Hearth and soul
31.12.69
Hearth and soul
The recession has forever changed the look and feel of the Irish hearth. The challenge of heating our homes in winter means that a multi-fuel burning stove is now the hottest thing a house can have, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER
HE STOVE, ONCE relegated to garden sheds and garages, is back at the heart of the Irish home – the hearth. In Ireland the fire is a ritual that marks the change of the seasons, says stylist Josephine Ryan, author of newly published Essential Irish; Homes With Classic Irish Style, a book that celebrates our interiors. It is the focal point of any room, she says, adding: “At one time lighting the fire was associated with hardship back when central heating and hot running water were not a given. Their advent made us look at the open fire more romantically. But that sense of romantic Ireland is dying, because of the hard fact that fuel costs are rising.”
We’ve all had to think more efficiently which is why more and more people are warming to the idea of a multi-fuel stove. With an open fire you lose between 75 per cent and 80 per cent of the heat up the chimney, explains William Fenton of Greystones-based Fenton Fires. “With a stove the inverse is almost true. After two harsh winters, and another forecast, who can afford that level of inefficiency?”
Source: Irish Times
The chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation opens his Swedish home and ...
31.12.69
When Marcus Storch, chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation, bought his summer house in Torekov, the seaside resort favoured by the Swedish business elite, he did not put an Aga cooker into the kitchen. “We didn’t need one,” says Storch, 69, who spent 15 years as chief executive of Aga, the global industrial gas company once run by Swedish inventor Gustaf Dalén. “Today’s Swedish houses are well insulated. We have triple panes on our windows with a vacuum in the middle. The Aga was once used instead of central heating. It provided Swedish houses with hot water,” he says of Dalén’s kitchen invention, sold to a British company in 1931. “I wanted to buy the cooker division back because of the brand. But they treated the brand nicely.”
Storch explains that Dalén created the Aga after he went blind in an acetylene explosion. “He produced a stove with constant temperatures on the burners. That’s the unique feature. You don’t adjust the heat; you move around the pans. He could make a cup of tea without having to see.” Dalén had over 100 patents, which included the modern lighthouse and advanced optical lenses, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1912.
Source: Financial Times
By Regular Post News-hound Upmarket cooker maker Aga has revealed a 3 per cent dip in annual revenues, claiming it was as upright as could be expected prone refractory trade in conditions. Revenues were down to £251million after a especially demanding end to 2011.and more »
