Ash/ember container as secondary heat source

[dreezon]

So, I have this idea for bringing some warmth into one of the cooler rooms in my house (and I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it)... a custom-made ash and ember container (steel? cast iron? soap stone might be nice) that would be safe to set on a hardwood floor by a wall (maybe it would have little legs & a heat shield on the back side). It would almost be like a mini stove without an exhaust.

Dumb idea? Surely it could be designed so that it's safe. Would the amount of heat be too little to justify the effort? We could purposely load it with a lot of embers.

 

[fossil]

Glowing embers are burning chunks of wood. That means they're continuing to consume Oxygen and produce combustion products, including Carbon Monoxide. I highly recommend against doing what you propose. Rick

 

[LLigetfa]

As kids we used to warm large river stones on the wood burning cook stove and then stick them in our beds to warm up the sheets. You can buy Victorian bed warming pans that you load with hot coals to do the same thing.

 

[dreezon]

Glowing embers are burning chunks of wood. That means they're continuing to consume Oxygen and produce combustion products, including Carbon Monoxide. I highly recommend against doing what you propose. Rick

If the thing is air tight or very near it, though, the combustion wouldn't continue. It would mostly just be making use of the heat that's stored in them.

Of course the other other idea that I considered was having some nice fat slabs of soapstone sitting on top of the stove and some kind or metal rack I could set them in in the other room.

 

[branchburner]

I have a few granite backsplash remnants, 3/4 x 6 x 48". Lean them up against the stove 'til hot, then put them in a room where needed for toasty toes. Portable radiant floor heat, great for the bathroom.

 

[begreen]

This is not too far from how they heated homes in the olden days before electricity in some countries. Often the room would be arranged around a central brazier that held charcoal. I think it may still be found occasionally in rural Japan (kotatsu?) and other countries. That said, these probably were fairly drafty dwellings as opposed to our modern homes.

 

[grommal]

Glowing embers are burning chunks of wood. That means they're continuing to consume Oxygen and produce combustion products, including Carbon Monoxide. I highly recommend against doing what you propose. Rick

If the thing is air tight or very near it, though, the combustion wouldn't continue. It would mostly just be making use of the heat that's stored in them.

Of course the other other idea that I considered was having some nice fat slabs of soapstone sitting on top of the stove and some kind or metal rack I could set them in in the other room.

If it was airtight so the combustion would stop, you would not have much heat to radiate from the coals, as they are not very dense. Using soapstone slabs or big chunks of steel/iron heated by the stove would work better, and have zero risk of CO emission (unless they started your floor smoldering!).

 

[dreezon]

I have a few granite backsplash remnants, 3/4 x 6 x 48". Lean them up against the stove 'til hot, then put them in a room where needed for toasty toes. Portable radiant floor heat, great for the bathroom.

Yeah, I'm liking that. I could maybe pick up a few remnants. What stones other than soap stone would be best for storing heat, I wonder.

 

[firefighterjake]

A number of years ago a guy in the town next to mine was making soapstone bed warmers like they used to use here in Maine.

I see at least one place is still making them today.

http://www.vermontsoapstone.com/acquiring_bedwarmer.asp


Me . . . I would stay away from the idea of hot coals attempting to warm the house. Besides, my hot coals are used to help warm my house right where I leave them in the stove.