Monobloc
2007-02-11, 12:02 AM
While visiting my dad over the Christmas holidays, I noticed he'd bought a new wood stove. He doesn't have any electric/gas/propane heat. He solely heats his house with a wood stove. No clothes dryer either. The clothes rack is set up a few feet from the stove as well. Being that he has 24 ft ceilings and single pane windows, it's a fairly hefty job to heat. The entire home is above ground as drainage can be an issue during the rainy months. This probably doesn't help for heating.
It's pretty common knowledge that wood stoves are already more efficient than fireplaces. But the technology in wood stoves has really come a long ways in the last 10 years. Pollution is down and efficiency is up.
He has a Blaze King wood stove. The first thing I noticed about it was that it has a catalyst in it. Rules for emissions from wood stoves are 7 grams for non cat models and 4 grams for cat models. His puts out 1.7 grams of emissions. Looking at the chimney outside, you either see clear vapour (water) or nothing at all. You can run the woodstove for over 40 hours on one load of wood! This is handy when it's your only source of heat as the place gets cold when you're away for a day or two.
Efficiency of the stove is 82.5%. The highest I'd previously read about was 70%. It's so efficient, that you can touch the chimney pipe inside the house and it's about as hot as a cup of coffee. I'd like to take my temperature scan gun there next time and check out what the stove vs chimney temps are.
With his old stove, it would be hot in the evening before bed and semi cold in the morning. With the new stove, it's very comfortable. Making a fire in the morning is easy as all you do is throw in a log or two and that's it. The catalyst heats the coals all through the night, so you have a nice bed of hot coals to ignite the fire. No kindling or paper needed.
This was the first wood stove I've used that has a catalyst in it. You can see it glowing red when it's heated up. The most noticeable difference is that instead of large flames like in a regular stove, the flames are smaller, but the wood glows BRIGHT orange. Almost like nuclear wood. :) I found it seemingly amazing to watch. The wood stove also has a thermostat on it which can be adjusted for comfort. The only thing I thought was odd was that you can't actually kill the fire. You can turn the thermostat down, but it will still run for hours if not another day. The catalyst also gives a much more even heat output. No spikes and dips like a non-cat stove.
Since we had no electricity for Christmas, the stove provided heat and hot water. We BBQ'ed the side dishes and a neighbour used a propane oven for the turkey. While standing outside by the BBQ, I noted that the BBQ put out more smoke than the wood stove chimney. There is no burning wood smell at all outside (or inside for that matter)
With all the talk lately of greenhouse gases (natural gas) and the troubles with coal, heck just about all electrical sources are heavily burdened, it makes you wonder if wood technology might make a comeback. True, there is particulate matter pollution with wood, but no greenhouse gases. And there is something nice about being self sufficient.
They're not cheap. His was $4,000. But his wood use has dropped literally in half over what he used to use. His electricity bill runs about $25/month all year.
I will say one thing. Wood stove heat is 10x comfier than my baseboard heat. Not to mention faster. Heat output is 1-4 tons depending on how you build the fire.
It's pretty common knowledge that wood stoves are already more efficient than fireplaces. But the technology in wood stoves has really come a long ways in the last 10 years. Pollution is down and efficiency is up.
He has a Blaze King wood stove. The first thing I noticed about it was that it has a catalyst in it. Rules for emissions from wood stoves are 7 grams for non cat models and 4 grams for cat models. His puts out 1.7 grams of emissions. Looking at the chimney outside, you either see clear vapour (water) or nothing at all. You can run the woodstove for over 40 hours on one load of wood! This is handy when it's your only source of heat as the place gets cold when you're away for a day or two.
Efficiency of the stove is 82.5%. The highest I'd previously read about was 70%. It's so efficient, that you can touch the chimney pipe inside the house and it's about as hot as a cup of coffee. I'd like to take my temperature scan gun there next time and check out what the stove vs chimney temps are.
With his old stove, it would be hot in the evening before bed and semi cold in the morning. With the new stove, it's very comfortable. Making a fire in the morning is easy as all you do is throw in a log or two and that's it. The catalyst heats the coals all through the night, so you have a nice bed of hot coals to ignite the fire. No kindling or paper needed.
This was the first wood stove I've used that has a catalyst in it. You can see it glowing red when it's heated up. The most noticeable difference is that instead of large flames like in a regular stove, the flames are smaller, but the wood glows BRIGHT orange. Almost like nuclear wood. :) I found it seemingly amazing to watch. The wood stove also has a thermostat on it which can be adjusted for comfort. The only thing I thought was odd was that you can't actually kill the fire. You can turn the thermostat down, but it will still run for hours if not another day. The catalyst also gives a much more even heat output. No spikes and dips like a non-cat stove.
Since we had no electricity for Christmas, the stove provided heat and hot water. We BBQ'ed the side dishes and a neighbour used a propane oven for the turkey. While standing outside by the BBQ, I noted that the BBQ put out more smoke than the wood stove chimney. There is no burning wood smell at all outside (or inside for that matter)
With all the talk lately of greenhouse gases (natural gas) and the troubles with coal, heck just about all electrical sources are heavily burdened, it makes you wonder if wood technology might make a comeback. True, there is particulate matter pollution with wood, but no greenhouse gases. And there is something nice about being self sufficient.
They're not cheap. His was $4,000. But his wood use has dropped literally in half over what he used to use. His electricity bill runs about $25/month all year.
I will say one thing. Wood stove heat is 10x comfier than my baseboard heat. Not to mention faster. Heat output is 1-4 tons depending on how you build the fire.