Redesigned my thermal mass

Last season I experimented with thermal mass.
Roughly 1500 lbs of cinder block.

Alot of people on here told me it did nothing, waste of time, ect.

It was good for about 5f gain average through the season.

My thoughts on why it works for me are
1 my house is old, big and drafty.
If I'm pumping a bunch of heat into the air it gets "blown" out quickly.
With the thermal mass it's radiating heat slowly so therefore it doesn't blow out as fast.

2 I tend to be gone long amounts of time so I really stretch my reload times.
The stone helps keep a little warmth on them long stretches.

Anyway, I redesigned it for this season with the exact same things that were on it last year, but I gained my access to my stovetop back so I can cook on it again.
Not sure if the fan will get enough heat up there to operate but we will find out soon

 

Interesting. You created somewhat similar setup to an insert in a fireplace, which is what I have. Should work OK for you if you liked how it performed last year. . Let us know.

 

Actually found some more blocks from when I had to replace my sewer line.
Guessing 20lbs each so another 100 of mass gonna burn a small fire tonight

 

That's known as convective, vs radiant heat...with a drafty house, radiant heat would feel better.

 

Convective being a stove that heats the air correct?

Now we would see higher peak temps pre thermal mass, but this way it is a higher average temp inside the house

 

I am trying to figure out what my wife would say if I stacked CMU around our stove!

 

Yes

 

Wood burning stove with convection or radiant heat? | Aduro

 

I know what mine would say...

 

Closing the front door that leads into the porch would help eliminate some of that drafty feeling also.

Refer to the pics.....

 

Try it out and let us know!

 

One of my customers has a Russian fireplace. Basically a wall of bricks where the exhaust smoke goes through the maze heating them up as it goes out. I had never seen or heard of one prior.

 

They work really well, from what I hear

 

there is a firm in the souther states that builds those Rump.... (I don't remember the rest of the spelling) type fireplaces. Homes with them are literally designed around the fireplace. They are massive- not something you want to try and float on a few 2x12s joists.
With weight you are adding and have basement underneath, adding some suport pillars down there would be wise .

 

I would think if Russians are good at anything it would be heating with wood

 

The supports were the 1st thing I did.
I got 3 of them down there

 

or vodka

 

LOL!!!

I thought the same thing!

 

Ahh yeah I forgot vodka, AK-47, sks ,tiger tanks,

If not for the whole communist thing I could be happy as a Russian.
As long as they allow beer to