Explain Convection to Me?

[leeave96]

I know what radiant heat is and I know what convection heat is - but when I read about some of these wood stoves, I had a preconceived idea that convective wood stoves always used a fan to force the air around the stove and into the room and in doing so - not much radiant heat.

What are some of the convective wood stoves out there and how do they differ from radiant stoves. Is a fan always required?

Case in point - the PE Alderlea T series woodstoves. They are steel stoves with a cast iron jacket. Do they radiate? Can you warm yourself like a radiant stove standing to the side of it or does the cast iron jacket serve as a heat shield - holding the hot air in such a way that it causes air movement around the stove and out the front (with a fan option too)?

Are the Englander stoves convection too or radiant? It seems like I saw one of these stoves and they had what appeared to be heat sheilds around the sides and back - or at least I thought they were heat shields or were these really wraps designed to cause convection heating?

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Big Al]

The shields on the sides of the Englander are likely the optional heat shields that you can add so the stove can be put in an area where there may be clearance issues. They reduce the minimum clearance to combustibles near the sides of the stove. I believe most stoves come standard with one on the back so the stove can sit closer to the wall .My dad has them on the back and sides of his Regency and if the blower isn't on, the heat isn't that great. I don't have/need them on my Englander. I do have a blower but rarely need to use it. Plenty of heat : )

 

[rdust]

My Lopi Endeavor is a convection style stove.(a lot of their stoves are) You get radiant heat from the front and stove top but that's about it. I can put my hand on the side during the peak of the burn with the blower on and not burn my hand. The blower isn't always required but when it's cold it's a big help. If the house is up to temp and I'm looking to maintain it I can go without the blower, if I'm looking to raise the temp I'll run the blower. For my install I wanted/needed a convection style stove, if I had a big open floor plan I may have looked at some radiant style stoves.

 

[Como]

Put it this way, Radiators emit both Radiant and Convection heat. Radiant is the heat you feel direct, convection is the heat that gets spread around through air currents, a fan either built in or adjacent increases the air flow and the convected heat.