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Smokeman in Action

SMOKEMAN Educational Show

The educational show is designed for both children and adults, offering a wide range of engaging insights. The goal of the show is to introduce proper combustion in local heating units to the general public. The public can learn how to determine the efficiency of their own heating equipment at home and discover what factors most influence what comes out of their chimneys.

SMOKEMAN’s Ten Commandments

Proper heating starts with each of us. Explore these simple principles on how to heat more economically, cleanly, and considerately toward your surroundings.

SMOKEMAN´s Educational Show is focused on popularizing topics that affect every one of us: energy, biomass, combustion, heat, heating, and phase changes. Our goal is to clearly explain the principles that routinely influence air quality, energy consumption, and everyday household operations.

The show is backed by a team of experts who have dedicated many years to the issues of local heating, fuel combustion, and air protection. We believe that many seemingly complex or obscure topics can be explained simply, visually, and practically. Therefore, we present experiments and demonstrations that allow audiences to see firsthand how combustion works, why fuel quality matters, how emissions are generated, and what role proper heating plays.

We follow the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words—and an experiment is worth a thousand pictures. That is why we strive to let our audiences literally experience energy firsthand. Through simple, safe, and illustrative demonstrations, we show what happens during combustion, how heat is generated, where the energy in biomass comes from, why it is important to dry wood properly, and how various energy sources differ in terms of efficiency, cost, and impact on air quality.

Our programs are designed for the general public of all ages. We engage with children and students across all educational levels, families, representatives of municipalities and local governments, air quality officials, and experts from the stationary combustion equipment manufacturing sector. We tailor our content to suit each audience, ensuring it is accessible, practical, and relevant.

We help answer questions that people commonly encounter: Which energy source is the cheapest? How long does firewood need to be seasoned? Why can improper combustion degrade air quality? Where does the energy stored in biomass come from? And what can each of us do to heat our homes more efficiently, economically, and responsibly?

Our ultimate goal is to help people better understand energy, heating, and combustion—empowering them to make choices that contribute to cleaner air for everyone.

SMOKEMAN’s Ten Commandments of Proper Heating

At the Energy Research Center, we have been dedicated to the issue of small combustion equipment for household heating for over 20 years. The experience of the entire testing laboratory team has been formulated into SMOKEMAN’s Ten Commandments of Proper Heating.

Within our combustion equipment testing laboratory, nearly three thousand combustion tests have been conducted with a wide variety of boilers, stoves, and fuels. Their results and long-term practical experience show that there are "only" four basic parameters that most influence what comes out of chimneys when heating homes with solid fuels. Everything is summarized in this video.

Smokeman’s Ten Commandments

Ten Commandments of Proper Heating

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How to Heat Properly

Summary of Smokeman’s Commandments

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Use Modern Combustion Equipment

Continuation of Smokeman’s Commandments

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Regular Cleaning

Regularly clean the boiler, flue pipe, and chimney

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Input and Output Balance for Fireplace Stoves

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Wood Drying

Graphical representation of wood drying

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Combustion Equipment Efficiency

Diagram of combustion equipment efficiency as a function of flue gas temperature and combustion air volume

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Upcoming Events

Příbram

17.9.2026

Uherský Brod

23.9.2026

Zábřeh na Moravě

24.9.2026

Contact Information

Ing. Jiří Ryšavý, Ph.D.

Research Group Leader


jiri.rysavy@vsb.cz
+420 596 994 922

Ing. Jiří Horák, Ph.D.

SMOKEMAN


jiri.horak2@vsb.cz
+420 596 993 869

VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava

Centre for Energy and Environmental Technologies (CEET)

Energy Research Centre (VEC)

17. listopadu 2172/15

708 00 Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic

Kurz