Meet the Contestants; The Cape Cod

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a couple months away, we are doing a weekly blog post to showcase the Decathlon competitors. Take this opportunity to learn more about the design teams and their stove’s innovative features. 

The Cape Cod is a powerhouse stove, weighing in at almost 600 pounds with a 3 cubic foot firebox. The Cape Cod has been officially certified by the EPA as a clean-burning large freestanding wood stove. Running at over 80% efficiency and with only .45 grams of emissions per hour, the Cape Cod produces an incredibly clean burn. This clean burn comes from the combination of Lopi’s advanced secondary combustion system along with catalytic assist to create the unique Hybrid-Fyre™ technology that makes this stove run so efficiently. 

President of Travis Industries, Kurt Rumens, along with Cape Cod designer, Alan Atemboski, created the Cape Cod with the mindset to develop the future of wood stoves. With the industry always progressing, they wanted to set Travis Industries apart with a product that would create a new standard in wood stove design, something that had not been done before. They figured out a balance between the secondary combustion and catalytic systems so that when combined, it created the best of both technologies. The hybrid of emissions produces the cleanest burn, giving it the name Hybrid-Fyre™. With over two years of extensive research and practice, they developed the clean-burning large freestanding wood stove registered by the EPA, and in December of 2012 the Lopi Cape Cod was born. 

The Cape Cod comes with several quality features, but one that makes it more efficient is the GreenStart igniter system. This new system allows the Cape Cod to be started in seconds with the push of a button. 

So far, the Cape Cod has been a success with its extreme efficiency, powerful heat output and sleek cast iron design. It has been named the winner of three prestigious Vesta Awards, including Best New Wood Stove, Best of Show- Hearth Product, and the Green Award. 

From modest beginning of its first wood stove built in 1979, Travis Industries is now the largest privately-owned wood, pellet and gas stove, insert and fireplace company in America, producing high-quality American-made products. 

We are looking forward to seeing the Cape Cod in action at the Wood Stove Decathlon November 16-19, 2013. Vote for your favorite stove at Popular Mechanics. 

Meet the Contestant; Walker Stoves

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a few months away, we are doing a weekly blog post to showcase the Decathlon competitors. Take this opportunity to learn more about the design teams and their stove’s innovative features.

Walker Stoves is introducing their model to the Wood Stove Decathlon, highlighting the stove’s versatility and safety. The final design is the product of Matt Remine with internal design finalization credit going to Peter van den Berg. Remine is a designer, builder, and tinkerer living in the Pacific North West of the United States. A lifelong wood burner with a curious mind, he has been designing and refining wood burning devices since childhood. 

The stove can be installed either as a free standing stove or it can be incorporated as part of a masonry stove installation. This versatility means that no matter the home aesthetics of the owner, the Walker Stove can satisfy those wishes.

The key innovation of the Walker stove is the unique way in which it blends a cord wood fire box, viewing window, air control, secondary air injection, and rocket stove style differential engine together in a familiar metal surround wood stove. The differential engine uses the motive force provided by the rising hot gasses in the internal chimney and the falling, cooling gases in the enclosure to allow the stove to drive a thermal mass battery system. The majority of the heat energy contained in the fuel can be retained inside the building’s envelope. Walker Stoves has developed this product as a modular system, with the intention of making the core available to masons as an affordable masonry stove core.

We are looking forward to seeing Walker Stoves in action at the Wood Stove Decathlon November 16-19, 2013. Vote for your favorite stove at Popular Mechanics.

Meet the Contestants; Firemaster

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a few months away, we are doing a weekly blog post to showcase the Decathlon competitors. Take this opportunity to learn more about the teams and their stove’s innovative features.

Jason Stewart is bringing a stove to the Decathlon with a new feature that he thinks can help clean up thousands of older stoves. The IntensiFire is a down draft insert that can be retrofitted to nearly any wood stove. The down draft redirects unburned gases back into the hot coal bed, to reignite and save heat. This also makes more efficient use of the fuel. And, a more complete combustion of the smoke also helps to reduce emissions by burning smoke particulates that otherwise would have been released into the atmosphere.

The insert is much cheaper to manufacture and to install compared to the price of a complete wood stove. Its versatility to be retrofitted to multiple styles of wood stoves makes the Intensifire a viable option in many situations.

Stewart found himself in such a situation with an old wood stove that supposedly was to heat his rental home. The old clunker smoked badly, with wasted heat rising up the flue. The landlord wouldn’t replace it and Stewart was not allowed to make any major modifications. With some tinkering, Stewart simply extended the flue into the firebox to create a down draft. It worked so well, Stewart was able to increase up to 60% of the old stove’s heat efficiency. The success of his invention surprised perhaps even himself, and Stewart decided to pause his pursuit of an Architecture Degree and start the IntensiFire business.

Several models later, Stewart is gearing up for the Decathlon and expanding his market to the United States. This further extends Stewart’s commitment to protecting the environment. In 2009, he sailed around New Zealand as a volunteer on Earthrace, a boat run on biodiesel, to highlight important environmental issues. The next year, he once again boarded Earthrace, renamed Ady Gil, to oppose Japanese whaling.

The biggest issue opposing Stewart now is the financial costs to attend the Decathlon. Stewart must ship himself and his IntensiFire from New Zealand to Washington DC.  If you are able to help Stewart reach his goals, he can be contacted here.

We are looking forward to seeing IntensiFire in action at the Wood Stove Decathlon November 16-19, 2013. Vote for your favorite stove at Popular Mechanics.

Finalists Announced for International Competition to Build Cleaner Wood Stove

Pool of inventors, universities and manufacturers will compete in first-ever Wood Stove Design Challenge.  

Alliance for Green Heat, January 31, 2013 - Judges announced today the 14 finalists for the Wood Stove Design Challenge, the first international competition to build an affordable, cleaner-burning wood stove for residential heating. The finalists' stoves will be tested and judged on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,in November 2013. The winner will receive $25,000 cash.

The Wood Stove Design Challenge was launched by the Alliance for Green Heat, an independent non-profit, to bring more innovation to a popular, widely used renewable energy device. In selecting finalists, judges looked for designs that could produce ultra-low emissions, high efficiency, in addition to innovation, affordability, and marketability.

"The competition brings together innovators - whether established manufacturers or backyard inventors - to improve America's most widespread residential renewable energy device, the wood stove. We've seen how technologies like oxygen sensors and catalysts have made today's automobiles far less polluting. We're excited to help encourage a similar technological revolution in wood stoves," said Jim Meigs, judge and Editor-in-Chief of Popular Mechanics. 

Among the 14 designs are stoves controlled by microprocessors and connected to smartphones, as well as ultra-efficient stoves based on 17th century Scandinavian designs and several state-of-the-art hybrid stoves that are already on the market. Six are from Europe.

The nine judges met last week at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory and include leading experts from Popular Mechanics, the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), the US Forest Service, Washington State Department of Ecology, DOE Brookhaven National Laboratory, The Biomass Thermal Energy Council, the Osprey Foundation, the Masonry Heater Association and UC Berkeley.

The EPA requires most new wood stoves to be far cleaner than the unregulated stoves of the 1970s and 80s, which were notoriously polluting. Even so, the wood stove has not been embraced as a clean energy technology by most policy makers or the public, in part because low emissions are only achieved if consumers operate the stove correctly. Many don't.

"We need stoves that incorporate best practices in combustion engineering to maximize efficiency and drastically reduce particulates and carbon monoxide. Then, wood stoves will be able to meet even more of our residential heating needs," said Mark Knaebe, one of the judges and a Natural Resource Specialist at the USDA Forest Service.

The 14 chosen teams are: Dragon Heat, The Firemaster, Helbro Stoves, Hwam, Intercontinental, Kimberly, Ofenbau & Feuerstein, SmartStove, Travis Industries, Tulikivi, University of Maryland, Walker Stoves, Wittus and Woodstock Soapstone.

Most of the teams represent established wood stove companies, but five are independent inventors and engineering students who have never brought a stove to market. Some are looking to sell their inventions to manufacturers and others are looking for recognition so they can ramp up production.

The Grand Prize and second and third place winners will be selected during the Wood Stove Decathlon, held on the Washington National Mall and open to the public in November 2013.

We thank our Design Challenge sponsors for their support:

Forty Teams to Compete for Spots in Wood Stove Decathlon

October 31, 2012 - With only one day left before the registration deadline, more than 40 teams have registered for the Next Generation Wood Stove Design Challenge.

“We are thrilled by the amount of interest we received and are pleased that the judges will have a diverse pool from which to select finalists,” said Melissa Bollman, Program Manager for the Design Challenge. In January, the judges will convene at the Brookhaven National Laboratory to select up to 16 finalists to be tested and judged at the Wood Stove Decathlon in November 2013. Finalists will be announced on January 31, 2013.

The 40 registered teams come from 14 countries, representing all continents except Antarctica. Most are based in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, but several are from less-developed countries like Mexico, Columbia, India and the Philippines. The five student teams include the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Purdue University and University of Maryland, winner of the 2011 Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

The Wood Stove Design Challenge pits well-known American stove brands with garage inventors and college students for the $25,000 prize and title of best next generation wood stove. Finalists will be tested next November by EPA accredited labs onsite at the National Mall in DC. A panel of recognized wood stove experts serving as judges will select the finalists, oversee testing and choose the winners.

Competitors represent a range of wood stove technologies

The competition is designed to be as inclusive as possible, giving all cordwood stove developers the chance to demonstrate why their particular technology is the cleanest and most efficient in the world. Although teams are not required to disclose technical details at this early stage, it appears that several will be using oxygen sensors to regulate combustion, 4 are masonry heaters, 2 are catalytic hybrids, 5 use high-tech European technology, and 8 are smaller, less high-tech designs for use in smaller homes or in the developing world.

“We are excited to see some of the new R&D from the international cook stove movement being applied to heating stoves,” said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance. “One of our goals is simply to bring together innovators, manufacturers, regulators, testers and funders to learn from each other and see what innovation works the best in different applications.”

Earlier this month, the Alliance decided to remove one of its minimum eligibility criteria that barred stoves with less than 1.5 cubic foot fireboxes from entering. “We hoped that dropping the minimum firebox size would open the competition to more teams from colder regions of the developing world who need very affordable heaters,” explained Ackerly. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership that focuses on the universal adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels, is a partner of the competition. Other partners include Popular Mechanics, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Sponsorship opportunities are available to help underwrite the competition, contact Melissa Bollman (melissa@forgreenheat.org) to learn more.