Hot external wall

Hi everyone. I have had a wood stove for about 6 months and with the cold weather are pretty much running it all day and night. We have had a friend visit today and mentioned that the outside brick wall behind the stove is hot. I have checked and it is really really hot. I can barely keep my hand on it for more than a few seconds. Surely that can't be right? It is right behind the box but the flue goes up vertically from the top. Is there something wrong with the install?

This sounds really odd, maybe dangerous.

What is immediately behind the stove? Is the brick just a facade? How old is the house and what do you think is in the walls?

I heat only with wood and behind the stove rarely goes above 120, and that's right behind it, maybe 12-14" from the stove.

Behind the stove is I assume a brick ca its wall with no insulation. The house is around 120 years old. The strange thing is if I reach behind the stove (very carefully) the back wall doesn't seem that hot.

That certainly doesn't sound right. How close to the wall is the stove? How big is the area of outside wall that is hot? Where exactly is this in relation to the stove? (Measure from windows, floor, etc., inside and out, whatever lets you be precise.)

Do you have just a stovepipe for chimney, or does the pipe connect to a chimney? Where is the chimney located in relation to the stove and hot spot?

I have seen chimneys built into the thickness of walls in 19th century city buildings, sometimes as a 4" x 12-16" space entirely concealed in the 12" or 16" thick brick wall. How thick are your walls?

The stove is around 50mm away from the wall. The stove and liner sit within an old victorian open fire the liner goes up the old chimney and the chimney is deeper and wider than the stove itself. The stove is 8kw and the external wall is 2 skins of 100mm brick with a cavity of some size probably again around 100mm. I would have to measure the hot spot but seems to be a little smaller than the stove itself but right behind it  

50mm is about two inches, so you can't reach deep in behind while the stove is hot. How big is the stove (wide x high)? How close to the middle can you reach behind it?

I don't think this is dangerous, mostly a tremendous waste of heat. A fan blowing across behind the stove would help move some of the heat into the room. Moving the stove out a few inches and putting an insulated shield behind it would also help.