The Next Generation Wood Stove Design Challenge

The Next Generation Wood Stove Design Challenge will be launched later this month and run through the fall of 2013.  We have been building an impressive list of partners to support it, lawyers to make sure we have dotted our “i”s and crossed our “t”s, and, maybe most importantly, reaching out to dozens of university engineering departments and stove manufactures.

Could a wood stove be as efficient as a natural gas furnace?  Could it be as consistently clean as the cleanest pellet stove?  What “smart” features would consumers want in a next generation stove?  What information could a stove provide in a digital screen that would motivate or help the operator burn more efficiently?  Could your stove ever tell you the moisture content of your wood?  Could it tell you when you need to clean your chimney?  Could it power your phone and lights in a blackout?  Is there a market for a wood stove that ties into a solar thermal system? Would any of these features – or others – motivate people to trade in older stoves and buy cleaner, modern ones?  

These are just a few of a long list of questions that we and others have been asking for years.  We hope this Challenge will begin to provide some answers and awaken consumers to the possibility that a new generation of clean burning stoves may be on the horizon.  

We want to thank everyone who has provided input into designing the Challenge so far.  If you have input, please feel free to contact us at info@forgreenheat.org.