Meet the Contestants; Hiisi

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a couple weeks away, we are profiling the remaining teams in the competition. Take this opportunity to learn more about the design teams and their stove’s innovative features.

“It’s so Hiisi, anyone can do it!” The Finnish stove is marketed as easy to use, inspiring the homonymic name Hiisi. The Hiisi is Finnish company’s Tulikivi's smallest hybrid heat-retaining fireplace and is especially well suited to modern low energy construction projects. The upcoming 2015 wood emissions restrictions in Germany has challenged Tulikivi engineers and innovators to meet the high standards. After years of development the stove is ready meet the world's tightest emissions standards set for 2015 and to compete in the Wood Stove Decathlon this November.

Lab technician Onni Ovaskainen and a Hiisi prototype

The Hiisi differs from standard room-heating stoves in that typical wood stoves are not normally heat-retaining units. The Hiisi's heat-retaining soapstone releases heat more slowly, and in the form of soft, pleasant radiant heat and it can heat water. This is a major design point since this stove won't over heat new energy efficient homes. These types of homes are quickly becoming the norm so Tulikivi has worked to minimize the convection heat into the room using thermal radiation and a double glass door. Despite its compact size, the Hiisi is a hybrid fireplace, meaning that both pellets and wood can be burned in their firebox without the need for any further equipment, accessories or even electricity.

The model that Tulikivi is bringing to Washington D.C. has already been sold in Europe for the past 5 months. Only taking a brief pause to celebrate Hiisi’s success, Tulikivi is getting ready to launch the next generation of Hiisi models this coming January. The new model promises to burn even cleaner than the original.

Tulikivi hopes that their Hiisi stove will help promote the benefits of residential biomass heating. They work hard to ensure that consumers are aware of these benefits. While selling these masonry heaters in the US, Tulikivi educates their consumers of the long tradition of masonry heating and the pros and cons of thermal mass radiant heat compared to dry hot convection heat. Over the past two years, insight from consumers and Tulikivi’s importer network has led to developmental and design changes to get the look and feel of the Hiisi just right.

We are looking forward to seeing Hiisi 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.