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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2011

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

Liedgren Lars G, Östlund Lars

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

    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