I live in Santa Fe, which is apparently the only place in the world with kiva fireplaces - of which I have 5!! Since fireplaces are such woefully inefficient ways to heat a space and I would really like to heat with our local wood, I have been looking but am unable to find any information about the possibility of converting them to a more efficient system. I'm wondering if I could build some kind of small masonry heater system into the firebox using firebrick, or built a small rocket mass heater into the firebox using cob and such, or else cob (maybe sand and then cob) around a wood stove inserted in (with the proper pipe inserted inside the chimney). Any ideas from someone with expertise? Thank you!
