Following up on the 2018 Wood Stove Design Challenge

[spirilis]

So today I got to work in the office, a ~once per month occurrence these days, and on the pile of old papers on my desk was my flyers/brochures I collected from the 2018 New Generation Wood Stove Design Contest!

Thread here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...-stove-design-challenge-pics-thoughts.171372/

And as it turns out, after renting a historic house for a year (built 1900, natural gas-fired steam boiler w/ steam radiators), I have an offer accepted & contract on a house in Baltimore with forced-air (gas) furnace/AC system, but no backup like wood or even a fireplace. So now I have alternative heating sources on my mind, and what a perfect opportunity to see what (if any) fruit has been born by the 2018 design challenge!

So I'm curious if any of you "in the know" have heard of any followup stove designs-

1. VcV - www.thevcv.com - Are there any 2020-EPA certified stoves in the USA you can buy with this tech?

2. SBI's Green Box stove - IIRC this required some electronics, curious if they ever did anything with this.

3. I'm hoping 509-1 Optimum is still in business and selling their product. IIRC they were working on a stove for square/rectangular briquette blocks.

4. Unforgettable Fire's rather expensive small stoves. Not sure I'm going to look at them at all.

5. Wittus's E-Stove ... I don't see anywhere on their site, but the base stove exists: https://wittus.com/twinfire/

6. The OekoSolve - electrostatic precipitator - https://OekoSolve.com I remember this looking pretty neat but the site's all in German, no idea if they sell to the USA.

7. The Sonnen - still exists (iirc someone mentioned it on the Energy Matters podcast - ). I guess the idea of a Tesla Powerwall or a Sonnen is worth mentioning as it is "backup" I'm really looking for (although I love the warmth of woodstove in the dead of winter when it's snowing outside and the kids are coming in from sledding). I'm going to need electrical work anyway (this house has 100A service, I need a heavy-up to support my EV charger).

 

[begreen]

Haven't heard too much since the contest. It seemed more like a tech demo. Personally, I'm not sold on the TEG generation aspect for most stove owners. Seems like a niche option.

 

[spirilis]

Agreed- the TEG is just a gimmick. Cool gimmick but not practical. Looks like from the little bit of searching I've done on EPA 2020 stoves, catalysts are back in fashion. I was hoping someone had a VcV stove out by now.

 

[begreen]

One interesting stove, but from previous contest entrant is the MF Fire Nova. I would love to try this out, though it is a bit small for our house. We only have one poster here that now has gone through a season with it. They say are very satisfied. There has been criticism from the peanut gallery about the lack of user air control. The owner said that has not been an issue. This is one of the reasons I would love to test this stove.

 

[spirilis]

Oh nice! Pretty and simple modern design.

PS- I wrote VcV just asking about stoves. Got a response:

Hi Eric

Thank you for your email.

The quick answer is no, this has not been taken up by any of the large manufacturers. Three showed significant interest but then backed off. Firstly it is a significant change from how stoves have always been controlled so that is moving a bit out of the comfort zone. Secondly many manufacturers were able to pass the EPA new cordwood testing requirement by shaping the cordwood that they should have used so it was more like crib wood. This left significant gaps between the wood that was in the fire box so the air passed through easily and as a result made it much easier to meet the EPA standard. Unfortunately, the EPA people did not realise the test was being rorted until mid last year when they stopped this being done. However as it seems they missed spotting this being done in the many applications for certification that came to them, they do not seem to have been able to require new tests for the stoves that had been certified using the shaped wood.

However we are close to starting the VcV stove being built by a small manufacturer in USA. Initially this will be done in batches of 25. The plan is that once it gets moving we will look for additional funding ( maybe crowd funding) so production can be ramped up.

I appreciated your message. I am interested in what is your area of activity. Also if you would like to discuss this with Ben Myren who has done all the R and D work in Colville WA. The small stove manufacturer is needing some additional financial support to do the VcV stoves. Not a lot and our family have said we can make $25k available ( on top of the small fortune by NZ standards that we have put in to date) but he is stretched to fund the rest, about another $50k needed. Just a thought . We are impressed and keen to work with this manufacturer who is producing small numbers of the specialised niche stove that was also at DC in 2018. If you thought this could be of interest to you I can supply more details.

Thanks again

Brian Gauld

 

[spirilis]

I obviously don't have $50K hanging around but I do wonder if crowdfunding would work for these guys.

 

[mellow]

I still drool when I think about that twinfire, man that thing put the heat out and had an awesome fire show. But alas it is not very practical as the firebox is small and has short burn times.

You need to do a masonry heater and blend it into the existing stone/brick work

 

[SpaceBus]

I still drool when I think about that twinfire, man that thing put the heat out and had an awesome fire show. But alas it is not very practical as the firebox is small and has short burn times.

You need to do a masonry heater and blend it into the existing stone/brick work

It makes more sense for a hydronic system than a masonry heater I would think but could also be wrong.