The world needs more masonry heaters and masonry heater builders! A shortage of viable plans as well as education opportunities means there are very few masonry heater builders in North America. This design work reflects an effort to simplify things in order to make the process easier for everybody involved.
For the masonry heater we are currently working on, we took a new approach to the design and construction of the core by casting the most complex parts. The goal of this is to simplify both the design and construction process so that we can streamline the process for our own projects as well as produce a viable strategy and parts for other masonry heater builders.
I was invited to examine a masonry heater that was built by another mason in a town one hour north of us. One of the wooden studs immediately behind the heater, in the wall adjoining their bedroom, had been heated to the point that it had at least reached a smoldering point inside the wall….
Designing a masonry heater into a home can be complex. Here is a design chronicle of incorporating a Tulikivi into a floor plan while navigating other important architectural elements such as a staircase, an important structural beam and circulation space on the second floor.
Staircases and masonry heaters both provide essential functions yet take up substantial floorspace. Placing a heater near a stair case requires respecting proper clearances to combustibles and can sometimes lead to tricky finish details or awkward spaces. Why not combine these two important functions into one!? Here are some ideas…. All images used with expressed …
A fun DIY project to take the heat outside and cook delicious food!
High-Speed Video of Barrel Oven being built!
Project was led by Eva Edleson at the Natural Building Extravaganza.
The purpose of this article is to share the specifics of one way to plumb a masonry heater to provide hot water for a home. In this project, a stainless steel heat coil in the firebox was connected to a well-insulated water tank above it which then work together through a passive thermosiphoning process to …
Details of Plumbing for a Thermosiphon Hot Water System Read More »
This is part of a series of articles on heating hot water with masonry heaters and other wood-fired stoves: See also Details of Plumbing for a Thermasiphon Hot Water System We are currently reading “Handmade Hot Water Systems” by Art Sussman and Richard Frazier. This book has a really down-to-earth late-70’s approach to using your …
Resources for Domestic Hot Water Systems for Woodstoves and Masonry Heaters Read More »
This summer has been an exciting time to deepen our craft in masonry heater building. Here, Jerry Frisch of Lopez Quarries and I are standing in front of a heater that I assisted him on in a new house on the Puget Sound in the state of Washington. It is a basic Finnish contraflow design …
