Topic: Wood burning stoves

[Wainiha]

Who has one?  Have you heard of the fans that use radiated heat to spin them.  If so what stove and what fan?

[redneckcustoms13]

I have a black bart in my house. I love it. Currently looking for an older ashley for my house I'm renovating. Never had experience with the fans you mention. But as far as the inserts go I've played with a bunch of them. I like the ability to choke it down when I leave in the morning and have a nice warm house and bed of coals waiting when I get off.

[Snowtoy]

The ones that use heat to generate their own electricity probably work best. 

If you are heating your house with a wood stove or insert, you will want to use a couple of fans to move the air from the room with the stove to the other side of the house.

[Stocker]

I'm not familiar with that type of fan. We got our clean-burning Earth stove in 1990 to go in our then-new family room. It's on the small side -- bigger stoves required a catalytic converter which I did not want. We use a reversible ceiling fan to circulate air. It's a bit counter-intuitive but in winter the fan blows heated air upwards. Then it flows across the ceiling and down the walls. In warmer weather, reverse the fan to blow air down for improved cooling.

[H8PVMNT]

We heat with wood only.  It gets -30F  here for extended periods of time and we see months go by without highs over 10F. 

Those fans are really great if you can find and afford one.  The best advice I have based on my own experiences is to get a much bigger stove than you think you need. This allows you to use large chunks of different kinds of wood to achieve overnight holdovers, super hot fires or whatever your strategy has to be at the time.  If you have to deal with less than ideal firewood a larger firebox is better.  The cast stoves are gorgeous, but mild steel is better for repairs and modifications down the road.  Stay away from glass in the doors.   Ideally, try to find something from the 70's or 80s, low tech.  Replace the flu hook up with some well casing of the proper inside diameter with about a half inch wall thickness.  This will keep your stove top from splitting out later on.  You could fab a stove if you have the resources.

I don't like catalytic converters and I have had much better results with an 8" flu than a 6".  The nice new clean burning cat stoves are great if you don't depend on wood heat only.  Results vary and I know you are required to use cat stoves in some areas due to emissions regulations.  My experience has been poor drafting when you have bad atmospheric conditions and they seem to require perfect firewood.  Some people have access to perfect firewood, I do not .

You want the stove to have it's own damper/air control, preferably from 2 sides of the fire, and you also want the flat flu damper that goes in the pipe right above the stove to damper down with.  The more ways you have to control your air flow the better.  A deep fore box is better, like 8" below the door with your air flow a little above the bottom of the door.  This means longer periods of time between dumping ashes.  Don't go for gimicky ash drawers or clean outs where the ashes can block your air flow.

You want your stove to be as close to the middle of your building as you can.  Put as much heat sink, brick, rock, whatever kind of mass as is practical under or behind the wood stove. This stores your heat and keeps the house warm longer.

[Wainiha [OP]]

I can't remember where I saw those fans.  It was in a catalog.  Cast iron and aside from the blade itself it had fins looking like a hand with all fingers spread.

[Lewis Hein]

Soapstone stoves are great for storing heat.

[Cheesemaker]

Old Trailblazer with a box fan behind it.  It works. 

[Snowtoy]

The best advice I have based on my own experiences is to get a much bigger stove than you think you need. This allows you to use large chunks of different kinds of wood to achieve overnight holdovers, super hot fires or whatever your strategy has to be at the time.

If you can get them in your area, might look into Idaho Energy logs for your holdover needs.  I use two with a piece of oak in my insert, and get about 10-12hrs burn out them with the dampers about 80-90% closed, for overnight and when out of the house.  We don't get no where near as cold as your area, but with just them and the insert fan going, I can usually maintain 60* temp in the rooms furthest from the insert.

[Rockcrawlintoy]

I can't remember where I saw those fans.  It was in a catalog.  Cast iron and aside from the blade itself it had fins looking like a hand with all fingers spread.

My aunt has one. It is pretty sweet. kinda like this one
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Ecofan-AirMax-Black-Wood-Stove-Fan/1001159922