{"id":33500,"date":"2023-02-12T09:08:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T09:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-tile-stoves-revenge-culture\/"},"modified":"2023-02-12T09:08:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-12T09:08:20","slug":"the-tile-stoves-revenge-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-tile-stoves-revenge-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"The tile stove’s revenge – Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I froze. It was cold in my drafty little house. And with today’s electricity prices, I didn’t want to turn up the heat either. Were there other measures that could make my life warmer and cheaper? In such situations, you should always look in the rear-view mirror. What did the people before us do? It is rather banal to believe that we are the first in history to have had this problem. Wood shortage In the 18th century, Sweden ran out of wood. The large forests were used up. The country was one of the world’s largest producers of iron, and the ironworks needed charcoal. SWEDEN: Coal miles in the forest for the production of charcoal for the iron works. Photo: Olof Johansson Wejdmark’s collection In addition, the population had to have enough wood for heating in the winter, and timber for the house and mill all year round. The king’s men devised several measures to protect the forests. It was forbidden to allow goats to graze in open fields and the farmers had to stop sweding (which meant that the forest was burnt down). For 30 years, the item “wood shortage” was on the agenda every time the kingdom’s council met at Stockholm Palace. Nevertheless, there was less and less forest and the population continued to freeze. At the castle meeting on 29 January 1767, it was finally decided that two of the country’s best engineers should travel out into the world to study different furnaces. The goal was to invent a system that could provide more heat with less wood. In the spring, the two, architect Carl Johan Cronstedt and general Fabian Wrede, went on an inspirational trip around Europe. THE GUYS ON TOUR: Carl Johan Cronstedt and Fabian Wrede (th) Photo: Carl Cronstedt \/ Fuller\u00f6 S\u00e4teri & wredes.com How do you catch the heat? In Italy, the two engineers were inspired by pot kilns where empty clay pots were bricked into the mould. INSPIRATION: A “stube”. This picture is from a folk museum in Germany. Photo: \u00a9 medieval.eu \/ Karen Schousboe In Germany, they were concerned with tile stoves where the combustion chamber itself was in a different room from the area to be heated. TIP: Cooking and heating the living room. Smart, but there is still a lot of heat that disappears up. Photo: Wikimedia commons Cronstedt and Wrede were inspired by everything they saw, but still \u2013 the European stoves let most of the heat out through the chimney, regardless of the design. People were shooting for the crow, literally. The air from an old-fashioned fireplace holds 600-800 degrees when it leaves the chimney. It was this excess energy that the two engineers wanted to tame. If they managed this, you would have enough heat for everyone without using up the forests. In the autumn of the same year, the following report was delivered to the king: “Description of New Inr\u00e4ttning af Kakelugnar Til Weds Besparing.” The secret of the tiled stove Cronstedt and Wrede’s report was brilliant. They described an oven with an interior labyrinth of brick masonry. Instead of letting the hot air out of the pipe, it was trapped inside so it wandered round and round in the oven. ORIGINALS: The drawings from the creators of the tiled stove. Photo: University of Ume\u00e5 In practical terms, it was like this: when a post of wood (four or five logs) had burned down to embers, the damper was closed. Then the heat did not come out. The size of the tiled stove was also important. The larger the oven, the larger the storage capacity and heating surface. Success Cronstedt and Wrede had invented the Swedish tiled stove – beautiful on the outside and ingenious on the inside. It was an overwhelming success. All of Sweden converted to tiled stoves. They came in all varieties, completely plain white without decoration for the poorest homes and overlaid with decorations for those who could pay for them. Nevertheless, with or without decoration, tiled stoves were an energy-saving measure. Because the air escaping from the pipe of a tiled stove no longer held 800, but only 150-170 degrees. The rest was turned into heat in the house. At the same time, only half the amount of wood that would have been used in a normal fireplace was needed. For the next 150 years, tiled stoves were the source of heat in Swedish homes. Even the poorest slum in town had a tiled stove, and a house often had several. The tiled stove also came to Norway. Especially in the cities. For example, the castle was built with 52 tile kilns. NORWAY: The castle was built by the Swedes in 1849. This picture is from the Bird Room. They have probably chosen white so as not to compete with the birds. Photo: Jan Haug \/ The royal collections Unfashionable Although the tiled stove was brilliant when it arrived, it nevertheless fell out of fashion when electricity and district heating knocked on the door. After all, it is easier to keep warm by pressing a button, rather than lighting up a fireplace. In addition, a tiled stove is heavy and takes up a lot of space. Eventually it also became a symbol of poverty and old times. Hundreds of thousands of tiled stoves were dismantled and thrown away in the 1960s and 70s. But the rumors of the death of the tiled stove were greatly exaggerated. Because in addition to saving energy when the stove is in use, the tiled stove has an almost eternal life. It can be taken down and set up an infinite number of times. Many therefore chose to store their old dismantled ovens that were no longer in use. This means that there are still thousands of old tiled stoves stored away in barns and outbuildings in Sweden. These can be put back up at any time, and one day there was a dismantled old tiled stove on the ground outside my gate. My neighbor I knew the neighbor was into tiled stoves, so it wasn’t an unusual sight. The unusual thing was that I fell in love … not with the neighbor, but with the cream-yellow tiled stove lying in all its parts on the ground. MOVED OVER TO THE GARDEN: Here I have moved the parts to my own property. Photo: news The tiled stove was worn. Some might say “very worn”, but for me it was a beautiful answer to my cold challenges. This oven just had to be mine. This is how I came into contact with the neighbour, tiled stove enthusiast Atle Austad. TILE TALK: No big problems keeping the conversation about tiled stoves going – Atle has been “hooked” for 20 years. Photo: Casper N. Strand \/ news On a daily basis, he is a psychologist. You may have seen his face before. Atle Austad is the psychologist from the Baneheia case who believed in Viggo Kristiansen many years before the judiciary turned around. At home in his house, Austad has many tiled stoves. You do not need pipe runs to acquire a tiled stove. Austad is experimenting with bioethanol in a tiled stove from Grand Hotell Haglund in Gothenburg. The hotel was demolished in 1972. Photo: KJELL LJ\u00d8STAD Another tiled stove Photo: Kjell Lj\u00f8stad Tiled stove in the living room Photo: KJELL LJ\u00d8STAD Tiled stove in the living room Photo: KJELL LJ\u00d8STAD In the garage there are at least 20 packed in boxes. He collects the very finest stoves for a future small museum (?) in Drangedal, and on Facebook he runs “Kakkelovnens venner”. Cultural history Atle Austad has collected tiled stoves for 20 years. His garage is a blissful chaos of banana crates and clutter. In each of the banana boxes are parts for old tiled stoves. Austad bought the first old oven in 2004. JOHOO! An excited Atle Austad with a new load on the yard: tiled stoves in banana boxes. Photo: Casper N. Strand \/ news – It was a white tiled stove. Almost everyone starts with a white one, says Austad, laughing at his old self. Now he has both blue, brown and yellow ovens at home and thinks white is a bit boring. – The colored ovens were the most expensive in the past. They cost twice as much. Inside, tiled stoves are quite similar, so which type you choose is a matter of taste. Tiled stoves can be round, square, stand in a corner or along a wall. They can be three meters high with a stately crown, or simple models reminiscent of an ordinary wardrobe. The fact that the color white is most popular now is about interior trends. When our homes are modern and neutral in colour, a white oven is often the best fit. CLASSIC: This is Austad’s white oven in the daughter’s dormitory in the basement. Photo: KJELL LJ\u00d8STAD Why an old oven? An old tiled stove consists of fired clay (brick) and unfired clay (mortar). Modern tiled stoves consist of olivine stone with tiles on the outside. I ask Atle Austad what the difference is between an old and a new tiled stove. They are fairly similar in use, he says, before adding: – But the new tiled stoves cannot be taken down and set up several times. Old stoves are sustainable in practice. “There is something about the craftsmanship” It is the tiled stove’s “skin” that lasts a long time. This “skin” consists of tiles that must not be confused with thin tiles. A tile is a thick-bellied thing, beautifully glazed on the outside, hollow inside and made by hand. It is the tiles that are taken care of. The very core of a tiled stove is rebuilt every time. Atle Austad stands with a tile in his hand. Love it. Turn it around. Describes how it must have been made. – It must have taken at least a couple of hours for a craftsman to make one tile here, he says. My life with a tiled stove The cream-yellow, old stove I saw lying in the road became mine in the late summer of 2022. Now it towers almost 2.5 meters high in the living room. But one thing you should know if you get an old tiled stove – everything takes time! It took a week to wall it up. Installing a tiled stove, part 1. Installing a tiled stove, part 2. Installing a tiled stove, part 3. Tam-tara-tam! My tiled stove. It is a woman and her name is Sofia. And I did not know that it then had to dry for three months before it could be fired in. I prayed to the gods for a mild harvest. Late in November (a few days before the frost came), I finally had heat in the house. A tiled stove is simply the opposite of a “quick fix”. When asked how it feels, I reply that I have three pets: two cats and an oven. They all need daily food and attention. Besides, it’s not enough to just fire up. You must wait until the wood burns down to embers before the damper can be closed. And when is the point for “optimal closing of the damper”, really? It takes time to find out. Old ovens have their own personality and my cream yellow lady had 200 years behind her before we met. FIREPLACE: Puss enjoys the crackling of the tiled stove. Photo: Casper N. Strand \/ news Preliminary statistics for life with a tiled stove The tiled stove project almost halved the electricity bill. I keep my little house warm with approx. 10 logs a day… if I have time to fire up and wait while it burns down to embers twice a day. I don’t always have that. At least not in the morning, so it might be cold in the house when I get home from work. Then it takes some time to get warm. Just like in the cabin. But if you like the feeling of being on an eternal cabin trip where you have to think about wood and heating every day, an old tiled stove is excellent. Moreover, it can be used as a pleasant supplement to regular electricity. For more beautiful and better coziness in the living room than a large, delicious tiled stove, there is nothing. Facts about tiled stoves: An old tiled stove can cost anything from NOK 5,000 to over NOK 1 million. (many old ovens for sale on Blocket (svenske finn.no)) Weighs between 1 – 2.5 tonnes It takes approx. a week to set up an oven for a tiled stove mason. The estimated lifespan of the oven before the inside has to be bricked up again is approx. 80 years. The “skin” of the oven lasts much longer. The tiled stove provides a healthy indoor climate because the surface of the stove does not get so hot that dust burns. Hi! Did you feel like sending me an email about the matter, or a suggestion for other things I should look into? Does. Other things you might like:
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I froze. It was cold in my drafty little house. And with today’s electricity prices, I didn’t want to turn up the heat either. Were there other measures that could make my life warmer and cheaper? In such situations, you should always look in the rear-view mirror. What did the people before us do? It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[282,428,10863,12173],"class_list":["post-33500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-culture","tag-revenge","tag-stoves","tag-tile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}