Ground source and woodburners

[Inspector John]

With or without pepperoni? :wink:

From what I've read I think they are like any other wood burner to get going. They say not to build externally to a property because of that reason but I do like the idea of charging the firebox for around 2 hours (About 4 loads of firewood) at a fierce heat then I believe (correct me if I'm wrong), after it's down to the ashes you close of the flue.
The heat radiates out all day (I'm sure I read the temperature output (The masonry) was around 110 C) Supposed to last around 16 hrs to 24 hrs. Maybe expensive though to have one built. There's hundreds of different facades styles, you can have a SS back boiler installed. could also pipe excess heat to underground storage or to where the heat pump pipes are located
Much more efficient than a wood burner. Doesn't soot or tar up and there's a bread oven to boot...
Well anyway when I've finished the barn conversion (that's if I ever get started) I think I will build one.
Canada ,the States and most Europe use them except UK and France (Pass, perhaps it never gets cold enough to justify the cost)
Here's some pics of them building a masonry heater http://mha-net.org/docs/v8n2/wildac08f.htm There are different designs

 

[Aidan]

It's a storage heater, not a new idea. It sounds like it was a skilled task to build a good one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_oven

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kang_bed-stove

 

[Inspector John]

It's a storage heater, not a new idea. It sounds like it was a skilled task to build a good one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_oven

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kang_bed-stove

The old ideas are sometimes the best ideas
The first heater I guess would take some time to build with a few mistakes on the way, but if you're building one yourself, it shouldn't take to much skill. Just take your time to build it, and double check everything for the core of the heater and as for the facade...Well you could always render the face if you make a mess of the stone/brickwork,, :lol:

 

[lou]

MdB
Helpful options but I thought I had read somewhere that a cement/concrete base with DPC is likely to displace moisture up the walls.

 

[MdB]

MdB
Helpful options but I thought I had read somewhere that a cement/concrete base with DPC is likely to displace moisture up the walls.

Yep. That is what we had (and our neighbours still have) before we replaced our floor. The walls (and plaster!) went through the DPC of the concrete floor causing the bottom 100mm or so to suffer badly from damp.

Fortunately, in our rebuild we were able to put the DPC under most of the walls as well so this is no longer a major problem. On the old walls where we couldn't do this, we have a stretch of limecrete next to each wall to increase the area that can evaporate. We also put additional drainage under the floor and lowered the ground level outside.

If you have mainly old walls, a completely limecrete floor would likely be a better solution than concrete as a long as the water table isn't too high.

 

[lou]

Thanks MdB - the answer I both expected and wanted really but just a bit put off by the depth of digging, disturbing the flags and the cost, of course.

 

[Moo]

disturbing the flags

Oh, don't worry about the flags. They won't mind a bit.

 

[Wren]

One end of the price spectrum:
http://www.rocketstoves.com/
not very clear from the website, but that is because they want you to buy the pdf.

The other end of the price spectrum (ouch!):
http://www.ceramicstove.com/default.asp
or
http://www.beacon-stoves.co.uk/tile/index.shtml
or
http://www.finnoven.com/finnovenoverview.html