Beginning to brainstorm and plan a new stove

I'm thankful that this community exists, for its knowledge, ideas, and enthusiasm. Let's see if anybody wants to help me kick this stove project along that I am in the beginning phases of researching, brainstorming, and planning.  


Basic background:
-Zone 4a/4b
-relatively long, relatively cold winters
-Approx. 1000 sqft main floor of house, including some large windows that are not optimal for heat retention
-Essentially every part of the house is in some form of construction/renovation, with the kitchen eventually slated for a refit (new counters, cabinets, and possibly stove!)

-lined cinderblock chimney
-there is a basement under the main floor, with a large wood stove that feeds into the same chimney stack and same flue pipe as the main floor cookstove (this is not to code)

What I love about the current cookstove:

-multi-functional
  -warming drawer, oven, large cook surface with multiple heat zones, water heater (plumbed to pressurized house system)
-can heat up quickly and begin outputting heat quickly (benefit of low thermal mass)
-it is able to heat the house if we are home to tend it every few hours, usually we do not need to fire the basement stove
-easy to clean firebox and ash collector
-you don't have to be a rocket scientist to get a fire going and create heat

What I don't love about the current cookstove:

-does not hold heat for very long (drawback of low thermal mass)
-takes up a lot of space in the kitchen, which is especially a annoying in the summer when it is not in use
-probably not very efficient burner, needs to be tended fairly often
-smallish firebox


What I want to achieve:

-maintain multi-functionality (heat, and all cooking needs, water heating)
-smooth out temperature dips overnight or when we are away and unable to tend the stove (!!)
-increase efficiency of wood use
-increase efficiency of space usage
-more functional cooktop - this would mean having a surface that transitions seamlessly from hot stove top to counter top, currently you have this gap between the stove and the counter to manage when cooking
-I'm a bit worried that too much mass will mean hours of cold when you return home and light the fire after time away.



I'm open to different kinds of mass heaters, or stoves. Possibly a bench could be worked in to the right of the stove where a cabinet currently rests, and possibly, maybe a bench could go in the room to the north. It could be a location to sit when you come in the house, take on/off boots etc.




Aesthetically we are going for a bit of a mid-century, modern-ish, but still country kind of feel. Concrete countertops are tempting. I've attached an image of a stove that has really caught my eye.







Thanks for any input on this one!

thomas rubino wrote:  
have you looked at Matt Walkers riserless RMH cookstove plans?  They can heat a bench/bell as well as be a standard cook stove.
Here is a link to his site https://walkerstoves.com/index.html

Thanks, yes I have checked out some of his stuff before, and I gave it another look today. His larger cookstove looks like it has some aspects that may work well for my application.

I have the space for a riser, but would the most effective cooking surface have to be at the top of that? I'm assuming that the top surface of the riser has the highest temperatures.