Masonry Heater, would you put one in your house?

[SCinPNW]

I saw an article on the Survival Blog recently regarding Masonry Heaters. Do you know about them? I love these things and really want to put one in our next house. LOL, assuming we get to build one. :p I first learned about them about 5 years ago when I saw a house in our area that was for sale that had one. They advertised it as a Russian Furnace or Fireplace and I had to look it up as I had not heard of it before. Since then I have been hooked as I cannot see a down side to using one. What is your opinion, do you think they are as good as they sound? What would be the cons to having one?

Here is a link to the Masonry Heater Association, they have lots of good info: http://www.mha-net.org/

SC

[tech]

I have mixed feelings on these. The heat sink idea is good, but I have doubts about the efficiency. They are claimed to burn wood cleanly since it is burned quickly...which is fine, but by burning the wood quickly, less exposure time is given for the thermal mass to absorb the heat generated.

Would I put one in my home? Probably not, but in SE Louisiana, it doesn't take much to heat a well-insulated house. I'll stay with my wood-burning box stove.

Again, and this is only my opinion, but the MHA site is trying to sell the idea...expect a bias towards the concept ;)

[SCinPNW]

Tech, thank you for your opinion, I really appreciate it! I am not an engineer, or even technical on these things so I appreciate reading other people's opinions as it helps me look at things more critically with a different perspective.

Thanks again,
SC

[Klayton]

How is this different from the old "soapstone" woodstoves or the solar heated "trombe walls"???

[EX121]

I haven't actually seen one in person but they look great. I was planning on putting one in a house, but due to health problems that plan didn't work out.

[SCinPNW]

Klayton, I think they are similar. According to this website, it would appear that one of the differences is the design of the flue. In the Masonry/Russian Heater the flue is serpentine, where if you scroll down on this site (http://www.masonryheaterdesignhouse...._resources.php) it does not appear to be serpentine. Here is another .pdf file that shows their design: http://www.tulikivi.com/usa/instalintructions09.pdf

I found these links that offer a little more info on the masonry heaters:

http://heatkit.com/docs/course.PDF

http://www.loghomeu.com/profiles/blogs/masonry-heaters

From doing further reading, the two reasons I found why one might choose not to install one of these heaters would be cost ($10k - $15k or more) is cost prohibitive for a lot of people, and if you were wanting to install it into an existing home the weight could be a problem.

I have to say, I still like the idea of the masonry heater, and will continue to try and find more info on them.

SC

[tired-medic]

I thought about one of these but they would seem to work best where you need continuous heat and quite a bit of it. Here in the south it did not seem to be a good match.

[Klayton]

Still seems like a trombe wall would be much safer... **shrugs**

[SCinPNW]

Interesting, I have not heard of a Trombe wall before. Off to check ti out.

SC

[Klayton]

Basically a stone wall placed in a way that the day's sunlight falling through a window absorbs the solar energy during the day and releases the heat throughout the night. Obviously you need very efficient windows, probably assisted with some nice thick ceiling to floor curtains to further insulate the windows during the night.

They are one thing I am playing with in my head as an alternate heating source for my future dream retreat. I have seen some that the owner's have had someone (?) drill out 3 inch tunnels and hooked up forced heating to help heat the stone (perhaps this heated air was also run off solar power?) to increase the effectiveness of the wall to absorb even more heat during the daylight hours.