Focus fireplaces introduce Ecodesign Ready label
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As winter approaches our thoughts turn to keeping warm and the options available. Focus has built its reputation over 50 years designing state-of-the-art fireplaces from its headquarters in the South of France. Over the years they have blended innovation with design to create some of the most iconic creations. Focus was the first company to develop a suspended and pivoting fireplace which has remained their trademark.
The French manufacturer’s energy efficient fires are making eco-friendly specification easy for architects. With building regulations changing in 2022, Focus’s Ecodesign Ready label aims to help architects make eco-responsible choices when specifying fireplaces. Focus fires are readily available throughout the UK.
Ecodesign is the European Union’s programme for lowering emissions across Europe. It is due to be implemented on 1 January 2022 for woodburning and multi-fuel stoves. The characteristics that make fires and stoves Ecodesign Ready are a reduction of particulate emissions, unburned gases and energy consumption but with an increase in energy efficiency.
Around 60 per cent of Focus sales are outside France and the company has adapted to the most stringent requirements to remain competitive in the US, Russia, Europe and other countries.
Focus has built its reputation on research and development and now includes 17 gas models in its catalogue. Focus gas fires emulate flames and the play of a real wood fire to an authentic degree while eliminating its disadvantages. All the gas fires in the Focus range are equipped with a CE-certified gas burner that can operate with either natural gas or propane. The state-of-the-art combustion system in Focus gas fires guarantees ease of use and high performance.
Focus has recently designed the Slimfocus, a DEFRA-approved fire ideal for urban areas where there are restrictions on woodburning fires and stoves. The Slimfocus features a cylinder of flames with a hearth either suspended (in which case it can pivot) or supported by a base and fixed in place. Its streamlined shape takes up little space,
whether positioned centrally in a room, near a wall or in a corner. Its fluid lines make it one of Focus’s most stylistically revolutionary fireplaces.
The merging of interior and exterior schemes has resulted in many leading models being adapted for outdoor use, with the pivoting, suspended Gyrofocus, Ergofocus and Emifocus recently joining this stable, with an anti-corrosion coating and a resistant black paint or rust finish that develops a patina over time.
Gas fires are equipped with a remote control and are easily adjustable and simple to use, while the wood fires with a thermal efficiency of 70 per cent or more are an excellent way to use renewable energies. Focus has an augmented reality app so that clients can visualise a Focus fireplace in their own home.
Focus fireplaces are available in over 70 countries and there are 70 models to choose from. Their distinctive designs are matched only by their technology and energy efficiency.
For more than 50 years, Dominique Imbert’s creations for Focus have been making design history. It was in 1967 that he designed his first fireplace for his personal use, the model Antéfocus, in the heart of his sculpture studio located at the foothill of the Cevennes. But the creation that really sparked the imagination was the iconic Gyrofocus, created in 1968. Since then, Focus creations are found in both private homes, hotels and some of the most prestigious design museums in the world. Many Focus fireplaces have been awarded international awards for both design and technology.
