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Thanks elhigh,
Yep, the crawlspace is an insulated, integrated part of the building. I wish there was insulation beneith the concrete slab too, but the only people who usually do that are the passive solar folks. Also there are some pretty severe drainage issues here to with me being so close to a lake.
My brother joked with me a while back about just pouring concrete over the top of the stove. I laughed it off, buy what you are suggesting sounds like a fair idea.
I do have a heat shield that goes on the back of the stove. It is just plain thin sheet steel, designed so that you can legally have the stove fairly close to the wall. I could possibly use that as the base for a concrete and copper tube heat exchanger or at least a template for one.
The design of the stove is not a good one to try to fit heat tubes through the firebox. It does however, give me the idea of maybe wrapping copper tubing around the chimney pipe, right where it exits the stove.
That part is always super hot. I can not imagine a copper tube wrap causing enough temperature drop to cause any creosote problems.
I have seen designs for DIY heat exchangers between hot water going down your shower drain and cold water coming in to your house. This would be the same idea. Reclaim some of the lost heat and use it elsewhere.
I saw a great photo once of an owner built house. There was 3-foot diameter concrete sewer tube running vertically straight up the middle of the house. It was the main pillar support and the woodstove metal chimney ran right up the middle. The space between the chimney and concrete was filled with tons and tons of sand. The support column was a warm concrete radiator all winter.
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