Heat, smoke and fuel consumption in a high mountain stallo-hut, northern Sweden - Experimental burning of fresh birch wood during winter

Abstract

The overall aim of this study was to investigate in situ, the use of an open fire for heating a traditional mountain Sami stallo-hut during winter using fresh mountain birch as fuel. The study took the form of repeated actualistic experimentation and the following parameters were recorded: fuel consumption and logistics, indoor temperature, CO-levels inside the hut and temperature in both the hut and the traditional Sami stone-lined hearth with a stone filling of flat stones. Our results show that fresh birch is an effective fuel and that about 3.6 kg (dry weight) of wood was used per hour; it took a few hours of work per day to obtain the firewood required. The highest temperature recorded beneath the stone filling in the hearth was 437.7 degrees C. The hearth stored a lot of heat but this did not affect the indoor temperature during the night. The highest indoor temperature indoor was +26.9 degrees C, but it was generally much lower and varied considerably during the day and in relation to the outdoor temperature. The CO-levels reached 112 ppm at floor level and co-varied with the smokiness experienced inside the hut. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Northern Sweden; Experimental archaeology; Hearths; Firewood; Forest history; Sami

Published in

Journal of Archaeological Science
2011, volume: 38, number: 4, pages: 903-912

SLU Authors

• Östlund, Lars

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.11.020

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/32236