € was handed to the association “Die Ofenmacher e.V.”. Their project is to support the building of new clay oven in Nepal and Africa so that the people who live there will be protected from the danger of cooking at an open fireplace. We from the RRF plan to donate to them in the future as well.

Friday, October 14th the general meeting took place at which internal topics were discussed. The Association’s year was prepared and the most important topics of the year were pointed out.

Two new faces at our location in Oberhausen

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Since summer 2022 two new faces are bringing some fresh air into the company!

Since July 1st Mr. Mario Fieberg is with our company. He learned at a German mining company which fits perfectly with our history. With his competence he is bringing, he will reinforce our team of technicians. We are excited to have him with us and are looking forward to having him long-term.

Also, we’d like to welcome our new trainee. Since the 1st of August we will accompany Mr. Stefan Orwat for the next three years with his traineeship as an office management assistant. We wish him a successful and wonderful time during his apprenticeship with us!

The RRF is reforesting 100 trees!

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We are on the way to make our company greener by renovations to the buildings, LED lighting, photovoltaic systems, and solar thermal systems in the past few years. Since the usage of biomass is an important part of our daily work, we would like to take responsibility for sustainable actions in this area as well. Our target is to reforest at least as much wood as is used in our company.

Since many forest areas were destroyed by the drought of recent years and the bark beetle infestation, we took this problem as an opportunity to get actively involved. Together with our families and friends, we have planted 100 seedlings, including protection against damage by game, in the woods at our laboratory in Drolshagen.

We would like to thank all employees, their families and our direct neighbour, D-Garage Drolshagen for their active help and a great autumn festival!

RRF tests the new certification program of the HKI

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In cooperation with the certification body of the TÜV Süd, the HKI has published a new certification program for fireplaces in accordance with EN 13229, 13240 and 15250. Manufacturers of efficient and low-emission stoves and other fireplaces can now have this certified. As an approved laboratory, the RRF also performs tests in accordance with this certification program.

The basics for the certification of your fireplace are as follows:

  1. You submit the certification application (application for certification of local space heaters for wood logs) to the certification body. We are happy to help you with the application.
  2. If your application and application documents have been checked completely and positively, you will receive a draft of the certification contract from the certification body.
  3. After the certification contract has been concluded, the certificate for the use of the certification mark is issued based on our type test and the test report.
  4. To maintain the certification, manufacturers must have a regular (at least once a year) product-related control test – usually in the manufacturers works. This ensures that the fireplaces manufactured in ongoing production correspond to the certified prototype. Since we are a recognized monitoring body, we can register our auditors with the certification body accordingly to your wishes.
  5. The validity of the certification depends on the testing and certification regulations of the certification body. Should the state of the art and / or the legal regulations change, the certification program may adapt.

We would like to assist you as your partner in testing, certification and monitoring of your fireplace and please do not hesitate to contact us for questions about the topic, to make appointments or to select a suitable auditor.

EFA – future workshop, board, and closed meeting

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The past weekend from 25.06 to 28.06.2021 was all about the European Fireplaces Association (EFA).

It started on 25.06 with the board meeting in which our CEO Christian Droll took part as a board member. Interesting future projects, the associations work and basic organizational measures were discussed. The board met after the board meeting on that weekend for a closed meeting in Schönebeck at the Elbe. Current topics were delved into, tasks were discussed and distributed and a lot of input was processed.
In addition, Mr. Martin Zenker (SPD – speaker for energy, infrastructure, digitization, construction) gave an input from state and federal politics and the future meetings and events were planned.

On 28.06, the interesting and busy weekend was rounded off by the future workshop in combination with the FutureLab wood heating at the KUBUS Leipzig. Dr. Volker Lenz from the DBFZ gave the impulse: Energy transition without wood? Possibilities and limits of wood heating. Based on this information from politics and environmental issues, a future discussion was held. After many interesting points of view and a conclusion, they transferred to the FutureLab wood heating.
Interesting and new innovations from the industry were presented in 5 innovation slots. The focus here was on the companies DBI, Sfera Tec, Kutzner and Weber, ETE EmTechEngineering and the DBFZ.

Tests of particulate matter precipitators

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Especially with environmental labels such as the “Blue Angel for stoves”, particulate matter precipitators and reduction devices are becoming more and more important. The RRF has been involved in this area for many years and has established itself as one of the leading laboratories. We are therefore a reliable partner at your side in this area as well. We can test your particulate matter precipitators according to DIN SPEC 33999 as well as the preliminary test program for particulate matter precipitators of the DIBt.

Based on our experience Mr. Dennis Droll has been appointed int to the ad-hoc group particulate matter precipitators and thus actively participates in the creation of future standards. In the ad-hoc group, the DIN SPEC 33999 is to be adapted in such a way that testing with particulate matter precipitators can be more appliable to small combustion systems. In addition to the ad-hoc group, we work with our technical head Mr. Sven Müller in the TC 166 for exhaust systems.

In the area of the Landesbauordnung (LBO) we have been your reliable partner as a testing, monitoring and certification body since the nineties and are also allowed to perform the corresponding tests, the monitoring and certification for particulate matter precipitators and reduction devices.

If you are interested in a test using one of the two test methods mentioned above, please do not hesitate to talk to us in person. We can offer you the right solution for your product.

24. Technical discussion of the working group wood firing

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The annual technical discussion of the working group wood firing of the TFZ offers experts an opportunity to exchange information on current developments in our industry. This year, the RRF was again invited to the technical discussion on 09.06.2021 to get involved in the discussions.

As part of the working group, the TFZ offered space for interesting topics such as current standardization work, developments on the market of domestic wood firing or technical lectures on research and development.