Effective Masonry Heaters
by Justin Thomas, Virginia 
on 09. 9.05
There are some people out there who feel burning wood is inherently untreehugger-like. But when wood is burnt correctly, it can be a very effective method of heating. Other forms of heating are not without their own problems, and most rely on non-rewenable sources. Masonry heaters are efficient because the wood is burnt rapidly without smoldering. The heat is stored in the thermal mass of the masonry, and then slowly radiates into your house for the next 18 to 24 hours. The house is never overheated, and air pollution is reduced dramatically.
The other benefit of masonry heaters is that they produce radiant heat rather than conventional convection or forced air heat. With radiant heat, the air temperature is less important, the heat is felt in a similar way to the radiant heat of the sun. Because of this, the air inside the house is not dried out and it is not recirculated through a furnance.
Masonry stoves have been used to heat homes for centuries in Scandinavia, and are becoming rediscovered in other parts of the world. The Finnish government encourages the use of masonry heaters through tax incentives, to reduce the use of natural gas, oil and electricity. The result is that 90% of the new homes built each year in Finland are heated with a masonry stoves.
Masonry heaters can be fed with wood in the morning, and left to burn without maintenance. The heat channels through a complex baffling system inside the stove, and is evenly released throughout the day. It is even safe to leave the house unattended while the stove is burning.
More information on masonry heaters is available from Heat-Kit.Com. There is also a Masonry Heater Association Home Page.
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they've had them for over a hundred years in russia.... masonry stoves are awesome. many now include water heaters as well.... you can het a whole house on a bundle of twigs! personally i'm much more into pelletstoves especially the one i just linked (98% efficient!! seriously, try to beat that! instead of a chimney all you need is a dryer outlet)instead of burning twigs and small woood bundles you canburn pellets made from switchgrass, hemp, sawdust.... that's my personal prefrence... burn switchgrass for heat...
and if you do want to burn some wood in a hper-efficient DIY way, Y not build a rocket stove (cook a whoel breakfast for four on some rolled up newspaper or a serious bundle of twigs)?
sorry forgot the link: Rocket Stoves
Pictured is a 2160kg Tulikivi Zefiro soapstone fireplace. http://www.tulikivi.com
Are there combinations between pellet stoves and masonry heaters? From what I can tell, the advantage of the pellet stove is that it is able to throttle the amount of fuel that it uses to create the heat, and uses all of the heat very efficiently.
On the other hand, the masonry heater uses the wood fuel, burns that very efficiently, then stores the heat energy and releases it over time.
So, are there any masonry pellet stoves out there? In other words, burn the pellets for fuel and use them to heat a masonry heater, which will release that energy slowly over time?
what about emissions?
I would love to use a combination pellet/masonry stove but here's my 2 cents on the drawbacks of pellet stoves from owning one ten years ago (have they improved since then?)
* my stove was dependent on manufactured pellets - they had to be a certain consistency or it would gum up. (in a perfect world I'd like to be able to feed anything into it) I didn't like being dependent on a manufacturer (and their price fixing)
* dependent on electricity to run the auger
Something similar which can also be used for cooking is a wood-fired brick oven.. the kind used in traditional pizza and bread baking.
Start one small fire, and the heat is radiated from the bricks for several days. Even if you can't build one inside the house (these things are big..), it's still a better alternative than using an inefficient electric oven.
for those interested with masonry heater capabilities, i have recently built one myself. You can see progress on my blog http.//360°.yahoo.com/henryMarchal. I would gladly answer
any querries.
Henry you had better get a new website url. Can't get that one to come up. IE 6. 128 bit.seems to be having a problem deciphering your 'degree' symbol in a http address.
Hi scooter,
You are not the first one who cannot access and at the same time hundreds have no problems. Try www.diymasonryheater.blogspot.com and follow the link. Maybe it will work.
That ZeoFire model is $26k as pictured!!!
Add the foundation & flue and it is $30K
10 times the price of the most expensive Cast Iron Pellet stove made by Harman.
It may be good in Canada or Alaska or the California Rockies. But a bit expensive for my tastes.