How to be more efficient with wood heat?

[johnny77]

Still common in my area to heat with wood. Other than "magic heat tm." commercial exhaust heat exchanger looking for ideas on burning cleaner and getting the most BTU per cord of wood. I like low budget ideas as I share with others the cleaner they are the cleaner all our air.

[oil pan 4]

Big one is don't use a fire place.

[Stubby79]

fireplace or an iron stove? I'd think an iron stove would be more efficient. Forcibly circulating air around it to the rest of the house would make it more efficient than not.

[oil pan 4]

Some people will intentionally run a bunch of near horizontal stove pipe inside to extract the most heat from the flue exhaust.

[Ecky]

I've read about stove pipes with heatsinks and sometimes even with forced air:




Having fins on the inside would allow even more heat recovery, but will also increase maintenance.

Basically, it boils down to getting as much heat out of the exhaust as is possible before you let it go.

[Fat Charlie]

Masonry stove. Thermal mass retains the heat and gives more warmth over time with a smaller fire. Using it to heat water is just as good.

[redneck]

.

Rocket stove mass heater.

Rocket mass heaters use up to 80% less wood.

Rocket Mass Heaters: The coolest sustainable heater







>

[johnny77]

This is what I'm working with a airtight wood coal stove with temperature controlled inlet. Others in this area similar sans coal shakers and heavy steel box.

[samwichse]

You can do a cold air intake so your fire isn't sucking warm room air up the chimney. Probably the biggest efficiency gain I can think of aside from forced air exchanger boxes.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I've read about stove pipes with heatsinks and sometimes even with forced air:




Having fins on the inside would allow even more heat recovery, but will also increase maintenance.

Basically, it boils down to getting as much heat out of the exhaust as is possible before you let it go.

That's your typical magic heat unit.