how much firewood for "global warming"?

I've reduced my wood use by about 40%. Have a stove now that has a 2 1/2 in pipe on each side of the fire pit that delivers fresh air low in the fire box. Where the ignition is taking place. It is very efficient. Empty ash every 4-5 weeks. Get about a 5 gallon pail full. If I can figure out how to attach them i will post a picture and a drawing. I've been burning for years and have never seen a wood stove that is this efficient.
Your fortunate with that wood price Brad, on this side of the state it is 60-100 a rick delivered.
I lined the stove with fire brick (1.60$ each locally), cut them to fit exact, they cut surprisingly easy with a chop saw and a masonry blade. Laid them up with a running pattern. Been using it for months now with zero problems. The fan behind it helps move heat throughout the house, aprox. 1300 sq. ft. No problem at all keeping the place at 72 degrees.

Mija

mija said:

I've reduced my wood use by about 40%. Have a stove now that has a 2 1/2 in pipe on each side of the fire pit that delivers fresh air low in the fire box. Where the ignition is taking place. It is very efficient. Empty ash every 4-5 weeks. Get about a 5 gallon pail full. If I can figure out how to attach them i will post a picture and a drawing. I've been burning for years and have never seen a wood stove that is this efficient.
Your fortunate with that wood price Brad, on this side of the state it is 60-100 a rick delivered.

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Sounds like a Tempwood stove.. Just a square box with two pipes on each side of the round fire pit top opening.
The pipes set into the stove with two flaps for heat adjustment.
They used too be made in North Adams Mass.
Adjusting the heat control flaps controls the air flow. Air feeds too the bottom of the fire.
Super super efficient clean long burning if adjusted properly.
Basic rule of thumb when we lived in Vermont.
When you think you have enough firewood. Chop some more.
Another great furnace is a wood fuel oil combo.
Kind of pricey but will save money in the long run.
Burns firewood and if you run out of wood, the oil kicks in too maintain temperature.
I told you too cut more wood j4. You did not listen. :lol:

Ash, I was looking at those too.
Depending on the size of your cabin, and building codes (if there are any in that area), they seem very efficient. But if you look into them more, most people using them are in fairly small homes and most of them are earth made houses. You know the hippie type in the north west. Another thing is the exhaust, most building codes require the chimney to be above the highest point of the building, if you make the heat exchanger to long it won't have enough force/draft to go that high.
Now to use the same principles you could make something similar, look up a masonry heater or Russian stove, it's almost the same thing but made of brick or stone and looks like a fireplace, the exhaust gases pass through several turns before going out the chimney or pipe. You burn them hot to heat up the masonry and that slowly radiates the heat.

Actually a steel/cast iron stove (wood or coal) can be turned into a mass heater, build up brick or stone around it to hold in the heat. And if you put a thermometer on the stove pipe before it goes into the chimney or exits the building and your getting readings over 300 degrees, you can reroute that sideways through a heat mass then turn it back toward the exit to soak up more heat.

I found info where a guy built a mass heater using a 30gal & 55gal drum, placed them inside each other so the 30 is the fire box, then he put masonry sand (crushed granite) between the two (this was the heat mass). He claims with a short hot fire it radiates heat for at least 6 hours.
I'm actually looking into doing something like this right now, the place I live in now is all electric heat and three months of the year the bill at least doubles and the rates keep going up, hopefully this will help a little and I can get wood fairly cheap or free.

Coils...

Yes.. Please. You are good with this picture talking machine.. You mentioned the Russian stoves. I read a long time ago about them.. They use them in Siberia, where wood is scarce and heat is life or death.
Rather complicated heat exchangers, but super super efficient.
Lessons learned from some cold winters in Vermont. Dont get a stove that is too big for heating your home.
You will have a creosote build up and the stove will not work efficiently.
Like our AC units here in Florida. Too big the A.C. cant do an air exchange. It defeats the workability of the unit.
Coils. See if you can find something on those Russian stove heaters. They build them with fire bricks, I do believe. But the efficiency of them is supposed too be incredible.
The stove Mija has, I have used. Excellent in my small cabin in Vermont.
Your project, if you decide too accept this mission. :cheers:
Get info on the Russian stove.
I am going too be at knob Creek with BigAl, Bluejack and 555th this spring. Come hell or high-water.
Looking forward too meeting you and the guys.
I want my picture with Bluejack and his autograph.

Coils said:

4th here's a couple videos, I'll look for more info.
YouTube - Russian Fireplace/ Masonry Heater
YouTube - All About Masonry Heaters


Oh and like that stove Mija has, look at this one a guy did with a barrel.
YouTube - steves homemade wood stove the sequel

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The first two links are basically "nice" versions of the 3rd world rocket stove mass heaters. I'll probably go with the nicer version. I always wonder why people don't allow for air from *outside* for combustion air, it makes the most sense. Why would you pull air from inside to burn and force cold air to be drawn in from all the cracks and so-forth. Not to mention cold air is denser, more oxygen, for a hotter burn.
And for code in northern Michigan, in the woods (the big woods), it's pretty lenient. As long as I feel good (as a licensed builder and licensed electrician) I should be good.
I wonder where you can source all those sweet oven doors and all that cool iron work, need to start looking.
Happy new year by the way. Seems a lot like last year, 'cept I gotta start paying FICA again so it's actually worse than the end of last year. Great.

The first two links are basically "nice" versions of the 3rd world rocket stove mass heaters.

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Yeah they basicly are, but that design has been around a lot longer then the rocket stove. They both use the same basic principle, burn some fuel hot and fast, and trap the energy in a heat mass. I think the rocket style ones use less fuel since it has a small feeding area, but I also think they need to be loaded/attended more often, the older design will burn longer because it can hold more fuel and doesn't need as much attention.
There's a video on YouTube of a guy that built a rocket mass heater with just bricks, it reminds me of a compination of a rocket stove & Russian stove but smaller, it looks like it takes up less floor space then a pallet (40"x48") would and maybe about 4'-5' tall.

What I would do is study both designs and combine them together to fit your needs.

Hell this guy designed a low cost down draft rocket style stove out of barrels and never knew it.
The pic (only one) sucks but you get a good idea how it works. The large barrel is the downdraft fire box, the pipe that goes into the small drum goes almost to the top and the chimney pipe is a seperate pipe that goes down into the barrel. This forces the heat to stay in the barrel longer and radiates more of it.
THE ULTIMATE BARREL STOVE

The Russian stove makes the heat work too get out. Rather than just shooting up the chimney.

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That's the main downside of most stoves (even new ones) and fireplaces, 60-80% of the energy from the fuel goes up the chimney, make this energy travel a little further and through a battery (bricks or clay) to save as much of that energy as you can. That's why I said earlier about just putting bricks around a basic wood/coal stove will save a lot of that heat as well.