Well said! This is some of the reasons I moved to a more remote off grid location. I like the idea of being more self reliant and getting my lazy duff off the couch.
Wood Burning Electronic Combustion Control Systems
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LOL ....my duff gets a bit lazy in this extreme cold. Couching it right now.
Wish I had a heated shop. Some day.....
Ok I did some research. With the Brunner if you have a power failure there is a 9V battery that puts the air control into fully open position(safe state). You can run the stove manually but you can not control the air. It stays in the fully open state.
Early BMWs and recent VW EVs had a lot of software problems. VW recently brought in US Rivian engineers to do some major recoding.
They have automatic house heating systems now, they're called furnaces and boilers..... Don't understand the desire for your wood stove to be ran by automation, but to each his own. i've always thought VW's had lots of electrical issues throughout the years, but having a couple of Beetles and my Scirocco, I found out VW's are fun to drive, but ultra reliable? The Beetles were good, the Scirocco was poor, but fun to drive. Little bit of warmth coming to us this week, upper 30's whoop, whoop! Stay warm all.
My man! I too owned a scirocco, 1981, for my first car. Single windshield wiper, lug bolts, mechanical fuel injection, push down to get into reverse. Some good memories.
Bookmarking this tech so I can read about it later. They have the metal fireplaces of different sorts with mass and channels. Water heating can be added to these masonry heater/fireplaces. And these fireplaces are under combustion control. Study time. I need a class. I don't understand - pass the Heineken and the schnitzel.
https://brunner.ua/files/pdf/brunner-heating-systems-brochure-english.pdf
https://brunner.ua/files/pdf/brunner-heating-systems-brochure-english.pdf
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This gets a little scary on the efficiency front. They have smaller (~1500 ft2 houses) well insulated houses. They have these 'fireplaces' connected to water heating with loops in the flooring. And all of this controlled by a controller - scary efficient. We can't compete with this on this side of the pond. Just throw a little wood in and it does everything else. We are heating barbarians!
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I'm still trying to work out how a controller could help a wood burner. This tech could be set up day 1 in new construction, let's say a well insulated passive solar house. We would want to coordinate several things - 1) the wood stove, 2) a ductless mini-split, 3) electric controlled solar shutters (south facing), 4) a duct system with fans, and......... Obviously temperature sensors are going to be needed in several places. And a sun sensor for the solar shutters.
The controller would be weighing all of these systems against/with each other to know when to combine them or use them. It is no more then a bunch of computer programs that make decisions based on info received from the sensors. Engineer types would calculate the best choices for the controller.
The controller could be set to get heat as much as possible from other sources and lastly to get heat from burning wood (or burning oil). This would reduce costs. So the controller is running the mini-split as much as possible, And when the sun comes out it opens shutters and collects solar gain. The sun goes down so it closes shutters. Lastly, when the mini-split, solar gain, or photovoltaic aren't enough it would prompt you to burn wood (or oil).
You could tie in some solar panels to the controller, too. Maybe excess electricity could be used for heating before a fire was prompted. Oh yeah, you wouldn't need to burn as much wood. Your house would stay at a more consistent temp throughout and it would cost you less. I don't know how much these German controllers can do. It would be fun to find out.
The controller would be weighing all of these systems against/with each other to know when to combine them or use them. It is no more then a bunch of computer programs that make decisions based on info received from the sensors. Engineer types would calculate the best choices for the controller.
The controller could be set to get heat as much as possible from other sources and lastly to get heat from burning wood (or burning oil). This would reduce costs. So the controller is running the mini-split as much as possible, And when the sun comes out it opens shutters and collects solar gain. The sun goes down so it closes shutters. Lastly, when the mini-split, solar gain, or photovoltaic aren't enough it would prompt you to burn wood (or oil).
You could tie in some solar panels to the controller, too. Maybe excess electricity could be used for heating before a fire was prompted. Oh yeah, you wouldn't need to burn as much wood. Your house would stay at a more consistent temp throughout and it would cost you less. I don't know how much these German controllers can do. It would be fun to find out.
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