Affordable way to add mass to existing woodstove?

now that we are going into winter and using the stove more. I figured i would redo the stack of bricks next to my stove. Before they were just stacked next to each other in two rows and they were quite wobbly. Now they are interlocked and sturdier.

I notice some people are keeping a barrier between there bricks and the stove. I have put mine directly in contact with the stove. It definitly helps with any clearance to combustibles issues!

So before i started taking the bricks apart which was about 12+ hours after my last fire and they were still warm. Probably like 80*F. The house was 63.3*F this morning.

So here is how i added the bricks. Any of the solid bricks i put right next to the stove and the bricks with the holes in them went from being in a upright position to being mostly sideways. I also put a spacer underneath the bricks because those bricks did not become warm/hot at all.

Now that's mass!

Oops - the excavator bucket that is... The bricks are good mass too.

I came across a webpage regarding the use of sand to store heat in Finland.  Has anyone tried sand-filled energy storage?
"The sand is able to store heat at around 500–600C (932–1,112F) for months, so power generated in the summer can be used to heat homes in the winter."

This is the company website. So basically solar heats the sand in the summer, it is stored in a silo and used in the winter.

https://polarnightenergy.fi/

Nicole,

I think that your stove is cast iron. This means that the metal in your stove can tolerate temps higher than steel.  This is important for the next part I am going to suggest:

   - A big stack of rocks/bricks on top of your stove would hold a lot more heat than the same stack next to the stove

   - if you stuck cob between the rocks/bricks it would hod even more heat

(I would not suggest this for steel - too much chance that the steel would spall)

And now for my very controversial suggestion:  at night, close the damper entirely and do not run a fire.  Instead, get your rocks nice and hot before bed.  

When you try to run a fire while you sleep, you will put a giant log in and hope it burns for 4 to 8 hours.  Often turning the damper down.  This will run your 75% efficient wood stove at 3% efficiency.  And when the fire goes out, air will continue to move through the wood stove.  It looks like you have an external air intake, so your wood stove will have zero fire, but cold air will be pulled in, warmed by the room, and rise out of the building.  So your wood stove will operate at a sort of "negative efficiency" - making you colder in the morning.  

Check out this bread oven that kiko denzer added on top of his wood stove


https://www.handprintpress.com/tech/increasing-woodstove-efficiency-construction-details-videos/

about 300 pounds of masonry makes a small space comfortable for 10-24 hours on very little fuel. It’s also easy to burn clean — you never damp it down, so it burns hot and fast, , and minutes after ignition, there’s no visible smoke from the stack.