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Masonry
Heater Store is on the air!
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Tulikivi,
based in Finland, is the world's
largest manufacturer of heat
retaining fireplaces. Fountainhead
Natural Homes is proud to be
an authorized Tulikivi dealer.
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Newsletter
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Masonry
Heater Store, LLC
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Redefining the Hearth
Today, many recognize hearth to mean “fireplace”.
And, indeed, the hearth literally is the floor of
a fireplace. Unfortunately, this bland definition
of a hearth turns the fireplace into just another
option for a house. “ Should we put in a fireplace?
Do we really need one? Well, it adds value to the
home and it might be nice to enjoy a fire once-in-a-while
so let’s put one in.” And so the architect
slaps a fireplace onto the outside wall of the living
room. “There,” he says, “is your
fireplace.” Thus, this much misunderstood item
appears on so many floorplans with no more and perhaps
even less thought than a trash compactor or dishwasher. |
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 Then, as the homeowners find
that the cold, outside wall chimney makes fires
hard to start and sends thick, odorous smoke backdrafting
into the home, it falls eventually into disuse
or perhaps is converted to a gas fireplace. So
now the homeowner can turn on his fire just like
he turns on the T.V. Ah! Yet another way to escape
from reality!
But the word “hearth” means so much
more than just the place for a fire. The American
Heritage Dictionary also says it’s the “fireside
as a symbol of home or family life.” Roget’s
Thesaurus lists “hearth” as a synonym
for “home”. And it is no mistake that “heart” makes
up most of “hearth”. And “heart” has
even more literal and symbolic meaning, again from
the dictionary: “The vital center of one’s
being, emotions, and sensibilities. The central
or innermost physical part. The most important
or essential part.”
This is, after all, how the place of fire became
the hearth. For thousands of years, if there was
no fire, there was no family, no togetherness,
no home. And conversely, where there was a fire,
all these things unfurled, like the petals of a
flower touched by the warm rays of the sun.
We are introducing the hearth back to its rightful
place: In the center of the home and, even more
importantly, as the basis for the home. The hearth
is the reason to build the home, not the other
way around. We build the house to protect the hearth,
for it becomes the vital center of the home. The
hearth is where life in the household unfolds.
Imagine the scene. . . |
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 Dad
is loading chunks of wood into the firebox.
Mom pretends to not notice his sinewy
muscles as he grabs a slab to set on
the last. She’s pouring another
glass of wine for Uncle Charlie who’s
sitting on the bench next to the bakeoven.
It hasn’t become apparent yet that
he is dozing, sitting up, on the bench
next to the bakeoven, bathed in the gentle
heat of the stone. Fuzzy, the calico,
has found her way to the top of the stove.
It appears she’s looking down at
her reflection in Uncle Charlie’s
bald head.
Davey and Tina, the youngest, and twins, sit on the bench next to where Dad busily
builds the fire. They munch on freshly baked pizza while playing Slapjack on
the polished bench slabs. Dad stops to watch Mom laugh when she notices Uncle
Charlie’s subconscious state. Dad remembers how that laugh was one of the
first things that brought them together.
Meanwhile, Grandpa is shaping his “world-famous” nutbread on the
pastry board, aware that, after another hour-and-a-half, the bread will have
again risen to twice its size and be ready for the stone oven, which by then
will be at perfect bread-baking temperature. He’s grateful there’s
room for four large boules, for the first will no doubt disappear shortly after
it cools.
Aunt Rita is enjoying her wine from the easy chair that she positioned just right
so she’ll be able to watch the blazing fire, the kids playing, and still
be able to talk to Mom and Grandpa. Rose, the teenage sister, just back from
the movies, goes to help Grandpa with the bread. He claims she has a knack for
baking. . . .
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 The news is telling
us that people are spending more time than ever
at home with family. A masonry heater complex in
the middle of the home is such a source of comfort,
serenity, and life that it pulls the whole family
together. It’s the nerve center where cooking
and baking nourish our bodies at the same time
that interaction nourishes our soul. The T.V. doesn’t
do it. The sound system doesn’t do it. A
forced air furnace can’t do it. These things
urge us to disperse, disconnect. The masonry stove
at the center of the home is the starting point
for something much greater than just a fire or
lower utility bills. It challenges us to talk,
laugh, eat, drink, and be human; to notice each
other, listen, and feel!
So if you are planning
to build, start with the heart and build out from
there. A masonry
heater
complex can include a heater, a separate bakeoven,
masonry cookstove, and large areas of heated
sitting benches and wood storage. Or it can
be as simple as a single heater.
About Masonry
Stoves
A masonry stove, or masonry heater, is a heat
storage fireplace. It works on the principle
of burning a hot, relatively fast fire, and
providing a means for the heat of the fire
to be stored in the masonry mass. The firewood
is permitted to burn to ashes. The heat from
the fire then radiates gently but persistently
for 12 to 24 hours after the fire goes out.
Perhaps the point most difficult to convey
is that the fire is not continuously stoked
and kept burning. For it is the stored heat
that will keep the house warm!
Masonry stoves
have been in continuous use in Europe for literally
hundreds of years. In the
old country, wood use in the 18th and 19th centuries
was incredible! Wood was used not only as the
primary building material, but also as the primary
fuel for cooking and heating homes and businesses.
This had been the case for many centuries as
1800 came near. So it is no wonder that folks
began looking for ways to make their fuel last
longer.
So clever engineers and craftsman of the
time found an answer that is simplicity itself.
Instead
of letting the hot gases of the fire go up the
chimney and out of the house, trap them for as
long as possible in a maze of wandering flue
passages. The residence time of the exhaust within
the mass of the fireplace allows the heat to
be soaked into the masonry of the fireplace.
Thus the exhaust that finally exits the home
is relatively cool and the heat of the fire is
kept. The stored heat slowly and evenly emanates
from the masonry, like a miniature sun, into
the house.
Clean Burn
 One of the many unique attributes of
a masonry stove is that it burns so cleanly.
With a properly
used masonry heater, creosote is non-existent.
The reason for this is the high combustion temperatures
reached in the masonry core of the stove. When
wood burns at temperatures in excess of 1100º F.,
virtually everything that can be burned is consumed.
Thick, black soot and creosote do not survive
these temperatures. In a masonry stove, temperatures
of 1400º-1800ºF. are not uncommon within
the secondary combustion chamber.
Thus it is that
a masonry stove uses less fuel and produces much
less pollution than a typical
woodstove or open fireplace. The creosote and
tar deposits of a typical stove are just more
fuel for a masonry heater. We have observed wood
usage from three to six times less than a woodstove
for heating a similar amount of living space!
Because
of the extremely low emissions, a masonry heater
is an environmentally sane way of using
wood as a fuel. Burning wood in a masonry stove
does not result to a net increase in greenhouse
gases. It can truly be said that the environmental
effects of properly burning wood in a masonry
stove is the equivalent of allowing wood to naturally
rot on the forest floor! |
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