MASONRY HEATER

This post will most certainly require a later update, but I wanted to get things started.  The masonry heater will be our primary heat source.  I mentioned before that it's like a wood stove built out of masonry, but that's a simplistic explanation.  It's based on a centuries-old European technology, like the Scandinavian tulikivi, the German kachelofen, or Russian wood stoves (I don't know what they're called, much less how to spell it).  The principal is that a small fire is lit and burned quickly at very high heat, approaching 1600 degrees.  The exhaust gases exit the firebox into a secondary combustion chamber, then drop to the base of the heater before finally leaving through the chimney.  The result is a very complete and efficient combustion, which delivers 85-90% of the wood fuel's heating potential to the huge mass of masonry that encapsulates the heater.  The chimney is then sealed off, allowing the heated mass to radiate into the surrounding spaces.  Theoretically, we'll fire the heater once a day and otherwise benefit from the residual heat.  It's an old technology, but clearly a bit complicated, so we brought in the expert.

This is Tom Trout, an enigmatic masonry heater builder from the mountains of western North Carolina.  He's built heaters all over the region and even trained masons in Japan.  He was a real hit on the job site when he showed up with his wood-fired hot tub.

This is the lower wall of the masonry heater, with the ash-dump door in place.  The quarter radius bricks at the top center are the sill of the firebox opening.  Needless to say, we've got an intricate pattern worked out for the masonry veneer on this masonry heater.  Our masons love our patterns.

Tom made me cut my own corners for the firebox opening, and I'm pretty proud of my work.  These are all cut from the quarter radius brick, and the mis-alignment is due to the lack of the mortar joints.  Obviously the finished opening will be  quite a bit larger, these are just the four corners.