Replies

1. 
   Riversong | Feb 10, 2010 10:33pm | #1

   I've heard of it and checked it out on-line because someone I met was considering buying one for her little cabin in the woods (I don't know if she did).

   All new woodstoves sold in the US are required to be EPA certified for limiting emissions, and that happens to require an increase in efficiency from the old 50% range. The EPA does not require each stove to be tested for efficiency, and assigns a uniform 63% for non-catalytics and 72% for catalytic stoves.

   The real measure is net efficiency, which includes both combustion efficiency and heat transfer efficiency. EPA tests in 1996 showed average net efficiencies of both catalytic and non-catalytic woodstoves to be 68%.

   Soapstone stoves, like the Bun Baker, are both beautiful and excellent for reducing surface temperatures and storing heat. Soapstone, at 40% the density of cast iron or steel, has twice the specific heat and one third the thermal effusivity - it's propensity to transmit heat to the environment. So it stores more heat per pound and releases it more slowly than ferrous metal stoves.

   You can hardly go wrong with a Vermont-made woodstove. The Vermont Downdrafter, the Vermont Castings Defiant, the Vermont Stove Company Elm were all excellent stoves for their time.