Benefits of the EcoStove

Atmosphere:

The stove and the bench or bedstand add great atmosphere to a living room or bedroom. The EcoStove creates an area that seems to be separate from the hustle and bustle of life; an area of peace and calm within the storm. It is a great place for reading or relaxing. You'll notice guests seem to gravitate towards the bench when invited in.

Comfort:

There is nothing quite as comforting as sitting on a warm earthen bench in the evening, listening to the sound of the fire as it "rockets" through the system.

Efficiency:

This stove has been shown to reduce wood usage by an average of three (3) cords per year. The amount will vary by type of home, amount of insulation and implementation, but nevertheless, one can expect a serious decrease in wood usage.

Expense:

In addition to being reasonably priced itself, you will save the expense of those three cords of wood per year. That's a yearly savings of at least several hundred dollars.

The Environment:

Contribute significantly less in the way of pollution and heat to our current environmental problems.

Time:

The time spent cutting, splitting, stacking, drying and moving the extra three cords of wood will now be yours to do with what you will.

Safety:

The hottest parts of the EcoStove are all self-contained, reducing - effectively eliminating - the threat of fire.

Endless Possibilities:

The EcoStove can be modified for many uses. Some ideas for use are:

• Through an earthen bench (soak up warmth as your relax on the bench)
• Through an earthen bedstand (prewarm your mattress on those cold, cold winter nights)
• Heated outdoor seating (extend your barbecue season)
• Heat a sauna
• Heat a shower
• Heat a hot tub
• Floor heating ala the Romans (hypocaust)

Efficiency Levels

There are two areas of efficiency to be concerned about when looking at wood-burning stoves:

1. How efficient is the stove at burning the fuel?
2. How efficient is the stove at delivering the heat into the home?

Modern woodburning stove manufacturers will tell you that their products are super-efficient, but usually they are only talking about the first efficiency: the burning of the wood. See below for a discussion of the different efficiency levels.

Zero- Efficiency Most, if not all, fireplaces and kivas fall into this category. They burn a lot of wood, produce a lot of smoke and blow nearly all of the produced heat up into the night sky.

Single- Efficiency These are generally the stoves you'll find in modern showrooms and include any wood-burning stove that has a vertical chimney right out of the box. They may burn wood efficiently, but blow nearly all of the produced heat straight up into the night sky.

Mid- Efficiency Most vertically vented masonry stoves (Russian, Finnish, German) fall into this category. These burn the wood efficiently and make an effort at keeping the produced heat inside the house.

Dual- Efficiency Horizontally vented masonry stoves are Dual-Efficiency stoves. These burn the wood efficiently and deliver a vast majority of the produced heat into the house.