2

It is general practice to put a bucket of water on top of a wood stove to keep air humidity under control during the burning of the stove.

But, such a bucket is also bound to keep some more thermal energy captured for a longer time (i.e. absorbed via the metal frame and released into the room in a more smeared-out time-interval). Does it make sense to boost such thermal "dead weight" for typical operations and given typical "family-house" stove products currently for sale on the market?

(Besides putting a larger water bucket on the stove, one can also add material to exposed sections of the chimney. Isn't putting heat-exchangers around chimneys common practice?)

Vergilius
  • 133
  • 5

2 Answers2

3

Several high performance houses with lots of insulation have been designed with wood stoves that are surrounded by lots of stone to give the thermal mass. Some are still giving out heat 24 hours after the fire has gone out.

The name, in French speaking countries is pierre ollaire or poêles de masse.

This can be part of the heating design process when designing a property using passive thermal design ie using nature to its maximum.

We did that for a 4 bed family house that only need 2 stere or cubic metres of wood to heat annually.

Solar Mike
  • 14,798
  • 1
  • 19
  • 29
  • There are very heavy ceramic wood stoves, mostly in Europe . One manufacturer I found is Castellamonte in Italy. Apparently they were more common long ago. – blacksmith37 Apr 04 '22 at 15:11
  • @blacksmith37 a friend built his house 15 years ago to a very high energy standard (Minergie) and the stove has a mass of about 6000kg. Does keep the house warm though as it is the central pillar... – Solar Mike Apr 04 '22 at 15:28
1

Sounds right. The more passive thermal mass you have, the larger heat reservoir you have, and the more smooth the temperature VS time curve will be.

It's like having a large flywheel on an engine.

That is why old masonry homes keep staying warm longer. Walls and floors keep a lot of heat and release it gradually.

kamran
  • 21,714
  • 2
  • 18
  • 38