Stove Soapstone Masonry Heaters Fireplaces

We considered geothermal but it wasn’t practical due to water availability concerns and again, the electricity required for the pump. If you place them where you live (living room) it can get pretty hot up close. These heaters are over 95% efficient. They burn so hot that all of the gases and toxins are burnt up before they go out the chimney. Restoration of masonry chimneys a.e. Metal wood stoves must be tended to continually and fluctuate from peak high temperatures, to no heat, when the fire is out. These early forms have evolved into modern systems. These absorb heat from the hot exhaust gases before the gases exit into the chimney.

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When not being fired, the connection from the masonry heater to the chimney sometimes has a damper to prevent heat from escaping up the chimney; the heat is then radiated from the masonry.

Why are masonry heaters so far advanced to inferior wood stoves? Wood stoves must be attended to and fed constantly, sometimes. I only have to be outside for a minute at a time to use it. The talc makes it easy to work and gives soapstone a wonderful softness to the touch. They work great at retaining and radiating the heat directly off the top of your wood stove!

Contra flow soapstone masonry heater by M. Teixeira Soapstone. www.soapstones.com www.soapstone-woodstove.com.Soapstone Masonry Heater Top Down Burn – Soapstone Masonry Stove

We did have 40 acres of trees and wood heat was a consideration but what would be the best kind of apparatus to deliver the heat?

You also have to keep a woodstove going 24/7 in the cold months. The exhaust chamber starts at the firebox and then winds through the mass of masonry before it exits out the chimney. It is the same type of heat the sun puts out. Finnish soapstone that retains heat and operates more efficiently than standard fireplaces. We are the area’s premiere dealer of fireplaces, masonry heaters, wood burning stoves, bake ovens and cook stoves. Or would this high capacity heater be too much of a good thing? High-efficiency wood stoves do a much better job of providing heat, with less pollution, than an old-fashioned fireplace. These facts seem a little odd at a time when energy costs continue to rise, and in truth concerns about wood burning may not translate to rural areas where local sources of hardwood are abundant.

Add a storage battery (the masonry) and you have a very efficient, non-polluting heating system. Yet wood is a sustainable energy source, only when proper wood lot management is employed and when its energy is extracted efficiently and cleanly. American market as the #1 wood burner? A wood stove is a metal or stone box with a pipe – and a little gadgetry to increase efficiency. The piping should be the same as a wood stove. Masonry stoves can release heat from anywhere up to 36 hours after the fire has gone out (the larger the thermal mass the more heat the appliance can retain).

In a more modern masonry heater with a glass door, this means that they can enjoy the fire during the evening. Simply put, they store the heat, not the fire. When the fire is out, the dampers are closed, and the soapstone mass radiates heat for 12-24 hours. Masonry stoves are clean burning, environmentally friendly and easy to use. Had a fabulous maiden voyage making pizza in the orchard yesterday, huge hit with the public. I can sometimes revive the fire a full two days after an evening of pizza-making. Greenstone has the premier green, renewable, carbon neutral heating source you can find. The directions are packed with illustrations and diagrams to make installation as easy as possible. The mailbox returns to the centered position, on its own, without the use of springs or motors. But check it out if you like as it is being built. The cost was a bit more expensive than a high end insert and we still had to face the thing with brick so it was a no brainer for us.

Just got back from the step sons place where you had to add wood to the stove a couple of times each night. Finnish soapstone that retains heat and operates more efficiently than standard fireplaces. We are the area’s premiere dealer of fireplaces, masonry heaters, wood burning stoves, bake ovens and cook stoves. Stone/strawcrete storage heater for our wood stove. Since masonry heaters burn hot and fast, they can accept any dry, split (usually three to five inches in diameter) wood. Europe, these heaters are sometimes effectively fired using grass, straw, and hay. Europe to modify these efficient heaters so that they are connected to the gas network and are fueled with gas. These are used only as a backup heat source during periods when the structure will be left unattended for long duration in winter (and therefore with no one to build a new fire in the heater each day or as needed) to prevent the structure from freezing.

As in the past once the firewood has burned, the warmed mass of the stove continues to radiate heat, but the size of the flue passages of modern masonry heaters are more exactly calculated than they used to be; this is done to provide increased efficiency and output and use less wood.

My thought was to use this idea on a 3″ slab poured over floor joists. The diurnal storage capacity of the slab wouldn’t be affected the same way as when using typical radiant floor heat and should allow the wood stove to ‘replace’ the sun when it’s cloudy.

Additionally if the wood stove were located on the floor below the slab would you still need a pump or would thermosiphoning work? Then you realize that it’s too hot upstairs. Simple wood stoves work well, and are easier to control. Heaters are thermal flywheels which allow homeowners to build short high temperature fires at their convenience and then benefit from the heat over a 12 to 24 hour period.

Would it be possible for a wood stove to provide enough heat to a slab to result in overheating?

It takes 30.8 btu/cf to raise concrete by one degree. Consider a slab, 44’x12’x3″ = 132 cf, it takes 4, 065 btu to raise that slab by one degree. My line of questioning is more directed at would there be sufficient btu’s available through a water coil to effect a worthwhile change on slab temperature.

Is your stove placed near a stairwell or other method encouraging better heat flow to the farther reaches of the house?

I understand that placing the stove nearer the center would help in balancing the heat output, but what about when you can’t due to house layout?

By conduction (since the warm bricks raise your body temperature when you lean against the chimney, or when you sit on a raised hearth, or when grandma takes a nap on an old-fashioned bench built into the heater).

By radiation (since the warm bricks can heat your skin, or the furniture, whenever the temperature of the bricks is warmer than objects that are within sight of the masonry heater).

The wall cavities will be filled with blown in cellouse, and the rafter cavities with closed cell expanding foam. I don’t think this will be a problem in the warmer months, as we will have the windows open for ventilation and cooling. My house has no mechanical ventilation system. You might want to reconsider your plan to sandwich your roof sheathing between interior and exterior foam. I would advise filling the rafter bays with dense-packed cellulose, not spray foam. Your idea for an exhaust only ventilation system sounds like it could work. Several studies of small homes with exhaust-only ventilation systems show good air quality in these homes. It makes sense to exhaust air from a stinky, humid room like a bathroom. If you are worried about this possibility, it’s a good idea to perform air sealing work on your floor. Old timers tell me the always had the sniffles and headaches from these stoves (could it have been carbon monoxide). Is it about the cost of the unit or the cost of operating the unit?

Not all masonry heaters are enormous; many are quite small and more appropriate for smaller or better insulated houses. The other factor is that even if your house does not need the all the heat that a particular heater can put out, the masonry heater can still work well for the house.

That said, it is always a good idea to size a heater appropriately for the heat load of the house in question. This could be a wasteful and mind blowing amount of air exchanged. It would be irresponsible for me to advocate that anyone build a very tight house without considering mechanical ventilation. An efficient heater should produce heat at the same rate as the heat is given off (emitted). Keeping the window small means the heat gets absorbed into the masonry. An efficient heater should produce heat at the same rate, as the heat is given off (emitted). Yet because the metal gives off heat so rapidly, this stove may not reach the internal temperatures necessary to burn off all hydrocarbons. Drawn by the draft from the chimney, the hot air flows down the flues transferring its heat to the flue walls before entering the chimney at the base of the heater (g).

Note the drawings on right, the channels (baffles) can meander up and down, side to side or both. To the uninstructed stranger it promises nothing; but he will soon find that it is a masterly performer, for all that. Its surface is not hot; you can put your hand on it anywhere and not get burnt. It’s a finnish contraflow type in loam blocks, with a heat exchanger on top that powers our hot water supply and underfloor heating for the rest of the house.

They solve the overheating of a room with thermal mass, so much hotter, shorter burns. Is there anywhere where you can get plans and measurements to understand more about how to make them properly? We are having condensation problems in the last half of the heated bench. The water pools in the bottom of the flue linners in the heated bench and leaks out through the cracks in the joints of the linners used to make the heated bench.

The joints were motored with high temperature motor that has cracked after a month of burning it. The liquid will start to evaporate after the first half of the burn if it has not leaked out already. There should have been instructions with your kit. Either your heater never cured and dried out, or you have not heated it hot enough. I was hoping to use it to heat the house while we drywall and finish the inside of the house. The concrete pad under the heater and the basement is around freezing for temperature. Even if the heater is hot the heated bench is luke warm to the touch. I can not get enough heat produced to get the heated bench real hot. The air in the heated bench clay flue linners will finally warm up enough later in the burn to start evaporating the condensation. If a guy ends up redoing the heated bench is there a type of concrete that a guy can use instead of the clay flue liners so a person can have one continuous trough with no joints that can take expansion and contraction without cracking?

Any suggestions of steps, resources, etc. I can understand why my previous post didn’t get past the moderator and should have been more positive. A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this discussion! Sounds like you may not be up on the most modern wood stoves – which equal or surpass most masonry heaters in total efficiency. That said, masonry heaters are great things!

But it’s not an either/or proposition. The main problem, besides the cost, with masonry stoves is the weight and space. People who buy them rely on conventional “supplemental” heating”. I couldn’t match the full-time heating capability of a woodstove, couldn’t vary the heat output meaningfully, would have to purpose build the house around it and would have to scratch-build two fires/day (vs never having to restart a woodstove as long as we’re not on vacation).

Look forward to seeing the pics of the build. There has been a lot of discussion about masonry heaters here. They are just one more heating option and one that few people choose for any number of reasons. I have a friend that has one and it is pretty cool for sure, but it was horribly expensive to have built and dominates the house.

This is in fact where masonry heaters came from – survival!

They build smaller more efficient houses and they heat them with masonry heaters. Yes, we know the meaning of waste and excess. Joe the wood stove salesman needs to make a living?

Cost is high because of unfamiliarity. All posts now gluten free and contain no trans fats. I decide to give up wood heating. I can handle so a little less efficiency is ok with me. Cost of a masonry heater over my lifetime will not be recouped. It looks like a pile of stone and/or brick put together in a specific way to me – nothing more. Cost of a masonry heater over my lifetime will not be recouped. Yes pellet stoves have slightly higher efficiency rating, but masonry heaters provide better heat, huh?

Masonry heaters are for a certain breed. The air in the room in turn is warmed to the same temperature as the surfaces and the objects in the room. The laws of thermal dynamics dictate that heat flows from warm surfaces to cool surfaces. As long as there is an opening between rooms the air temperature will equalize naturally.

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