Woodstoves
A basic stove is usually made up of cast iron or steel with brick lining around it to retain the heat. It is generally fitted with a door in front. You have to open the door to load the stove with wood fuel, for lighting it and removing ash.
The stove casing becomes hot and radiates the heat out into the room. If you want to have a wood stove for just heating the room, a simple stove would do the job pretty well. Akin to wood stoves are the pellet stoves that burn compressed organic material such as sawdust or agricultural plant waste material that is automatically fed with a hopper.
Besides the brick lined stoves, some stoves have ceramic casing. They are called ceramic stoves or kakkel ovens. They are popular in Scandinavian countries and Eastern Europe. The ceramic covering acts as a heat store to radiate the heat into the room for hours after the fire has been extinguished. Since they are made of ceramic, these stoves are much more expensive than the brick lined log burning stoves.
Benefits Of Woodstoves
Wood is a renewable source of energy. It must be noted that the growing trees absorb more carbon dioxide than the mature trees. So, as far as global warming is concerned, it is better to harvest the mature trees and grow and plant younger saplings in their place. Wood emissions are less harmful than those of the coal, gases in regard to NOx and SOx (acid rain) and carbon monoxide.
Building A Woodstove
It is easy to build a woodstove. Any layman can build one without much expertise and money. It requires sheet steel, cutting and welding equipment. You can even install it yourself by standing it on a slate or a concrete slab. You can also build the chimney with a thin sheet of stainless steel. Make a hole in it for the flue pipe. Use ‘copex’ because it is flexible. You need to seal the flue with the fire cement. If you are using an old chimney, it may require new lining as there can be tar deposits on it which may cause fire. Moreover the holes or cracks in it may allow the gases to seep through it into the living areas. Logs are the cheapest fuel for heating your room as wood logs cost 1/5 of the electricity per kwh Remember to clean the chimney every year and remove creosote and tar deposits to avoid chimney fires.
