House Design Online

There is no shortage of advice when designing your own home on how to heat the house. With a world energy crisis imminent it is makes sense to give how you heat and insulate your house prime consideration.

The first consideration should be what we do with heat that we have:

How do we prevent Heat Loss?

How do we get the best effect?

Most independent experts agree that decisions on prevention of heat loss far is more important than what system to put in place e.g. geothermal, heat recovery. See our previous blog post on Eco-Bling So when budgeting for your build, it might be more prudent to include an extra £/€/$ 1,000 for insulation rather spending extra on the top-of-the-range heating system.

Whatever system you use, make sure to incorporate it into the overall design package. You would be amazed at the number of people who have invested thousands on state-of-the-art heat recovery systems but yet insisted on the charm of an open fire. It just doesn’t work!

Heat recovery systems go hand-in-hand with passive house design.

On the other hand if your are opting for a more natural type build like myself it is worth considering an all natural approach.

Our brief was for a house constructed with natural materials that would allow the structure to breathe but at the same time be warm in winter and not too warm in summer. We live in the countryside which gave us a greater range of options. We had access to a good supply of firewood. The firewood is sourced from the adjoining native woodland and consists of coppiced material. This means that every winter we coppice a section of the woodland. that is cut each tree back to it’s stump and allow the timber to dry until the following winter. In Spring each stump then puts out several new shoots. The coppice system therefore involves not only replacing each tree but actually multiplying the number of replacement trees.

Our house is constructed with Logs and is designed to maximise solar gain.

Log Houses are particularly suited to the use of masonry heating systems. These systems are very common in North America and Northern Europe. In fact in  Finland courtesy of generous tax incentives 90% of new homes are heated with a masonry stove.

Background

Interestingly enough energy crises are not a new phenomenon. European Governments in the 15th century were coming to terms with centuries of depletion of their stocks of timber through deforestation Timber was used for building

houses, ships, to fight wars and for fuel. The situation became so serious by the 17th and 18th centuries that craftsmen were ordered to develop fuel efficient stoves. These energy efficient stoves have survived over the centuries and their popularity is again growing in response to the newest energy crisis. In some countries the stoves are referred to as kachelofens

Principles

Masonry Stoves are remarkable in their simplicity. The are basically large structures of heat storage material, which when heated once a day will store the heat and radiate that heat for the remainder of the day. They use only a fraction of  the amount of fuel required by ordinary stoves. The stove we have built is based on the Finnish design. A fire of dry firewood is lit once a day or less. The fire is encouraged to burn with a supply of air. As the fire becomes hotter, the air supply is reduced. The heat has to travel throughout the structure in order to escape and in doing so is stored in the structure. When the last ember has burned. The damper to the chimney is closed preventing any heat being lost. The stove remains warm for up to 36 hours afterwards

Benefits

Masonry heater work by radiating the heat stored in their mass slowly. Radiant heat is the same type of heat we get from the sun. As the sun warms the earth during daylight, so to does the radiant heat from a stove heat solid objects around, which in turn store and release warmth. By keeping room doors open the stove radiates heat to all rooms in the house.

Conventional heating systems tend to heat the air in room. Masonry stoves work exceptionally well with homes constructed with natural materials which in turn store the warmth from the stove.

The stove is excellent for cooking, particularly for slow-cooking where food can be prepared the night before and be ready piping hot for dinner time the next day.

Masonry Stoves may not be the solution to everyone’s energy requirements but they can have a huge role to play in design for the future. They are the predominant system for heating in countries such as Finland and yet are relatively unheard of in many countries.

As we look to the future it is always useful to learn what has worked well in the past