Is that a restaurant? If so I want to go there. I always think of Il Ritrovo, a pizza place that has an awesome wood fired pizza stove. Here it is.
I think what he means is to burn a hot fire. That way, the heat radiates into the thermal mass and then into the room. Burning a quick fire would only be short lived fire, like one you would burn on a "crisp summer morning to get the chill out".. Clear as mud?
From talking to a fellow who builds some (I think he was from Norway but don't remember for sure), he said small fires are all that is needed and it doesn't take that long to heat up that mass.
I am only repeating what I have been told about them. I worked on a new construction home that had one installed. I believe it was a tulakivi brand and looked very similar to this image. It took up a lot of space and the owners wanted it placed in the foyer area...which explains why they may have been mistaken in the use of it at that time also. Why you would want to present such a large obstruction in the greeting area of a new home is beyond me..? Perhaps once the mass is "up to temperature" all that is needed would indeed be a small fire. I was told that a hot fire is built and allowed to go out until the next time to repeat the process. But then, I wondered about the repeated cold starts.
Here is my buddy's double sided masonry heater complete with stone mantles, flush stone hearths and pizza oven. This is a three story masonry heater from the basement up. These pictures are from the main upper floor and there is a single sided fireplace in a central sitting area outside of the bedrooms on the level below this. Well built and very efficient house.
