Published by Paula Baker-Laporte under Green Living

A bottle of wine, soft music, a vase of red roses, chocolate truffles… the accoutrements of romance laid out on a soft white sheepskin in front of a hot air vent. What’s wrong with this picture?

We wouldn’t want our love to be cold, but when it comes to creating atmosphere nothing beats the warmth of a roaring fire. The deep, penetrating heat, dancing flames, and crackling roar delight our senses. Being in the presence of and in relationship to this powerful element evokes a deep sense of home.

Here in New Mexico, in the land of enchantment, we like fire so much that we build fireplaces as ornaments all over our homes, even though most of them create very little heat in the home and add lots of smoke pollution in the neighborhood. Still, there is a way to have it all…romance, energy efficiency, and healthy heating, by following the example of Northern Europe.

Our European ancestors were no strangers to energy crisis. Their big ah-ha occurred in the 13th century when it dawned upon them that the wood supply was not endless, and in fact, that they would soon be shivering in misery if they did not curb their rapid consumption of the forests. This is when the evolution of the masonry heater began.

The German Kachelofen, Finnish Tulikivi, the Dutch oven, the Russian stove—each country invented a way to provide home heat efficiently with a sustainable use of the available wood fuel. Evoking the principles of contra-flow, mass, surface area, and central placement, regional versions of the masonry heater have continued to serve Northern Europeans generation after generation. Knowledge passed down and perfected over a 700-year evolution.

The masonry heater works by burning a small wood fire full bore for a short amount of time. A series of chambers built into the heater circulates the hot air, warming the masonry mass. The spent air finally exits through the chimney without the polluting combustion by-products emitted by other wood-burning appliances. The heated mass continues to radiate gentle heat into the space for many hours after the fire is extinguished.

For New Mexico’s relatively mild winters, many homes equipped with an efficient masonry heater can remain warm and cozy with a single daily firing of less than two hours’ duration. From the standpoint of Building Biology (which studies the inter-relationship between human health and planetary ecology), the heat provided by a masonry heater is ideal. Conversely, forced-air or baseboard heaters, even though they constitute the standard throughout most of the country, are in fact far from ideal.

What are the qualities of an ideal home heating system?

As environmental stewards, we should demand of our heating systems high efficiency, clean combustion, low pollution, and a bias against use of electricity or fossil fuels.

From a health and well-being standpoint, being warmed by radiant heat is better than being blasted by hot, dry artificial wind. The heater should not fry or circulate dust or toxic combustion by-products, alter the ion balance, or cause temperature stratification between the air levels around head and foot. Heating should be free of the noise pollution associated with mechanical equipment that cycles off and on to blow air.

As a bonus, our ideal heater should create a cozy focal point.

A masonry heater combines all of these qualities as it maximizes function and beauty…a romantic addition to any home!

Resources for masonry heaters:

• Canadian Kachelofen: Manufactures and ships masonry oven cores.
• Masonry Heaters Association of North America: A source for general information and a list of personnel trained and certified in the specialized art and craft of masonry heater building.
• Temp-Cast: modular wood-fired masonry heaters and heater core kits.
• Tulikivi: Soapstone masonry heaters imported from Finland

Paula Baker-Laporte FAIA (paula@econest.com) is an architect and a certified building biology practitioner. She is the principal of Baker-Laporte and Associates and EcoNest Design. She is primary author of “Prescriptions for a Healthy House” and co-author with husband Robert Laporte of “Econest —Creating Sustainable Sanctuaries of Clay, Straw and Timber.”

(Reprinted courtesy of Santa Fe Real Estate Guide.)