Your Environment and Masonry Heaters

There is continuous debate around the world about the significance and substance behind the issue of global warming.  And although most scientists around the world who study climate agree that global warming is occurring, I am not going to enter that debate here.

Rather, it is wise to look at the overall bigger picture.  I can remember as a grade-school student learning about various kinds of pollution.  We looked at everything from noise pollution (loud, disturbing sounds) to visual pollution (too many, or obnoxious blinking signs, etc.) to the more common air pollution and litter.

Pollution of any kind is a disturbance to most healthy people.  Really, who wants to walk down a sidewalk and see trash lying around everywhere?  Who would enjoy loud boisterous music when she is wanting a quiet stroll in the park?  And who would think the smell and appearance of smog is one of the benefits of living in a big city?

A disturbance like excess noise or smog doesn’t have to cause a specific illness in order to be unhealthy.  The mere fact that it is a disturbance makes it unhealthy for a given individual.  Indeed, loud, blasting music might be a pure pleasure for the one who turned on the radio, but it could raise the blood pressure of someone who was looking forward to a quiet day or who just doesn’t like that kind of music.

Of course, it can again become debatable as to just how harmful blinking lights or loud noises can be.  But there is pretty uniform acceptance that air pollution is a threat to everyone’s health.  Recent elections resulted in widespread prohibitions on smoking in public places all over Ohio.  It doesn’t take a scientist to realize that breathing all kinds of chemicals and particles not normally part of the natural atmosphere is going to have unhealthy results.

Regardless of your overall feelings about the various kinds of pollution and their impact on health and well-being, you should be aware that a masonry heater is one of the lowest impact ways of heating in the world when it comes to any kind of pollution.

Consider sound. A masonry heater burns for a few hours a day at a time of your choosing.  The resulting “noise” is the crackling of a real wood fire.  There are no motors, fans, or blowers vibrating and running on and off all day long.

Consider the materials.  A soapstone heater is just that – thousands of pounds of soapstone, an all-natural stone simply cut to the right shapes to make a heater.  Or a kachelofen is simply fired clay - hardened earth. This means waste is an all-natural bunch of minerals.  It also means that the product has low embodied energy – the amount of energy needed to produce the stove.

Consider air pollution and CO₂ emissions.  Masonry heaters are the cleanest-burning woodburners in the world, burning its fuel at combustion efficiency approaching 100%.  This means that the exhaust of a masonry heater is mainly CO₂ and water.  What’s more, the quantity of CO₂ emitted is no more than what results from wood rotting in the forest.

                In short, masonry heaters are low-impact ways of heating that don’t depend on foreign oil or expensive electricity.  Masonry heaters are an intelligent choice for a cleaner, healthier, energy independent America.

An American Kachelofen

This past winter I had the pleasure of constructing a unique, one-of-a-kind kachelofen here in my home state of Ohio. The beauty of constructing a masonry heater from kacheln (structural heater tiles) is that, along with unlimited design possibilities, there are virtually unlimited color possibilities as well. 

While I love soapstone and its unique and superlative masonry heater qualities, all structural soapstone of which I am aware is a gray color.  I really like it and so do a lot of other people.  And gray is neutral enough that it is compatible with many, many decorating schemes and colors.  Most people who see, in person, a soapstone masonry heater, recognize that soapstone is usually not just gray.  Like marble, it has veins of beige, white, or lighter or darker gray.  Often it will also have specks of iron in it that, when honed and aged, look gold.  Nevertheless, it is predominantly gray.

Kacheln are a complete other story.  Just like the plates and coffee cups in your kitchen cupboards, kacheln can be really any color imaginable.  This means, when someone has distinct tastes and a definite decorating theme planned for their home, they can complement that theme to whatever extent they like with tiles.

So you can have something with very bright, vibrant colors like this (original website here):

Or, you could have something more gentle like this (original website here):

In my view, the kachelofen is THE THING for those who truly want an indivudualized piece of art for their masonry heater.  And this past winter, I built such a piece of art for a couple in Ohio.

The kacheln for this kachelofen were made, by hand, by Jessica Steinhauser, of Stonehouse Pottery in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.  Jessica does wonderful kachelofen of her own, as you will see if you visit her website.  It is fantastic to work with her.

Though color is a very individual thing, when my clients are put on the spot to name the colors with which they will live for the rest of their lives, they are often at a loss.  Jessica helped a lot by sending actual samples of ceramic with a wide range of colors.  After much uncertainty, my clients chose two basic colors and the matter was settled - or so we thought.

When Ms. Steinhauser began glazing and firing glazed kacheln, she was panicked to find that there was tremendous color variation among the kacheln arising  from the kiln.  She had not used this particular type of glaze for kacheln before and she was worried that, rather than finishing the job, she was ruining it!

She sent photos that I forwarded to my client.

And they loved it!

And here is the resulting kachelofen:

A true American kachelofen combining plastered benches topped with black granite, a firebox turned 15 degrees from the otherwise rectilinear aspects, and beautiful golden kacheln.

It's a mufti-faceted masonry heater.

Granite shelves complement the black granite benches.

A New Maonry Heater Starts Here

As built.

Original AutoCad Rendering

In my January 11, 2011 post I show photos of a recent project.  As I pointed out both in my book and in my blogs, projects like this are one-of-a-kind.  No one else on Earth has built this heater before.  There is no pre-made, pre-designed, pre-engineered kit for making this masonry heater.  Every aspect, right down to the size and configuration of the firebox as well as the spacing and size of the shelving are completely unique to this project.  You won't find this heater in some manufacturer's catalog and, chances are, this heater will never be built again.

When someone comes to me and wants a custom masonry heater, I don't just look for a different way to wrap a factory-made inner heater core (called the "inner life" in my book, Masonry Heaters: Designing, Building and Living with a Piece of the Sun) with a new combination of masonry materials.  Rather, I try to discover what it is the person really wants.  Do they want something unique, interesting, unusual?  Do they want or need something short? Tall?  Skinny? Broad?  Do they like modern or minimalist design?  Do they like rounded shapes or boxy shapes. Do they want something that looks soft and organic or hard and crisp? More importantly to me as the "salesman" of a masonry heater, do they understand that the masonry heater will become THE PLACE that they will want to be in their house during the winter?  Therefore, do they want seating areas?  If so, how much?  It is from gleaning information like this that arises designs for a truly custom masonry heater.

The next step is to translate the apparent desires of the owner-to-be into a design.  But how can the new owner know if he likes the design if he or she cannot properly visualize it?  Now, I have seen some designers, who are more artistic than myself, do pencil sketches of masonry heaters for their customers.  In mere moments they can draw a representation of what they have in mind for the masonry heater.  This enthralls and fascinates me.  I can do drawings and sketches by hand, but they never seem to reach the level of artistic expression some of these designers can attain.  But I have found a different way.

When I do a design project, I begin by drawing the concept using AutoCad professional computer design software.  This is the same software used by engineers at Fortune 500 companies to design and detail everything from soda bottles to the volume control knob on the radio of  an automobile.  It is also used by architects for designing homes and skyscrapers.  It's used by civil engineers to design bridges and roadways.  I use it to design both the inner life and the exterior appearance of masonry heaters.

As built

Original AutoCad Rendering

Using AutoCad, I first design the "container" - the outer, visible appearance of the masonry heater - in an attempt to capture what my customer wants.  Sometimes I get it largely right the first time.  Sometimes I have to try many different styles before I strike a chord with the owner-to-be.  In order for a decision to be made, my drawings must realistically portray what I intend to build.  The more realistic I can make it look, the better the customer understands what to expect.

The Illinois project described below is such an example and within this text are two preliminary views of how this heater was designed.  I think you can see from the pictures that the preliminary drawings well portrayed the way the heater would look.  We did make some subtle changes from these renderings as the project moved toward actuality, but the flavor and scope of the design stayed very true to these original AutoCad renderings.  This is the start of a custom masonry heater.

Current Projects/Better Photos

As noted in my post below, better pictures were in order.  My client thankfully has a better camera than I and graciously provided these shots - and with a fire burning no less!  As you can see, this heater is unique from all perspectives.  The upper photo shows a chaise lounge styled sitting area, two different shelving units and decorative soapstone pieces.  There is no shortage of warm places to sit on this one-of-a-kind masonry heater.

Current Projects

In my book, Masonry Heaters: Designing, Building, and Living with a Piece of the Sun,  I sought to explain that a masonry heater is the most versatile wood burning appliance ever imagined.  While wholly maintaining high heating efficiency, it need not be any particular shape or size.  In short, it can be virtually anything the homeowner wants it to be.

My latest project is a good example of this principle.  The above picture is of a project in Illinois after its first coat of stucco.  While some people think a masonry heater is represented by a large box (see article from October 2011 below), projects like this one reveal that a masonry heater is not something so easily defined - or confined.

The owners of this heater formerly had a wall separating their kitchen (seen beyond the heater) from the living room (from whence this photo was taken).  They wanted a masonry heater, but they wanted a relatively unobstructed view from one room to the next.  My solution for them, depicted here, is a masonry heater that is never taller than about 4' - 6" anywhere in the line of site between these two rooms.  It is true that there are "standard" masonry heaters (you know, the rectangular box style?) that are short - even as short as this.  But this couple wanted a heater that has the potential to heat their whole home - about 2500 square feet.

This heater is designed primarily as a 7 kilowatt (approx. 22,000 BTU) heater, but has the potential to output more than 30,000 BTUs - which is the maximum heating demand of this house according to conventional HVAC principles.  As I discuss in my book, heating with radiant heat actually requires less BTUs for the same comfort level.)

The far left, tall element acts as a wall defining a hallway separating the living room from a library and leading to the more distant bedrooms of the the house.  This taller element has wood storage here on the living room side that is about 20" deep.  The rest of that construction contains flues and will be a heating element of this stove. The middle section is all seating - roughly 5 feet of it - with heated seat backs.  Next is the firebox followed by, at far right, a wood storage area..  The opposite side is completely different from this side but has additional heated seating, shelving, and a tall, narrow viewing window into the firebox.  I'll post a photo that later.

I admit that the photo is of relatively poor quality, but I wanted to get this posted as an example of what is being done right now here in the United States.  Masonry heaters: Get what you really want and be warm!

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Radiant Heat Advantages

When I completed my study for certification in Bau-biologie (Building-biology – the study of how our built living environment affects our health and well-being.) 15 years ago, I had learned that one of the most common causes of illness in the typical home is the presence of mold.

Mold alone can often account for many typical symptoms we might normally consider to be hay fever or just the common cold. Breathing problems, runny noses, coughing, and congestion are some typical complaints that sometimes are a result of the presence and growth of mold. Mold spores, like dust, can float in the air throughout your home.

There are actually very common places where mold often grows even in the homes of folks who take great pride in keeping their houses spic and span. One location is in the drip or evaporation tray at the base of the refrigerator. Another spot is the underside of the water tank portion of a flush toilet. The good news about these locations is that the average person can access these spots and clean up the problem.

But there are potential mold growth areas that are inaccessible. What’s worse is that sometimes the mold growth is encouraged by a forced air or other convection-type heating system. Specifically, mold can be encouraged to flourish in the dark, insulated stud wall cavities of the outside structure of the house.

Convection heat from normal woodstoves or forced air systems does not warm things directly. Instead, it heats air while objects, like the walls of the house, stay colder than the air. At the same time, the excessively warmed air is very low in moisture. But moisture has to go somewhere when it is not in the air. Some of it goes into the walls.

In addition, in most homes heated with a convection system, the outside air is more humid than the inside air. Thus we have moisture in the walls and moist air outside the walls and cold wall surfaces. And what often happens when moist air contacts a cold surface? If you answered “condensation”, go to the head of the class.

The cold, moist conditions created can be a superb environment for cultivating fungi of all sorts. Moist and dark areas like this also are very attractive to insects. The results of moisture in the walls can be as mild as some off odors or irritation and as severe as complete rotting of the wooden structure of the home and serious breathing problems.

By contrast, a masonry heater is not primarily a convection heater. Instead, 80% of its heat energy goes directly via infrared radiation into things. It is heating you, your furniture, your floors, and your walls. The heated items dictate the air temperature. Air temperature and wall temperature tend to be virtually the same.

Since the masonry stove is not superheating air, moisture is not driven out of the room and into your walls. Rather interior humidity levels stay at a higher, healthier, more natural level. At the same time, since wall temperatures are higher, condensation is much less likely from the outside. The end result is a healthier, more comfortable, and more carefree living environment.

Is This a Masonry Heater?

If you visit websites in the United States and Canada for masonry heaters, you are almost guaranteed to find a picture of a Finnish contraflow masonry heater. These are characterized by their tall, upright appearance. Often, they are around seven feet tall. The body of the heater is primarily symmetrical. The loading door and bakeoven door (if equipped) is centered on the mass.

For many people, this is a very pleasing appearance. Many people love symmetry. The Finnish contraflow also has some resemblance to what is commonly thought of as a fireplace in North America. However, all masonry heaters are not Finnish contraflows. What's more, Finnish contraflows lack some versatility.

Note the above picture. Yes, it is a masonry heater. But there definitely nothiing symmetrical about it! Nor is it at all upright. This demonstrates the unique quality of versatility truly available in the masonry heater world. The picture itself is from the website of Creatherm (www.creatherm.de/). I encourage readers to take a look at this website and browse the gallery. You will begin to really appreciate the wide range of possiblities in masonry heaters.