Triaxis Energy

When searching for an alternative source of heat for your home one of the first and most common solutions is a wood burning stove. They provide a vast amount of heat from a fairly inexpensive fuel. Wood stoves have been used for hundreds of years and the conventional wood stove uses a simple technology of regulating airflow in and out of the stove. It works but not very efficiently while allowing large amounts of smoke and heat to escape. Wood smoke contains unburned particulate which is essentially wasted fuel and wasted fuel is wasted heat. Also unlike modern 6 inch stove pipes, old stove pipes around 8 inches allow smoke to escape more quickly which not only wastes the heat but the particulate in this smoke is what sticks to inner stove pipe walls. This particulate or soot can further hinder performance by slowly clogging the chimney if not cleaned periodically. All of this wasted heat and energy contributes to more frequent refueling of the stove and thus wasting wood and money. However, these days there are two standard types of wood stove: Catalytic and Non-Catalytic.

Non-Catalytic Wood Stove operation

EPA Wood Stove Non-Catalytic wood stoves are basically a highly updated version of the conventional wood stove. Only now they offers that operate more efficiently. Air flow is more efficiently distributed through a primary and secondary intake. The primary intake draws in air to flush down the glass keeping it clean and mixing with the secondary intake air. With the secondary intake, air is drawn into the stove and down through perforated pipes just above the fire preheating the air and then mixing with the primary air burning and exhausting through the top. Other differences include smaller chimney pipe, heat circulation fans and auto dampening thermostats. Catalytic stoves on the other hand are a little different. While they share many principles as Non-Catalytic stoves they use a ceramic honeycomb like Catalytic combuster which is used to lower the burning temperature of the unburned smoke from say 1200 fahrenheit to 600 fahrenheit and ignite it. This eliminates most of the smoke resulting in a cleaner burn, less soot buildup

Catalytic Wood Stove operation

and more heat produced. Plus, with the Catalytic combuster fires last even longer than EPA stoves further saving wood. The only down sides to Catalytic stoves is the cost which significantly more than an EPA stove and the Catalyst is more prone to clogging if you burn things like green wood, trash and newspaper which can create a lot of loose ash and contain chemicals. Even with the higher cost of the Catalytic stove it is still an excellent choice which will save you money in the end. If you merely want a wood stove for the occasional fire a Non-Catalytic stove is still a great choice for a secondary heat source.