I thought I should provide a little update about my first year living with a masonry heater. As I posted previously, Alex Chernov designed the heater, which was then built by a local mason. In general, the build went off without a major hitch. Alex provided excellent support for the local guy doing the work and later to me as I started operating it.
I would say that the heater was our primary source of heat, with the occasional fire in the wood stove in the basement during the colder days--probably not needed, but my wife likes the house in the mid 70s. We didn't use the furnace at all, outside of testing it every couple months just to make sure it worked.
We fired the heater twice a day--in the morning and evening. We used 40-50 lbs at each firing. I initially expected to do a fair amount of cooking on the stove top of the heater, but this didn't get all that hot. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't put my hand on it, but in a typical firing, it didn't get much above 500F and it took a while to get there. So we used this to heat water or make some soup, but not much stove-top cooking. Ironically, the oven, which I did not expect to use that much became the most useful element of the heater--we cooked 90-95% of our dinners in the oven from November-April. This included our Thanksgiving turkey and pies! There was a learning curve here, as the temps in the oven easily reached 700 F with it going past the point of my ability to measure it frequently (My IR gun only goes to 750 F). So we bought some foundry gloves that made grabbing a 700+ degree roaster a bit safer. Once we learned how to cook at high heat, the food was amazing. In fact, my wife is looking forward to cold weather this year for this reason.
The heat was great, and the heater was a joy to lean against. The cats were basically glued to the thing. The exterior of the heater would get to about 160F with it getting about 200F right above the firebox. When I cleaned the heater last week, there was virtually nothing in the pipe. There was some fly ash and soot in the cleanouts of the heater, but probably only around a quart or so.
I would say that the heater was our primary source of heat, with the occasional fire in the wood stove in the basement during the colder days--probably not needed, but my wife likes the house in the mid 70s. We didn't use the furnace at all, outside of testing it every couple months just to make sure it worked.
We fired the heater twice a day--in the morning and evening. We used 40-50 lbs at each firing. I initially expected to do a fair amount of cooking on the stove top of the heater, but this didn't get all that hot. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't put my hand on it, but in a typical firing, it didn't get much above 500F and it took a while to get there. So we used this to heat water or make some soup, but not much stove-top cooking. Ironically, the oven, which I did not expect to use that much became the most useful element of the heater--we cooked 90-95% of our dinners in the oven from November-April. This included our Thanksgiving turkey and pies! There was a learning curve here, as the temps in the oven easily reached 700 F with it going past the point of my ability to measure it frequently (My IR gun only goes to 750 F). So we bought some foundry gloves that made grabbing a 700+ degree roaster a bit safer. Once we learned how to cook at high heat, the food was amazing. In fact, my wife is looking forward to cold weather this year for this reason.
The heat was great, and the heater was a joy to lean against. The cats were basically glued to the thing. The exterior of the heater would get to about 160F with it getting about 200F right above the firebox. When I cleaned the heater last week, there was virtually nothing in the pipe. There was some fly ash and soot in the cleanouts of the heater, but probably only around a quart or so.
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