Wood burning stove that loads from the outside ?????

[pharmvet]

Im looking at building a house in the next year or so. I grew up with a fireplace and presently have a wood burning stove in my house. I have been through a serious ice storm that kept many people in my immediate area without electricity for almost 3 weeks. I live in NE Texas and wood is something we have plenty of. Anyway, I say all this to get to my question. Although I love a fireplace, its been proven that a fireplace is one of the most inefficient methods to get heat from burning wood. We dont have severe winters so Im not interested in an outdoor furnace that heats water etc. What Im wanting is some sort of good old fashioned wood heater that has the loading door outside the house. I think that would do away with the smell of smoke, the mess that hauling wood in the house creates ect, while still allowing heat from the actual fire to warm the house. Of course, an electric blower could be used but would not be absolutely necessary to heat the immediate area in the event of an outage. Does anybody have something like this or know of something like this. I envision having the heater door in the garage beside my wood and the heater itself would extend into the living room or something. Anyway, I would love your ideas, pictures, etc. thanks

 

[beenthere]

You could build a fireplace or have a wood stove that loads from the outside, but likely wouldn't be any more efficient than the indoor-loading fireplace. And you would need to isolate the combustable walls around the wood burner to follow the building codes.

Even though the usual fireplace is less efficient than some wood stoves, you will still get positive heat into your house. Just may burn more wood doing it that way. But you say you have plenty of wood.

I heated my home for a couple winters with two fireplaces that were going 24/7, and controlled right (dampered down and always with a good bed of coals), they would heat the house.

Get R dun

 

[ultrarunner]

I designed a ceramic tile wood stove as primary heat for the cabin..

The stove is in the living room and the door to stoke it is in the stair well going down to the walkout basement...

I have been very pleased for all the reasons you mentioned... it heats superbly, wood is never brought in to the living area of the house, zero smoke or smell in the house because the only access is from the basement stairwell and the loading position is much higher than standard at 4'

The building department signed off on it and the inspector said he wished he had similar in his home...

 

[schmism]

from saying at my uncles house that heats with wood.

its a ROYAL PITA to have to wake up at 3am to a 50 deg house and have to go load the stove with skivvies on.

i dont want to think about having to suit up for 3 deg weather and go stand around out side trying to get a fire relight for 20 min.

 

[Reg]

Im looking at building a house in the next year or so. I grew up with a fireplace and presently have a wood burning stove in my house. I have been through a serious ice storm that kept many people in my immediate area without electricity for almost 3 weeks. I live in NE Texas and wood is something we have plenty of. Anyway, I say all this to get to my question. Although I love a fireplace, its been proven that a fireplace is one of the most inefficient methods to get heat from burning wood. We dont have severe winters so Im not interested in an outdoor furnace that heats water etc. What Im wanting is some sort of good old fashioned wood heater that has the loading door outside the house. I think that would do away with the smell of smoke, the mess that hauling wood in the house creates ect, while still allowing heat from the actual fire to warm the house. Of course, an electric blower could be used but would not be absolutely necessary to heat the immediate area in the event of an outage. Does anybody have something like this or know of something like this. I envision having the heater door in the garage beside my wood and the heater itself would extend into the living room or something. Anyway, I would love your ideas, pictures, etc. thanks

As described; yes you could DO it, but it wouldn't work.
It takes a long time, probably 12 hours, to start getting heat THROUGH bricks - and I mean brick chimneys as built 50 or so years ago.
Through the back of the firebox itself, longer.
Modern code probably requires another air space between the chimney bricks and the inside wall, to avoid smoke leaks through deteriorated mortar, etc.

IOW;
a) You will be required to insulate and isolate the living space from the source of heat.
b) By the time any heat comes through brickwork (of even 50 year old code) the power will be back on.

EDIT:
Sorry I missed the point about having the fire door in the garage.
NOT a good place.
Without knowing your habits, fire and naked flames are generally a BAD idea in areas where oil, gasoline, paint are likely to be stored.
Building inspectors KNOW this and won't sign off on it.
Insurers don't approve either, e.g. your policy likely becomes null and void.
END EDIT;

 

[pharmvet]

Just to clarify, Im not talking about some complicated heater system. For instance, the heater Im using presently is located on an outside wall of my house. I have wood stacked behind the chimney. There is a door beside my heater that I use to go out, gather up wood, come back inside my house, open the heater doors, and load the heater. There is a door on the back of my heater (chimney) that can be used to remove ashes. That got me wondering why I couldnt have a setup exactly like this, except load the thing from outside rather than bringing wood into the house. Then I took the idea one step further and thought about how I could have a garage or some other (junk or tool) room on the other side of the chimney so that loading wood in the early cold morning would not be so bad. I realize that room would suffer the mess and smells my living room presently suffers, but thats different. What do you think?

 

[dave1949]

Look here maybe:
Kachelofen ceramic tile, european fireplaces

My friends in Germany had a kachelofen in their living room. Their house had a central hallway where the firebox was loaded from. A little different than you are envisioning, but a known solution. No mess in the living areas.

He also had a heat exchange water tank on the outside of the firebox, he circulated his baseboard/radiator hot water through that. His oil furnace hardly ever needed to run.

They brought wood into the central hallway and stored a day's worth in a wood box. Of course the interior wall behind the kachelofen (masonry heater) has to be a non-combustible like masonry brick, etc.

These heaters provide a very gentle radiant heat, are never hot enough to burn you, in fact they are often surrounded by a wood sitting bench.

You would get the same effect with a USA-type masonry heater at lower cost, perhaps not as pretty. It takes a mason who knows what they are doing with thermal expansion and so forth. They are built on-site and require a thicker concrete slab portion below them for support - like you would need for a chimney pad.

If you want, a masonry heater can include an oven for baking if your family is into homemade breads, etc.

Dave.

 

[Reg]

I picked up on the "in the garage" as a likely code issue.
In New England there is is a feature (historical, though it probably has some roots in building code) of what locals call a "covered breezeway" between the house and garage.
Something like that, with the firebox's loading door "outside" the house and not IN the garage would probably pass code here.
I have seen some very attractive baking chimneys too, that have a BBQ pit on the "outside" and a bread oven on the kitchen side, all built into the same brickwork.

SOME "covered breezeways" evolve from not much more than screen houses to fully insulated and furnished family rooms.

I would SERIOUSLY consider it in the breezeway, mud room, utility room, call it what you will (-:

 

[pharmvet]

Reg, yes thats more along the lines of what Im talking about. I guess what I was calling a garage, is not really a "garage" in the literal sense, but rather a covered slab where we park our cars and have birthday parties, etc. LOL but anyway, the wood would be loaded in another "area" or room other than the living room thus doing away with the smell and mess. thanks. More ideas, pics, links welcome.

 

[gregsons]

I have the traditional fire place like your talkin about but have went out and got a incert for it with a blower so now its like a wood burning stove. i was told that the traditional fire place in a neg 15 % it my warm your home a little but you need the fire to go out and cool be for you can close the chimney and durning that time all the heat goes up and out. with the incert you do not need to worry about this. then next to my fire place is a box 3x3x3 and it opens from the top it the living room about 3 feet from the fire place, on the back side the is a door threw the wall that goes into my Garage where i fill the box. this makes it ez to fill get the wood in and with very little mess. it would be ez to build but i would have to guess its aginst fire code nowdays