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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Russian Stoves, Kachel Offen

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  • From: Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Russian Stoves, Kachel Offen
  • Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:28:08 -0700

According to the history I read, the Russian Stove was developed in the 17th century in response to a balance of payment crises in Great Britian due to the import of wood from Norway. A contest was held for the most energy (fuel) efficient appliance, the famous fireplace designer Count Rumford, was one of the participants. Out of this contest came the mass heater ( though Russians claim that they had been using a similar heater/cooking appliance for centuries prior to this).
As designed in most of northern Europe it is fired twice a day with a bundle of faggots and burned at temperatures reaching 1800F. Once it has burned all of the fuel the stove is closed and becomes air tight. The high temperature guarantees maximum combustion of the fuel and concomitant gases so that there is little to no emmisions from the chimney. The flue is constructed in a serpentine manner so the heat has to pass through many turns, passing on the heat to the surrounding mass. There are usually small ovens along the flue which take advantage of the differences in temperature for different tasks. One might be a slow cooker, another a bread oven, and finally a place to dry gloves and socks.
In many of the homes I visited the stove was the central corner of four rooms coming together so that the radiant heat was dispersed into each room. If you can imagine a square divided into four squares and the stove in the center. Often there was room on top of the stove for a bed to accommodate small children or Grandma. A well designed and built Russian Stove is supposed to be the most efficient stove known reaching energy coversion ratios comparable to the water wheel around 95 percent efficiency.

I built one in my house which is very efficient, and allows heating fuel self sufficiency because it uses small branches which are constantly regenerating on both fruit trees, wind breaks, and shade trees.

Scott Pittman


  • Re: [permaculture] Russian Stoves, Kachel Offen, Scott Pittman, 02/10/2006

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