ᐅ Experiences with a Fireplace with Water Jacket

Alpandian89 schrieb:
Which stove without a water jacket do you recommend for an open living/dining area (about 45-50 m² (480-540 sq ft)) in terms of kW output? The house is intended to meet KfW 55 standard.

Hi,

Maximum power output should be around 3 kW (there are hardly any smaller ones available).
It should be reasonably adjustable, with a minimum output of about 1 kW.

This is fully sufficient for a KfW 55 standard house, and it will still provide plenty of heat....

Best regards,
Thorsten

Here is something on the topic "...there is limited choice when it comes to stoves/fireplaces with such low output...," quite simply: just use less wood. The manufacturers’ specifications refer to the maximum possible output, which (among other factors) depends on the amount of wood that can be burned at once in the combustion chamber.

One more reason why I personally prefer fireplaces: you can redirect the warm air to other rooms when needed...

Feueronkel schrieb:
A quick note on the topic "...there are few stoves/fireplaces with such low output...": quite simply, just use less wood... The manufacturers’ specifications refer to the maximum possible output, which depends, among other things, on the amount of wood that can be burned at once in the combustion chamber...

That’s very clear to me personally. I know from my training how such a device works...

I wrote that stoves in this class are rare. But there are some, say one with 4.5 kW. You can also turn that down by using less wood. Mine has a listed range from 2.7 to 9 kW. At the time, I thought: great, a cute little thing, not much power—but when I bought it, I had no idea how little the house actually needs...

However, you do need to get the stove going first to create a clean bed of embers, so that when you add more wood later, the combustion (flame pattern) is clean.

In my house, it’s already warm on the ground floor after about 35 minutes.

Even when adding wood VERY sparingly (I estimate that based on amount, efficiency, and so on, the stove runs at about 2 kW, otherwise it goes out or the flame isn’t right—too little oxygen/material), it still gets too warm. Well, for me there’s no such thing as too warm as long as it’s below 35°C (95°F). But ask my wife at 23.5°C (74°F) what she’d say about that...

No wonder it gets warm. The heating system also runs at -5°C (23°F) with 3 kW—not continuously though. Effective power is about 1 to 1.5 kW for the entire house. That’s in a KfW 70 standard building. Put this burner in a KfW 55 or 40 standard house and you don’t need a sauna anymore—everyone would be sitting naked in the living room for fondue... And it hardly matters whether the floor area is 69 m² (743 sq ft) like ours, or around 85 or 100 m² (915 or 1,076 sq ft) as in a typical modern house.

Best regards
Thorsten

Feueronkel schrieb:
PS: size (30x30) doesn’t really matter, you know OK, joking aside
You can’t expect fresh air control on a "workshop stove," obviously

Actually, yes, it is possible. There are three regulators in total: all open means really hot, all closed means the smallest flame.
The size matters in the sense that, after subtracting the firebrick lining, only up to 2 wood briquettes can fit inside the stove at once. Or 2 small logs. And you have to add fuel every 20–30 minutes to keep it burning.

Elina schrieb:
Of course it works. There are three controls in total; all open = really hot. All closed = minimal flame.

Sorry, I might not have expressed myself clearly or completely. Good modern stoves designed for space heating usually offer finer adjustment, including automatic functions... temperature-controlled, regulated combustion air = combustion air from outside, not from the room. Controls are also available as add-on modules for stoves with fresh air or external air intake, but not for a workshop stove.