Eco-Friendly Ways To Heat Your Scandinavian Home

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Eco-Friendly Ways To Heat Your Scandinavian Home

Although January is known to be the coldest month across Scandinavia, a distinct nip in the air can be felt all the way into April and beyond in some areas. Regardless of where you live in the world, keeping your house warm during the colder months cannot only be costly, but potentially harmful to the environment as well. Read more about Eco-friendly ways to heat your Scandinavian home.

Heating systems, and especially those that rely on fossil fuels to operate, can impact the environment in a number of ways, including contributing to global warming. Unvented combustion heating systems such as charcoal furnaces and kerosene heaters are the biggest culprits as far as generating indoor air pollution is concerned. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to keep your Scandinavian home comfortably warm in an eco-friendly manner.

Eco-Friendly Ways To Heat Your Scandinavian Home
Norwegians love their firewood and wood stoves. Out of 2.5 million dwellings in Norway, 1.2 million use firewood for heating. (Norwegian “kosefyring” translates roughly into “firing with wood for the purpose of relaxation and pleasure”.) Photo: NTNU.

Invest in a geothermal heating system
Geothermal heating remains one of the most efficient and eco-friendly ways to heat a home in Scandinavia. These systems, which utilize the earth’s natural and limitless heat, are particularly popular in Sweden. The hot water and steam that can be found underneath the earth’s surface can power a heating system in the same way traditional fuels such as oil and gas can. Although geothermal systems are considered to be quite a large investment, they typically pay for themselves within eight years, while also adding a substantial amount of resale value to a home.

If you have a furnace, make sure it’s well-maintained
Although gas furnaces are not quite as popular in Scandinavia as they are in the USA, for instance, they are still being utilized as an eco-friendly home heating method. Furnaces that make use of natural gas are by far more environmentally-friendly than their electric or oil counterparts. In order for a gas furnace to remain in tip-top shape and not have a negative impact on indoor air quality and the environment as a whole, it has to undergo regular maintenance and swift repairs when needed. Some of the most common issues to look out for include faulty blower motors and hot surface ignitors. If your furnace continues to give problems despite all major parts seemingly functioning well, you might have to have a closer look at your furnace control board.

Solar heating is always a winner
Over the past decade, the use of solar power has grown exponentially in Scandinavia. This is no surprise, considering that solar heating is believed to be the most eco-friendly heating solution available at present. Although a solar heating installation does require an upfront investment, it is generally not as expensive as it is believed to be, and also serves as a virtually-free heat source for life. Solar heating systems all require a solar panel installation, which is both easy and quick to complete. A homeowner does have to decide on a type of heating system though, as this will determine what further installations are required.

Eco-Friendly Ways To Heat Your Scandinavian Home
There are a number of ways to do heat your Scandinavian home without having a negative impact on the environment. Photo: Sigmund / Unsplash

During the cold Scandinavian winters, it is essential to keep your house warm. Luckily, there are a number of ways to do this without having a negative impact on the environment.

Eco-Friendly Ways To Heat Your Scandinavian Home
Karoline Gore

Eco-Friendly Ways To Heat Your Scandinavian Home, written exclusively for Daily Scandinavian by Karoline Gore. Karoline is a freelance writer from Stoke on Trent in the UK who left the corporate grind when she started a family and has never looked back. She enjoys contributing to a range of online publications on the topics that are important to her.

 

Other articles written by Karoline Gore:
Building A Luxury Jewelry Collection In Stockholm
Interesting Scandinavian Names For Your Baby
Top Fishing Spots in Stockholm

Feature image (on top): Photo by Ivan Kuznetsov / Unsplash