These are cool but when talking of alternative heating systems the author misunderstands how hydronic heating (radiators) work and blames metal for being a poor material for holding heat and as heating the air through convection. This is all incorrect, the heat transfer medium is the water which is great at retaining heat, and the heaters heat primarily through radiation (although they do use convection over fins to speed the rate at which they heat the room.) Another form of hydronic heat would be radiant heat in your floor which would be very close to having a oven stove under your feet.
I think these are neat and the idea of running a stove for only a short time each day would be great, but the architectural drawbacks should be obvious. The heart of your house is now lost to a massive stone structure.
The drawback of taking a long time to heat up shouldn’t be overlooked either. Anyone who has lived in a stone or brick house could tell you that it will stay warm once it’s warm but bringing it up to temperature can take a long while. The same is true of radiant floor heating in a slab. This can make your home difficult to adapt to temperature swings.
I think these are neat and the idea of running a stove for only a short time each day would be great, but the architectural drawbacks should be obvious. The heart of your house is now lost to a massive stone structure.
The drawback of taking a long time to heat up shouldn’t be overlooked either. Anyone who has lived in a stone or brick house could tell you that it will stay warm once it’s warm but bringing it up to temperature can take a long while. The same is true of radiant floor heating in a slab. This can make your home difficult to adapt to temperature swings.