Wood stove radiant heat!??!

[Big Dave]

Wood stove data update:

It's colder than a well digger's butt here on the frozen steppes today, so I have the Papa Bear stoked up.

I got an infrared thermometer and checked the temp of the sides, back, and top.

Depending on have much you have it stoked the surface temps varied between 390 and 550 degrees F.

The PlateCoil idea looks more and more valid.

[bennelson]

I have a magnetic thermometer that I stick to the lower end of the chimney pipe. (photo is just one similar to what I have)

The "burn-zone" markings on it range from 300 degrees F on the low end to around 575 on the high end.

Temperatures lower than that are marked "Creosote", and higher than 575 is marked "overfire".

If I had a copper coil of water wrapped around the stovepipe, all I would need to do is stoke up the stove a little higher. It is really easy to overfire my stove if I don't watch it.

I stopped by a place today where a guy had a BIG Vermont castings stove. Mine is the smallest model, the Intrepid. My Dad has the medium size, and this guy had the big one. That big one cranked out heat! It has a large flat area on back that a heat exchanger could attach to.

[Big Dave]

Some new pellet and coal stoves have stainless steel water heating coils.

[DHW]

Just want to give an option for brazed plate heat exchangers:
Heat Exchangers - Online

[ShadeTreeMech]

I saw a very clever wood stove built on the cheap in a muffler shop a while back.

Imagine a 55 gallon drum built for the firebox, with another 55 gallon drum on top with 2 very large exhaust piping pieces allowing the smoke to go into the upper drum (which is sealed off) then a generic stovepipe attached to the upper drum heading outdoors. I asked the muffler shop owner about it (it's a one man operation) and he said he recorded a 90 degree F temperature on the output (I assume with an infared thermometer.) Apparently he kept his underinsulated shop comfortable with this rig.

I've also read how Russians have very convoluted chimnies to capture as much heat as possible. I suppose they invented the geo mass concept (go ruskies)

My point being the simplest heat extractor would use heat from the smoke. If you downsize the pipe as you extract more and more heat you can keep creosote down to a minimum, or you can design everything assuming creosote is going to build up and make it safe to have an occassional chimney fire (insulated pipes in the house, a long pipe on top that vents the fire safely.)

Or you could have a planned cresote burn where the exchangers are turned off and you put in some dry oak and hickory to make the chimney fire happen when you expect it.

Just some random thoughts, dispose of the useless info

[Bicycle Bob]

The two-barrel stove is sometimes called an Alaska heater. Stotz sold a kit for making them.
The Russian masonry stove was one of the first things thtat one was supposed to be licenced to build properly. You didn't want to have one fail mid-winter! It was based on having brief, hot fires heating the thermal mass, which would provide constant heat without the creosote buildup and waste smoke of an airtight stove.

I'd like to build a wood stove using a car turbocharger to pressurize the firebox. In effect, you'd have a gas turbine with solid fuel. At high pressures, you could get some power out, but even a few PSI to keep the fans turning would let you condense the steam from the smoke for a big efficiency gain, and install a cheap vent instead of a chimney.

[Phantom]

Another thing that could be done to help store the heat energy is to place a rock slab or large rocks on top of the stove. The material will slowly absorb the heat and give it off after the fire is out and the metal has cooled.

You could also use the stove for the burn chamber of a rocket stove I wish I had some pictures of the one my father-in-law did at his cabin. Just to make it easier to find for future reference here is the build he did with fire bricks in his house. Rocket Stove | Northern Kentucky Landscaping from The Good Earth, Inc.

This whole couch heats the house and it nice to warm up on when its cold out.

[BamZipPow]

You need to be careful about the rocks you use...some can explode if heated too hot.

[Phantom]

I think that the issue of the rocks exploding is from the rocks being cold/wet and then being quickly heated not the type of rock but I could be wrong.