Soap Stone as a Heat Shield

[JotulOwner]

I know that soap stone absorbs and releases heat and that some stoves are built with soap stone as part of their design.

Has anyone used soap stone materials to protect combustible surfaces and, at the same time, slowly release that heat? Or, maybe just keep some soap stone objects near the stove to slowly release heat?

Just wondering......

 

[toddnic]

I know that soapstone has some very good thermal properties but I don't know about its use as a heat shield. I would imagine due to its thermal properties that it probably IS NOT a good heat shield since it holds heat. I know that the heat transfer is more even in soapstone due to its thermal properties but it still absorbs a significant amount of heat.

 

[firefighterjake]

Not sure I've heard anyone using soapstone as a shield . . . I suspect, as mentioned, it would not be very good as a heat shield. As a heat sink however . . . I have seen folks here who have used soapstone slab and/or tile for their hearth and for the surrounding walls.

 

[bholler]

It would work fine as long as you had the ventilated 1" air gap required for a heat shield which could be difficult with a heavy material like soapstone.

 

[Babaganoosh]

It's not combustible so you could use it. Not the easiest stuff to work with for that application though. Not the cheapest either.

 

[Smoked]

I have soapstone slabs behind my stove in the fireplace. I figure it is better that the radiant heat off of the back of the stove hit the freestanding slab than the exterior wall. It was free so what the he77?? Agree with above, if it is a heat shield, you need to have the free flowing air gap behind it.

 

[Rearscreen]

I built a concrete heat shield for my Mansfield. I embedded a copper serpentine pipe in it to run hydronic water through it to assist my radiant heat. My guess is the new owners didn't guess what I was up to and trashed the whole thing.

 

[webby3650]

I have a 2'x4' soapstone slab behind my garage stove. It does very well as a heat shield. I happen to have it, I wouldn't go out and buy a piece just for this. The stored heat does almost nothing to help heat the place after the fire has gone out.

 

[mstoelton]

I put a soapstone slab 7' x 2' on my raised hearth and use it as a hearth top. works great as a hearth. Absorbs heat and slowly radiates it back out into the room. I needed to replace the hearth top when I installed the stove so I decided to use soapstone. It was less expensive than other options at the time and an advantage to soapstone is that you can cut, drill, etc. soapstone with normal woodworking type tools.

 

[jetsam]

Soapstone has a low thermal conductivity and a high thermal capacity. (It makes a fine heat battery, but don't put it on your stove if you want good heat output.)

Masonry heat batteries are very common in a lot of the world. When I lived in the netherlands, I saw an appliance that was basically a resistive space heater element wrapped in bricks. When the electricity rates go down, you use your electrons to heat the bricks. It stays on and emits heat all night, and during the day when rates go up, you shut the power off and get slow heat from the cooling bricks for some hours.

Bigger systems like this are available in the US now (google for electric thermal storage).

Soapstone should make a fine heat shield; it is a better insulator than a lot of materials commonly used for this purpose.