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 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.

Meet the Contestants; Intercontinental

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

Rod Zander of New England Hearth and Soapstone, has worked with masonry stoves for decades. He gained experienced in the interior mechanics of masonry stoves through several international apprenticeships. Among the nation’s foremost experts on masonry heat, Zander has taken this knowledge to develop a very unique stove that will compete in the Wood Stove Decathlon.

Perhaps aspiring to reach the international marketplace, the competing stove has been named Intercontinental 2B4W. Surely, its innovative features make the stove appealing regardless of which continent you’re on. The stove is an exciting new type of masonry stove that can be created from recycled materials. The recycled materials not only help reduce waste, but save both the manufacturer and consumer money. These readily available materials can easily be assembled with local labor cutting costs even more. It is hoped that these stoves will have a real application in developing countries, where other fuel sources are too expensive and current stoves are too polluting.

The form of the stove is composed of two used steel oil drums stacked on top of each other. The symbolism of the oil drums is not lost on the stove designers. The use of an antiquated fuel source’s containers expresses the continual shift towards renewable energy.

The heat is stored in high-density firebrick, which then radiates from 12-24 hours from 22 pounds of wood, fired two times a day at a high burn rate. This slow radiating heat follows the design concept of many masonry stoves.  

With a computer combustion control system from sponsor ClearStak LLC and an oxygen lambda sensor from ETAS, operator error decreases so that the owner uses less wood for more heat. This increase in efficiency helps lower the emissions of smoke particulates.

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

Meet the Contestants; The Wittus Twinfire

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a few months away, we are profiling each of the teams. Learn more about how they hope to win the competition!

Wittus – Fire by Design has entered into the Decathlon their EPA certified Twinfire stove. The stove was originally designed by two German engineers to create an efficient burning method and offset air pollution in developing countries. It uses a patented double combustion chamber to maximize its efficiency through gasification, a process that superheats wood gas to reach a claimed 93% efficient wood burning capacity. The upper chamber is the main firebox used to build and tend the fire. The lower chamber is the exterminator that burns any remaining ash down to bits.

The Twinfire stands in a long line of Wittus products that are dedicated to high efficiency, low emissions, and an attractive design. The Twinfire has won several prestigious European awards including the German Land of Ideas award in 2012. Founder Niels Wittus values the quality of these stoves and strives to create smart stove designs to maintain a healthy environment. Perhaps his background and passion for cooking has brought the health and detail oriented mindset to selecting the best ingredients to making a top quality wood stove.

In Denmark, Wittus was set to apprentice at a high-scale restaurant, but after a trip to the US, he decided to stay. Over 30 years later, Wittus is keeping the Danish brændeovn or wood stove tradition alive, combining it with the modern style and state-of-the-art technology of an American businessman.

Even with the busy schedule, hard work, and resulting success, Wittus still holds on to his passion for cooking. At business gatherings and dinners, he treats his team members, Bodo Specht, Alyce Wittus, Sandra Lena, Patti Boker Elkon, and Gail Jankus to some wood fire grilling.

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

Here is a link to a video of the Twinfire in action.

Sources include the Lewisboro Daily Voice

Meet the Contestants; Woodstock Soapstone

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

“When we started, stoves were basically six-sided boxes, and you put a fire in it. Now we’re making equipment, with a lot of moving parts. The technology is much better and increasing rapidly,” said Tom Morrissey, owner of Woodstock Soapstone Co. in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, which has been building cordwood-burning stoves for 35 years. For the Decathlon Woodstock Soapstone has entered their Union Hybrid stove.

Design Team (clockwise from lower left); Jason Guimaraes, Lorin Day, Harold Garabedian, Larry Young, Tom Morrissey, Ken Blum, Lewis Thibodeau, missing: Dan Batchelder & Kristie Haupt

The stove includes many technological aspects that make it a strong competitor in this year’s Decathlon. It uses an advanced hybrid combustion design incorporating both catalyst and secondary combustion. It has variable and self-regulating air/fuel ratio in order to maximize combustion efficiency and minimize emissions at all burn rates. Also, the soapstone body helps radiate heat for high heat transfer efficiency.

“We are essentially making a gasification stove,” he said, “If you look at this thing when it’s burning, the fire does not look like what you would think of as a wood fire. The whole top of firebox is like an inverted gas burner; there are 120 holes with a tube of flame coming out of each one.”

In development at Woodstock Soapstone are two beta-test modules: a Thermoelectric Module and a remote Woodstove Monitor. The module powers a small fan that assists with heat transfer. The power produced may also be used to charge a cell phone or LED light.

User responsibility and effectiveness are key to an efficient and low emission wood stove. Computers have largely cut out the need for a human operator in many technological fields, but Woodstock Soapstone hopes to avoid the added expense of computer controls. Instead, they will employ a remote Woodstove Monitor. It will provide real-time feedback on burn rate, BTU output, efficiency, emissions, and stove temperatures.

“Burning wood without this information is like driving a car without a speedometer and gas gauge,” said Morrissey. Knowing this information will help stove owners use their stoves more responsibly and effectively.

“Ten years ago, you could never imagine having a little computer on the stove. If you were in a small industry like ours, you couldn’t dream of having a graphic-user- interface, but now it’s available and affordable,” Morrissey said. The Union Hybrid stove, with its 21^st century technology and efficiency and emissions capabilities, is certainly a far cry from a six-sided box with a fire in it.

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

Source: Hearth.com http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/is-woodstock-going-to-automated-computer-controls.111252/

Meet the Contestants; HWAM

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a few months away, we here at the Alliance for Green Heat have started a weekly blog to showcase the Decathlon competitors. Take this opportunity to learn more about the design teams and their stove’s innovative features.

One of the European finalists of the Decathlon is the newly developed HWAM 3630 IHS from the Danish manufacturer HWAM. The stove is run by an oxygen sensor and computer, and even beeps when it’s the optimal time to reload more wood. This is one of the finalists that is already on the market and retails for $4,216.

HWAM has had a longstanding ambition to develop a more intelligent stove to heighten the technological level of its products. Helping the consumer burn wood with minimal attention to the stove and no experience necessary, while achieving the same results at home that are obtained in test labs under ideal conditions are key to their innovation philosophy.

HWAM founder Vagn Hvam Pedersen is the leading creative and technical mind behind the stove. He has outfitted the stove with advanced technology and a sleek, modern European design. For the Hvam Pederson family the stove is the center point of the home for the family to gather in comfort and warmth. Hvam Pedersen built the family owned business from the ground up until it ignited to become an internationally renowned company.

Video of HWAM
IHS features

The innovation behind the HWAM 3630 IHS rests in the Autopilot Intelligent Heat System (IHS). This system allows for precise control over the stove’s combustion and temperature. The system uses a lambda oxygen sensor and a thermocouple to electronically measure combustion conditions. These measurements are then sent to a computer that automatically regulates three independent fans to control airflow for optimum combustion. The temperature of the fire may also be controlled through a remote control, as the fans adjust their speed accordingly.

The advantage for the consumer to have IHS is that an optimum burn means the most efficient use of firewood. This puts less of a strain on the stove owner’s fuel and the environment. The concept of the stove is to work around a potentially inexperienced owner to offset human error when possible. HWAM has even been awarded the Nordic Ecolabel after following strict environmental regulations. The stove must comply with rigorous limits on local air pollution and emissions of dangerous substances such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons.

We are looking forward to seeing the HWAM 3630 IHS in action at the Wood Stove Decathlon November 16-19, 2013. Vote for your favorite stove at Popular Mechanics.

Meet the Contestants; SmartStove

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a few months away, we are doing weekly blog posts to showcase the Decathlon teams and the innovative technology they are developing.

The SmartStoveTM control system was developed to introduce very affordable, modern technology to wood-burning products that seem locked in the past. Smartstove^TM uses a thermocouple, microprocessor, and controller to automate airflow throughout the combustion cycle of the stove. Thus, stoves are not allowed to smolder, not to overfire, but rather to operate at optimal temperatures.

In 1998, Dan McFarland, an electrical engineer, began heating his home with an EPA certified fireplace insert. After six years of what began feeling like babysitting the stove, he searched the web for a control system product to take over for him. After discovering it did not exist, he began formulating a method to develop his own. In 2005, the first functioning proof-of-concept prototype exceeded his expectations, reliably managing the draft control for him, keeping the fire burning clean and maximizing the burn time. As Plato stated, “necessity is the mother of invention.”

With the encouragement of some close friends, McFarland continued the self-funded development of what evolved into the intelligent and versatile SmartStove^TM control system, a powerful device the size of a regular thermostat.

By the winter of 2006, he developed an upgraded system that added proportional control of the insert’s blowers, enabling the system to efficiently manage a fire and also optimize heat transfer into the home, reducing the need for backup heat on cold nights. 

The next year, SmartStove^TM made its first public appearance at the HPB Expo in Reno, Nev. While some expo attendees and fellow exhibitors could not imagine computerized controls on a wood stove, others were excited by the project and encouraged McFarland to continue.

The following year, after developing upgraded system architecture, a stove manufacturer requested to evaluate the system on one of their new stove designs. After delivering a stove fully retrofitted with SmartStove^TM, and excitement by the manufacturer about the success of the project, the subprime economic crisis stalled development as stove manufacturers moved to protect their finances. SmartStove^TM system was upgraded again in 2010 to add a radio link between the User Interface wall panel and the stove.

SmartStove^TM system is now shipped to individuals who are searching, much like McFarland was, for a control system to integrate into their own stoves.

SmartStove^TM will be hosting an open house and fundraiser, including demonstrations of the system, on Saturday, Oct. 12. Further information and updates about the system and event will be available on the Inven Inc. website, Twitter, and Facebook.

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

Meet the Contestants; Kimberly Stoves

With the first Wood Stove Decathlon only a few months away, we here at the Alliance for Green Heat have started 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.

Kimberly may be small, petite even, but don’t underestimate her. Standing just over two feet, the wood

stove will be a big competitor this year. The stove combines a gasification chamber on the bottom and an afterburner on top to burn the smoke for a more efficient use of the fuel. The many other features and accessories, such as a thermo electric generator and hot water coils, help make Kimberly even more appealing to consumers.

Roger Lehet, designer and team captain for the Decathlon, created the stove with off-grid and emergency preparedness in mind. Easy to use and portable, the latest models of the 56-pound stove can heat up to 1500 ft² of well-insulated living space. However, it was originally designed for heating small spaces such as boats, RVs, and cabins. In fact, the first version of the Kimberly stove that Lehet ever built was used for a boat.

During the financial crisis, Lehet lost his business of 25 years as a wood stove dealer. He lost his house and many of his possessions. Financially anchorless, he moved with his wife and daughter to live on a boat floating on Puget Sound in Washington. When winter came, the cold and the damp were unwelcomed guests, inviting melancholy and mildew. The need for warmth and dryness mothered a new stove, one that used a small amount of fuel to burn nearly smokeless all night. Lehet used his knowledge of wood fired products to build the first Kimberly. The family could now heat their boat, cook all their meals, and heat water for sanitation and cooking.

Roger and Bridget Lehet

From there, without a single loan, Kimberly stoves took off. Lehet now has had his EPA certified stove manufactured and sold for over a year. He also has had great success in promoting his product and efficient residential biomass heating in general. Lehet has attended the past two Mother Earth News Fair events in Washington. The fair is meant to deliver practical, hands-on training, and experience taught by leading experts in renewable energy, organic gardening, sustainable agriculture, and green home building. Lehet spoke on off-grid technologies such as thermo electric generation, wood-fired in floor heat, and domestic hot water.

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