Does a tunnel kiln emit less than a shuttle kiln per tonne fired?
Usually yes per tonne, when it runs full. A tunnel kiln fires continuously and uses heat from the cooling zone to preheat incoming ware. A shuttle kiln reheats its walls and kiln furniture every cycle, but suits small or varied batches. Compare fuel per tonne from your own bills.
Why the tunnel kiln often wins
- No reheating of the kiln structure each cycle.
- Cooling air from finished ware preheats the next load.
- Steady firing is easier to tune.
When a shuttle kiln makes sense
- Small runs or many different products.
- Production that stops often, where a tunnel kiln would idle hot.
Compare on your numbers
Divide fuel bought (from invoices, adjusted for stock) by tonnes of good ware fired, for at least a few months. Rejects count against the kiln that made them.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills and applies IPCC 2006 factors and the CEA grid factor (0.710 kg CO2 per kWh), so you can compare Scope 1 and 2 before and after a change from the documents themselves.
Sources: 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.