1,500 Pound Soapstone Wood Stoves
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I tried talking my wife into a Tulikivi when were having the new foundation poured. She wouldn't have it. Too bad, I like these massive guys.
I'd be all over a thermal mass stoe if we ever build another home.
Friends who live downeat have one and they burn about 4 cord/yr. to heat their home. The "start up:" cost is not inconsequential. But with planning and thought a thermal mass stove is really very economical when factored over several years. You put the money in on the front end... not unlike the investment in an oil-fired, foreced hot water system.
Efficiency is all about planning and building the home around the stove. If you think you can "retrofit" a home for one... well... power to ya!
Friends who live downeat have one and they burn about 4 cord/yr. to heat their home. The "start up:" cost is not inconsequential. But with planning and thought a thermal mass stove is really very economical when factored over several years. You put the money in on the front end... not unlike the investment in an oil-fired, foreced hot water system.
Efficiency is all about planning and building the home around the stove. If you think you can "retrofit" a home for one... well... power to ya!
That is the beauty of these particular ones. My only retrofit would be reinforcement of the floor to keep the thing from ending up in the basement some night.
Pretty much the same price as the Hearthstone Equinox. They weigh twice as much, but don't deliver as many BTU's since it has a smaller fire box. It would be nice fit for a smaller home.
Man with all that soapstone 1700 lbs. all you get is heat for 1200 sq.ft. for up to maybe 12 hrs.Each of my stoves do better than that.I'll have to pass on this one.
Pretty high EPA GPH coming in at 6.4, doesn't sound all that efficient to me. All that soapstone looks pretty far away from the cast insert when you look at how it's built. Seems like most of the heat goes up the chimney before the soapstone would have a chance to suck it up. Masonry heaters have masonry channels for the exhaust to travel through to catch that extra heat before it exits the chimney.
I would like to have one to play with in the basement. Fire the crap out of it for four hours twice a day and see how it does. If ya trash the firebox it is easy enough to change it out. With the openings in the front to pass convection air while it is burning and then the mass to bleed heat for a while it might have possibilities. I actually like the suspended cast iron firebox. Wouldn't take forever to get it up to temp.
For some reason I think I would rather see a steel stove in there ..... I think it would give more flexibility with higher temps to allow the stone to absorb ... the key is to get all the stone warm, and with that there is def no way to warm up the house quick. With the convection ability I just think a steel stove ( like a summit) would be better! LOL
iceman said:
Summit? Do they still make those stoves? I thought they quit making them because everybody was buying Blaze Kings and Woodstock Fireviews. :lol:
Hearth.com is the best thing that has ever happened to the cat stove business. We all just thought we were warm before. Silly us.
A Friend of mine has a Tukikivi and absolutely loves it. Think he paid closer to 10k for it though. He told me the thing throws heat many, many hours after the fire goes out. Seems to me he mentioned close to 24 hrs later he can still feel the soapstone giving off the heat. He heats about 1500 sq. ft on about 2 cords of wood per year in his log cabin.
Here's the link for our closest dealer where he bought his: http://www.mountainflame.com/
If you check the before and afters, his is the second one down. Also the weights range from 2700 lbs up to 4800 lbs. Yeah, I think some reinforcements would be needed in a retrofit, but they do it.
Here's the link for our closest dealer where he bought his: http://www.mountainflame.com/
If you check the before and afters, his is the second one down. Also the weights range from 2700 lbs up to 4800 lbs. Yeah, I think some reinforcements would be needed in a retrofit, but they do it.
The most efficient heating systems separate the heat generation from the storage, for good reasons. You'd be better off adding 1,000 lbs of thermal mass to the interior walls of the room and just use a normal woodstove, which burns cleaner and more efficiently.
I would think a small fire in a large-mass stove would cause the same problems as an under-fired high mass boiler, or a cold water jacket on a firebox. Soapstone has a specific heat capacity of .98 (almost identical to water) so I'm impressed by the storage capacity of a 1500lb stove @ around 12k btu per degree of rise.
I'll stick with the Fireview. And we only burn 3 cord per year with it. As for feeling heat a long time after the fire goes out, we too can do that but after 24 hours it isn't much heat. I do have to admit those stoves look impressive.
btuser said:
You left out the units. Should have been .98 J/gK.
The specific heat capacity of soapstone may be .98 J/gK, but for water the figure is 4.18 J/gK. That's over 4X the heat storage capacity of soapstone.
BTW, the heat capacity of gypsum is 1.09 J/gK, even higher than soapstone. You'd get better storage by going up from one layer of 1/2" drywall to two layers of 5/8". Much better fireproofing of the walls as well.
BrowningBAR said:
Methinks one would find that most of these things are installed in homes with not-very-demanding heating needs. The realities of temperature differentials and surface area are inescapable.
A friend had one in a house up in Haines, AK. It was new construction, I would guess about 1400 sq ft. It did a reasonable job. Principle is similar to a russian fireplace. We have a few of those locally that do pretty well with a couple, short, hot fires a day. But in both cases, this is with milder winter temps and not below zero winters.
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