My brother Hans and I grew up with a stylish barrel heater from Eaton's. We got it at Christmas one year while we were still living in a small cabin. It was a big improvement over the old burned out airtight. It had a cast-iron front and back with a fairly heavy-gauge steel body connecting them, cast-iron legs and smoke outlet, and metal shelves on each side that could be mounted either halfway down or right at the top. We were proud of that heater.
Later we moved the barrel heater into our larger new house, and it functioned well in spite of the badly insulated walls. But the air draft system, being almost the same as that of the airtight, had approximately the same level of efficiency. After some heat fluctuations in the metal, the caulking between the main body and the front and back fell out, allowing air to escape. Air draft control was almost totally lost.
Since we could no longer control the heat output by the air draft, we had to control the fire with crafty woodloading techniques-by gauging the quantity of wood to the amount of heat needed and by using wet wood to slow the burning process. Thus, much of the inefficiency was due to continual overheating of the house.
The demise of the heater was due both to our exhaustion from continually juggling with the air draft and wood load in order to get the desired amount of heat, and to an exceptionally cold winter during the heater was frequently overtaxed. The sides of the heater never really burnt through, but they became dangerously thin and developed tremendous wrinkles from the excessive heat. The combination of red hot sides with a heavy load of wood and ashes in the heater forced the sided to draw inwards while the bottom sagged down. It was a sad sight. The heater was finally replaced with a homemade barrel heater, which, although uglier, was a least airtight enough to control.
Frequently thereafter Hans and I discussed wood heating and possible innovations. Then, in the winter of 1977, Hans designed a large wood furnace for a friend who was building a house in the Smithers area. To test it we installed it in the same house in which we grew up, removing the door frame to get it into the house. Its operation was far beyond what we had expected. The furnace easily burned for a week on one filling of wood without relighting. Once it actually burned for three weeks on a filling without relighting.
This in itself was proof only that the furnace could be controlled, not that it was efficient. Efficiency is difficult to measure accurately, but by roughly comparing the wood consumption of this furnace and the old barrel heater, we knew we were also dealing with a highly efficient wood-burning principle. After further tests and improvements, Hans set up a plant in Smithers, which now manufactures the RSF Energy wood heaters.
Besides covering the essential ideas, insights, and discoveries that have gone into development of the RSF Energy heaters, this book attempts to give a rounded view of wood burning, introducing various viable alternatives and approaches. It goes beyond the commercial product to include ideas useful to handymen and home builders who wish to create a wood-burning stove according to their personal needs and interests. |
