>>>*My Mom has one in her basement, it has 10" thick walls filled with sand. That design was from before the turn of the century, since that stove was installed in 1898. The pipe runs the length of the basement, just under 50', and has several drafts all hooked together with chains to control from upstairs. Those pipes also radiate heat off into the basement, by the time it gets to the chimney the pipe is cool enough to touch. All the stove pipes are suspended from the ceiling with wires.
It heats a 3 story 7 bedroom house easily, and has never creosoted up. Kinda lost technology, I think. That is kinda neat because even with a fire raging in the firebox, the outside walls of the stove are cold. The entire basement is heated by the stovepipes, not the stove itself.
Since there is a 4' round vent stack up into the living room, and the downdraft is alongside and goes back down, the entire house is the same temperature all the time. Nearly 5000 sq ft heated by one furnace, no fans needed. If the upstairs is cold, they just open the door.
The place uses just 5 cords of wood each year, pretty good considering my Mom thinks 90? is normal....*LOL**.
My brother built one similar except he set his in an alcove off the main floor of the house we are rebuilding. He surrounded it with cement blocks, filled all the openings with sand, too. It is also six feet X six feet, with a big steel freestanding stove in the middle of it. The blocks warm up, then radiate for hours.
When it is really cold, we can build a fire in the main stove, let it get to temp and even if the fire goes out it will heat about 4-6 hours.
In the living room there is a small 14" freestanding, a small little fire and that is enough most of the time. Plus in there we have 3 5' picture windows that frace the morning Sun, so we are installing those solar radiant blinds, they are kinda like Venetian blinds. When the Sun hits them they are like a furnace, once it warms up, just pull them up.
My Dad built a steel stove in his garage down at the ranch many years ago, I was a little kid but I remember that. Somewhere he got some heavy bricks that were black, and he built a three sided wall around it. That was wonderful and warm. But over time the black bricks began to break up and all of that is gone now. My oldest brother put in a new freestanding stove, it works but all it does is heat a 10' circle. I have no idea at all where to find some more of those black firebricks.
Those double barrel stoves work real nice for garages but I would set them in surrounded by cement blocks, that really works well.
Using electric, I can't turn the thermostat high enough to ever get my feet warm, give me wood every time!...*EB
