permaculture

[Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>]

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