Wood Stove thermodynamics and homesteading

 Homesteading doc - for upper Midwest

So at 51 Minutes in - an interesting wood stove is displayed.

I think the stove pipe going out of the bottom is just for ash removal - with some heating going down...

But it could be a double barrel wood stove...

 Efficient combustion of wood (or any fuel) needs lots of fresh air. A stove that is warming your room is using up all the air in it about three times an hour.

Or it could be an air intake...?

 https://www.backwoodshome.com/build-a-deluxe-barrel-stove/

So - I've surrounded my wood stove with bricks on the sides and back... piled up. But on the top I plan to use water as water is the best to store heat. Only I end up using all the water I haul up - to store the heat (instead of as drinking water). So probably better to have rocks on top. But then you lose the cooking surface. I could just use my survival stove for cooking then... - outside.

 The nice rounded granite stones piled on the blocks and over the top of the stove warm up quickly and keep the small room they are in very hot for an hour or two, and stay warm for many hours after the fire has gone out. The larger the amount of stone, or other masonry materials, the longer the room stays warm.

 The foundation of the fireplace will support the extra weight and the face stones of the fireplace add some bonus mass.

 So instead I will find some scrap metal - and put more bricks on top of the metal. So the metal is supported by the side bricks and not the stove itself. I just have the stove resting on some small pieces of stone - not a real strong foundation...

so they put stones under the stove -

I also elevated the stove on bricks to make it a more comfortable height if someone wants to cook on it. And I put a vent passage underneath so that cool air from the floor can be drawn under the stove, up along the back where it is heated, and then vented out. This will be a self-powered system through a natural thermo-siphon.

 

 Yeah that's kind of what I got going on...

Wow! So they embedded 12 feet of extra stove pipe into masonry.

http://geopathfinder.com/Masonry-Stove.html

 

 The thermal mass of your house (walls, floors, furniture) far exceeds that of a few cinder blocks.  I'm sure the cinder blocks will stay warm for a few hours after the fire goes out, but you'd have to be standing very close to benefit.

 

 I guess I should just USE the water that I am heating up. haha. Although after about several days - the water does evaporate... 

What I do is heat up a ton of water - since it holds the heat better than brick....

Like four gallons of water.

that's pretty much the same stove I have...

I see having a stove such as yours, as having several problems.  The first is that it's elevated.  Cooler air will congregate under it, and be warmed.  Again, heating the air here will use heat that you desire to be heating your mass with.  Energy is neither created nor destroyed.  With the air below the stove being the coldest because it's lower, I would theorize that adding brick mass below the stove would be the most efficient first step in improving your stove.  You want to cob right up to the stove, creating air pockets between the bricks that then insulate and hold heat. Since that air won't flow around the room, it becomes heat retention rather than heat degrading air.

 OK I'll add more brick under the stove...

The 5 gallon pot of water gets really hot and stays warm for bathing and dish washing type chores as well as retaining heat.  I was amazed by how much this set up evened up the house heating and kept it warm for a long time.

 

Right - so if I slide the pot off to the side a bit - then I can have some cooking surface still a bit.

I used to have a small cabin with a wood stove and a 4 gallon pot 3/4s full of water on it.  I would use this water for dishes and washing.  I would also move the large pot onto a stool that sat beside the stove when I wanted to cook.

 Yeah I had the handle break! that's how much water I got - it's a cheap pot.

  Some manufacturers suggest that a person put sand on the firebricks in a woodstove for the first burn before an insulating layer of ash has been produced, to protect them from thermal shock

 Ah another reason to top-light the fire...

Ideally the thermal mass is outside the firebox because otherwise the thermal mass will maintain a lower temperature in your firebox which will hinder complete combustion and you will go through 2-3 times as much wood through the winter trying to stay warm. And when your fire does burn out, all the heat in your thermal mass will go up the chimney. Well, not all of it, but most of it. Thermal mass works both directions. It might take a long time to cool down but it also takes a long time to reach high temperatures which is what you want in your firebox.

Secondary combustion works best when the top of the firebox can reach 900-1200 degrees F which is why modern stoves tend to have insulating rigid mineral board and/or ceramic insulating blankets for smoke shelves. It increases the heat output per cord dramatically and reduces hazardous (and inconvenient) build up of creosote.

yep...