We get a lot of wood from our 4000m2 plot, so it seemed nothing more than logical to use that for heating.
We built a 2500 kg tile stove, but without the tiles. Depending on the outside temperature, we burn somewhere between 10 and 20 kg a day.
It heats aprox. 70 m2 .
The stove was built according the instructions of "De 12 Ambachten"
www.de12ambachten.nl
A tile stove is a heat accumulator.
The idea is to make a short lasting fire as hot as possible. The hot air is lead through a long smoke channel (in our case 5 stories) and the brickwork absorbs the heat, which is then released slowly by radiation.
It is essential to use dry ("seasoned") wood.. You can read why, if you click on:
Wood burning basics
Radiaton heat feels very comfortable. Compare it
to sitting in the sun outdoors
on a freezing day.
On the next pages you´ll see some pictures of the construction of the stove.
On the right hand side a picture of the artists who built it with impressive craftmanship and precision.
Our old metal stove, now retired, bless him.
Good for quick heating up, but inclompete combustion!
Insulation towards
the outer wall
The base of the new stove
The metal door
poured in concrete
The bricklaying
I love this picture!
On the right hand side it shows all the loose parts that go into the outer shell (on the left).
They grey parts are all hand made.
Hard to imagine how much time and effort went into the making of this.
We light the stove in the morning and late afternoon. That way it keeps radiating continiously and spreads a nice and comfortable heat. As said before, we only use very well dried wood. The fire becomes very hot, Iwe haven´t had the opportunity yet to measure the temperature.
Although it may sound a bit strange to build such a stove in hot southern Spain, but anyone who has spend a winter season here knows that it gets really chilly.
The stove has become the center of the house in winter time. We gather around it in the evening to chat, to read or do some work on the computer.
It warms up the house in every sense of the word!
