One of the features of the house we are very excited about is the masonry heater. This is a fireplace with a large amount of stone surrounding it, which releases heat back to the home for hours after the fire is burnt. We designed the center of the house to have this fireplace central between the kitchen and dining room and living room and foyer, really as a central feature of the house. Here are some photos of the construction of the fireplace.
Here is Stan and his crew building the innards of the masonry heater. The inner layers are standard firebricks, the outer layer will be veneer rock that we got on an awesome sale!!
The principle of masonry heathers (also called Russian heater, best known company who makes them is probably Tulikivi; ours was custom made and designed) is that they burn a very hot fire, and the smoke and heat is directed through lengthy channels in the brick so that essentially all the heat is absorbed into the mass of the stone, to radiate back into the room for hours (one arm-load of wood, burned in a 30-minute quick burn, can provide enough heat to radiate for 12-24 hours). It is a very clean burn, with almost no ash left (because of the high heat). And since we are sitting in the middle of 20 acres of sustainable forest, our fuel source is literally right out our front door. It provides a very comfortable heat, similar to radiant heating in the floor, except this is in the center of the house.
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