Thermal mass

I'm definitely on your side about the thermal mass.

I don't try to run my stove low and slow much. If the fire doesn't hit 600-800 its not going to heat my house when temps are below 30° outside. The thermal mass just soaks it up. Room temp doesn't go as low between fires.

I just wanted to illustrate how MUCH it takes to really start working well. Usually my stove room temp will vary as much as 10° from peak fire to reload. In other words. During the hottest part of the fire the stove room will get to 77°+. When the stove gets refilled room temp is about 69-70° and there's hardly enough coals to start the next fire. Thermal mass is nice but can lead to alot of "new" or from scratch fires. Needless to say, i go through some small kindling. Lol

 

Not getting into drama but you say you have brand new LP furnace.. simple solution go grab (2) 100 pound lp tanks about $250 for both new.. attach to furnace set thermostat to 45*
Why I have never seen a house without water on outside wall you get frozen pipes and water damage your insurance co gonna luv you

 

Good point, let's say in a work day I average 12 hour reloads.
Without the stones let's say this stove pumps 700f for an average peak burn of 2 to3 hrs then tapers off after that
All that heat is gone by the time I get home because of poor insulation.
With the stones we get that same 700f for 2 to 3 hrs but the stones stay above 300 for an extra 3 hrs.
(Obviously this is all hypothetical times. I've spent a lot of time measuring temps during this process, but never for a full burn.)
When I come home even though the air temps have reached lower amounts they stayed higher for longer so that 12 hr cycle = a warmer house even though heat loss does not change.

Now if we streched that reload to 15 or 18hrs I doubt there would be a temperature difference between the 2 setups by the time I got home.
Make sense?

And just as an aside it's 72 in the stove room right now, when I'm home all day this stove is caple of heating very well.
It's also 28f outside so its a mild day.

 

I completely agree
The 1k lbs that I have really doesn't do that much.
Now if I could get 10 to 15k I bet this house would be hot

 

I've thought about doing that, but really don't see a need.
I've been very careful about water line routing during remodel.
The only exterior wall water lines are in the basement. The kitchen sink lines are inside the cabinets the bathroom lines run up dead center next to main drain

 

Doing the math. If this wall was a solid peice of what i think it is, sandstone, then the wall alone weighs 5800lbs. That's not including any of the cinder block of the chimney or the concrete floor. Hopefully this can help you plan your forever home a little.