Design of stove does matter - some are better than others at burning
long & slow (so that for example there are coals left in the morning
instead of having to start fire from scratch again).
Overnight slow burn from a stove loaded and turned down at bedtime is
not at all unreasonable. Dunno if 24 hrs is possible. My experience
living with wood heat roughly matches this (with a good stove, otherwise
YMMV for sure!):
> I feed mine about three times a day in the coldest (-10 F) weather.
Quality of draft through stovepipe also matters - a knowledgeable
woodstove shop and/or chimney sweep can help with this.
Beware of microclimates that negatively impact draft, especially during
storms (when you most want it to work well... :-). For example a
building situated in an area that gets lots of downdraft during windy
storms may have problems with poor draft and backdraft in high winds,
that sort of thing.
Look into masonry heaters/thermal mass heaters - they can use "scrap"
and small/coppice wood, don't necessarily need high quality stove logs.
They have a relatively short and very hot burn and slow release of
heat, maybe that will fit your needs?
cheers,
John S.
--
John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
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