Lancashire-based ESSE (www.esse.com) is collaborating with combustion scientists at the University of Manchester to develop its next generation of cast-iron wood-fired stoves.

The Barnoldswick firm has confirmed that its range of wood-burning stoves will meet tighter emission requirements under the Government’s new Clean Air Strategy.

In fact, it is going one step further by investing in additional R&D effort to ensure that its products exceed the new standards. Several ESSE ranges already meet the new standards, and the company has now embarked upon a strategic re-engineering programme in conjunction with the University of Manchester to future-proof its entire range of clean-burning wood-fired stoves without compromising their performance.

Technical director Craig Nutter said: “We’ve been working towards meeting these new standards for some time now, but we don’t believe that ‘quick fixes’ are appropriate to meeting this particular challenge.

“As our friends in the automotive industry learned to their cost, trying to ‘game’ emissions testing regimes can have unintended consequences.

“Today’s stoves are built to much tighter tolerances than those of just a decade ago, so modern solid-fuel appliances’ combustion is much cleaner.

“All our best-selling stoves will meet the new standards before 2022, and we are committed to taking real-world operating conditions into account.

“The quality of the installation of the stove and flue and the moisture content of the wood burned are also critical to achieving a sustainable long-term solution.

“We believe that the stove should perform well on low, medium and high settings, and that’s what we are working towards.”