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Summary
Paul and Uncle Mud talk about warmer homes with less wood.
Paul starts off talking about slow burning. People try to burn the fire real slow so that it's warm in the morning. Slow burns are inefficient. Paul doesn't like having a fire alight at night when you're asleep. For example, you could have a chimney fire.
Paul thinks if you have the house warm at bedtime, the best thing is to shut the air intake completely. If you leave a slow fire burning it can draw heat out of the house. The air intake should always be shut when the fire is out. Mud points out that modern codes require an outside air intake, but it still needs to be shut when the fire is out so it doesn't lose heat during the night. Paul doesn't like external intakes. Mud points out that some homes are so well sealed that there isn't enough airflow. Paul points out that various things do have vents, like the bathroom, or dryers.
The next thing you can do is to add mass. The best place to add mass is on the top of the stove but not directly onto the top. When you have a good fire before bedtime, the mass gets hot and gives off heat during the night.
Mud talks about the origins of mass heaters, which are in Scandinavia and Russia, where they built a big masonry stove and put the bed on the top of it. They didn't heat the whole house, just the bed. The mass took a long time to heat and took a lot of attention to get it fully charged.
Paul gets emphatic about burning green wood. Wood should always be dry. Mud agrees, green wood is horribly inefficient and can cause chimney fires.
Mud talks about strategies to limit the cold air getting into the house, and warm air getting out.
Paul says fans can be useful to distribute the heat but they need careful use. He's also been working on ideas like de-humidifiers in the bathroom
Relevant Threads
Wood Burning Stoves forum
Thermal Mass forum
Building to hold out the Russian winters
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper
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