Page 273 - The Lost Ways

Why a Wood-Burning Stove

Even the earliest models of wood-burning stoves were much more efficient than a
fireplace, which is what made them such a great success.

The typical fireplace is set into an exterior wall of the home and only emits heat from the
open front side. Some heat actually escapes through the back and sides of the fireplace,
and a lot of it escapes up the chimney.

This is basic physics—more specifically, thermodynamics. The basic idea is that heat rises.
The smoke from the fire heats the air, which goes up the chimney, taking the smoke with
it. If this didn’t happen, our homes would be filled with smoke.

The difference that the wood burning stove made is that it radiated heat from all sides,
not just from the front. That greatly increased the amount of heat that it put into a room
or the amount of heat that you could receive from a log of wood.

Today’s wood-burning stoves are much more efficient than those older models, mostly
because of design improvements that have been done to meet more and more stringent
EPA regulations. However, those regulations don’t affect older, pre-existing stoves. So if
you manage to find an old wood-burning stove, keep it around for an emergency. You’ll
still be able to use it.

Temporarily Installing Your Wood-Burning Stove

Originally, wood-burning stoves were made of cast iron or sometimes from cast steel.
Since the stove is made of metal, it gets hot. Most modern wood-burning stoves are heavy
gauge steel and lined with fire brick. This doesn’t stop them from getting hot though,

although not as hot as an iron box without firebrick in it.

63
You’ll need to pick a location for your stove where it can provide heat to your room
while still being out of the way.

63 “Wood burning stove“ Valerie Everett (CC BY 2.0)

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