Thanks to members of the chimney industry association, we have statistics on house projects and the chimneys planned for them. Several thousand projects have been included in the statistics each year. The statistical decline in planned chimneys is quite logical as solid fuel boilers are being replaced by other sources as the main heating source. Often this is a heat pump or a gas boiler. Unfortunately, however, the year-on-year loss of chimneys in single-family house projects is greater than would correspond to a change in the planned main source. Thus, in almost 40% projects, no chimney is planned for the family house anymore, and therefore no alternative heating source is planned for the lifetime of the building. Is it reasonable to think that the energy situation will remain unchanged for the next 100 years?

In the recent "energy crisis", all manufacturers and suppliers of chimneys or appliances had a hard time, when there was a huge excess of demand over production capacity and there was nothing to offer customers. House owners did everything possible and impossible to have an additional chimney and to have a local wood-burning appliance. These impulsive decisions under the pressure of inadequate energy prices often meant really unfortunate technical solutions and economically problematic returns on such investment. A retrofitted chimney is often several times more expensive than a planned chimney built as part of the house construction. In addition to this cost disadvantage, perhaps even more important is the fact that the layout of the house did not allow for such a thing and the appropriate placement of the appliance in the centre of the house layout is often unrealistic.

Nowadays, the price of a quality chimney system of modern construction including implementation is up to 1% of the cost of building a house. This is an investment that in the long term can mean energy independence and security in times of price changes. An investment in a chimney can be an investment with a very quick return, it can be an investment for a peaceful old age, or it can be an investment that our children will appreciate. We don't have to decide when we need a chimney all by ourselves. All energy experts agree on one thing: energy will become significantly more expensive and, in fact, more scarce. That's why heating houses with wood is part of the energy strategy of the European Union and the Czech Republic, and it is definitely a long-term strategic advantage for the owner of such a house.