Samuel Ri

It makes sense, the risk of explosion from steam must be really high. It could be photos, it's great.

Yes, Tony, I asked a bunch of questions at once. Sorry about that. I ended up being impressed with your system and asking too many questions.

I thought about using cast iron tops/plates instead of just one big one, maybe 2 or 3 smaller ones, since they are easy to find around here.

Well, as for the water, everything needs to be thought about and analyzed on a case-by-case basis, size of the stove, type of coil material, amount of water. I realized that there are many variables for a concrete answer.
But from what I understand, you have a bypass below the glass plate. After the heat rises, there is a passage on the left where you heat the water.
Is it used to heat the water faster? Or is it to provide air flow when you turn on the stove?

I will have to think of a project that is well adapted to what I expect from it and the materials I have access to.

Thank you very much for your attention. I look forward to more updates on your stove and hot water system. When you have more information about how everything works, and have time, make more videos of everything working. Thanks.

I've never heard of this system, I'll look into it, thank you very much.

Hi John,
Kuznetsov's free projects can be found on the website:  http://eng.stove.ru/products/otopitelnyie_pechi_oik/oik4

He provides several models. And from what I understand, if you need or want to modify them, he offers paid consulting.
I found everything thanks to the internet, if I'm not mistaken through a video on YouTube, a channel called "StoveAdvice", where he talks about the OIK 4 model. Before that, I had never even heard of it.

I live in the south of Brazil, in the Serra Gaúcha region. I am a descendant of Italians who immigrated to America, specifically to the south of Brazil, in the late 1800s. Here we have well-defined seasons: summer, spring, autumn and a cold, damp winter. Sometimes it snows, but just a few snowflakes. We have some cold snaps of 0 °C and some frosts. What bothers me the most is the cold with a lot of humidity.

I was talking to a Canadian man who came to live here and now resells Canadian fireplaces in the neighboring city. He said he had never been as cold in his life as he was here. Because the houses are not prepared and the weather is very humid, unlike where he comes from, which is much colder but dry, and the houses are prepared for this. He says that much of the discomfort we feel in winter is because of the humidity. From that point on, I started researching alternatives for heating and dehumidification in a future house.

Tony, Sarah, thank you very much for your answers. I agree with you. Plans are essential. With all the research I've been doing for a few years, I realized that there are many details that can make the difference between everything working perfectly or you getting discouraged and giving up. It's worth saving up and buying Matt's plans.

You've had the stove for a few years now. Is it durable?
How many years do you think it will last before some renovation work is needed?
Do you use it in the summer or is it too hot for that time of year?

Here in my region, we have two models that are the most common, wood-burning stoves. One made of steel and one made of masonry. The steel one was produced with great quality in the past, it would last for decades if well cared for and it was quite economical. Now, after a few years, it gets leaks and is already full of problems.
The masonry ones are good, but they consume a lot of firewood. What makes it easier is that you can use firewood cut to more than 1 meter.

I also have the idea of ​​building a Russian mass heater stove, modeled after Kuznetsov. Why, you might ask? Because he made his plans available on his website, showing the bricks row by row, and it seems to be quite easy to build.

My fear is that since I don't have access to either of the two types of stoves, neither Matt's nor Kuznetsov's, I'm just imagining something that doesn't work as I think it will. That they're much worse or much better/hotter than I imagine. And that in the end I'll end up not using them because they either don't heat up enough or heat up too much, becoming useless.
The good thing about them being made of bricks is that in the end, if nothing works out, I can use the bricks for other things. That's why all the research and questions.

Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions. I hope to start a thread about my work in a few years. Thank you very much

If you're interested, below are two links with images of stoves that are common in the region.

Image 1  (https://lojasbecker.vtexassets.com/arquivos/ids/3746935-1600-auto?v=638750756557770000&width=1600&height=auto&aspect=true)

Image 2  (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fnnQRcNc5Y4/maxresdefault.jpg)

I see, so basically you heat water at the end of the heat pipe, before the chimney.
In your case, you added a few more paths, like a mass heater.
You recommend deciding on all the hardware after a dry construction to check dimensions. These seem to be very clear, objective and logical tips.

Unfortunately, I can't buy Matt's project. When converted to my currency, the price is too high. Of course, it's not his fault. The price is very reasonable for someone who works in dollars or euros.

In any case, I appreciate your answers and in the future, when I try to build one with the information I have access to, I'll post it here. Thank you very much. I recently discovered this forum and I'm finding it fantastic to see so many great people who are always willing to help. Thanks.

Hi Tony, first of all, fantastic work, really fascinating.
I found Matt's stoves a few years ago, but I still don't have the space to build one. I'm from the south of Brazil, and it's cold here in the winter, so a wood stove that could be used for cooking, heating water and the environment, while keeping firewood consumption low has always seemed very interesting to me.

If you have time, could you please answer some questions I had about the process and your project.

I couldn't understand how the water heats up in your project, where does the heat come from?

Yes, I understand the thermosiphon, cold water goes in from below, heats up and rises, circulating between the stove and the boiler/hot water tank. However, it wasn't clear from the photos and explanations how you use the heat from the fire/stove, heat passages, etc., to heat the water. I understood the most traditional part of Matt's stove, which he made the video about on YouTube, but I couldn't understand this new part that you added for the water. If you have photos explaining it better, that would be great.

What are the total dimensions of your stove, height, length of the plates, width?

Another question would be about the stove plate, the part you cook on top of, in your case glass and other materials. Do you necessarily need to use 3 pieces, is there a specific reason?

My idea would be to use one or two pieces of steel or cast iron plates (specific for wood stoves, for example the one in the link below is 1m and 32cm long by 72cm wide) that I have access to here. For example, use a piece of steel of say 1.5cm in the hot water part or a smaller cast iron plate, and a whole steel or cast iron plate on the rest of the stove. To have a larger area for pots, kettles, with more space than the 4 spaces of the glass. I don't know if I was able to explain.
Would it be practical to use something like that, or would everything warp a lot with the heat.

Example of a cast iron griddle "https://pollofundidos.com.br/produtos/chapa-para-fogao-a-lenha-para-restaurante-8-furos-com-tampa-e-reducao/"

Have you been using it for a while now? Does it really consume less firewood?
Does it heat the water well? From the moment you turn it on, how long would it take to heat up the entire tank?
Does it work well for cooking, for example, how much firewood do you need to burn to cook a meal? How often do you need to add firewood?
Does the oven work well? Does it have good temperature control? Can you bake cakes, meat, chicken, etc.,
for example? Does it heat the room well, a lot, a little?
Have you used it in the summer?

Thank you very much for your attention

Hi Permies, I'm from the south of Brazil, my name is Samuel. Winter temperatures here average 10 to 12 degrees Celsius, with cold fronts pushing temperatures down to 0 Celsius, sometimes below zero. Nothing exaggerated, but it's a very humid and cold winter because it rains a lot.

I'm planning a new house in a more rural area, just one floor, and I would like to have some form of heating with wood, which would heat the whole house to an acceptable temperature and remove the humidity from the house.
Electricity is quite expensive here, so fully electric systems are only for very rich people. We pay on average 1 real per kWh, in comparison it would be the same as in the US you paying 1 dollar per kWh of electricity.

I thought of two alternatives, which I'm researching and taking into consideration, but for both I would like the opinions and suggestions of those of you who live/know these heating alternatives, because here in the region there are none of the alternatives.

1 - a cast iron fireplace from the Polish brand Kawmet. I can buy them in a nearby city that imports them. It would heat one of the rooms well, but I would like to heat the whole house. To do this, I would build a system of hot air ducts with forced ventilation to the other rooms in the house. Something very similar to a video I saw on YouTube called  "#24 Wood Fireplace Central Heating | At The Ranch".

Basically, you create a heat "box" around the fireplace, which will heat the air well. From this box, you just need to use an exhaust fan to collect this hot air and distribute it through ducts to other rooms. The positive point is that I have a better idea of ​​how it would work, but it is quite expensive. The cost would be around 10000 to 15000 for the fireplace alone, plus the rest of the ducts and exhaust fan, I could imagine another 4000.

2 - The second option that I have been considering recently would be to build one of Kuznetsov's Russian masonry heater projects. I have access to the project on the internet, and apparently it is basically enough to follow the project to the letter, and have iron doors. From what I understand from the projects, I would build a large one, the more bricks the greater the thermal mass. The heat would be radiated into the environment much more slowly, making everything easier, because I imagine that burning it once a day, or every two days, could keep everything warm.

The idea would be to build one of the Kuznetsov designs, but at the top, make a chamber where it could capture and heat the air to distribute it to other areas of the house through forced ventilation.

The question remains: would a Kuznetsov with forced ventilation to other areas work well?
Would it keep the house well heated/dehumidified?
Does anyone have/made/seen a similar system?
What do you think of Kuznetsov stoves?
What do you think of the idea?

Thank you very much