1. Determining the focus

1.1 The home's role

The essential role of the hearth is to ensure combustion under the right conditions, i.e. :

• with safety, which implies flame stability and sufficiently accurate detection of extinguishment to avoid the risk of explosion by re-ignition;

• with good efficiency, i.e. with minimum unburnt gas and solids, and minimum excess air;

• with a minimum of maintenance, hence the need to reduce refractory parts, which are always more fragile and more susceptible to ash sticking than metal parts;

• with the possibility of using several fuels either separately or together.

In addition to this main role,...