Keep Your Home Warm With a Masonry Heater

(Page 3 of 3)

November/December 2002
By Rachel Albert-Matesz  
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A German Grundofen also has a low and wide (or deep) firebox and typically has several up- and downdraft channels above the firebox.

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Masonry heaters range in price from $5,000 to $30,000, depending on the size and customization. A simple, brick heater designed to heat about 2,000 square feet of living space will cost around $10,000. Options such as heated benches, wood storage areas, unusual shapes, and natural stone veneers will up the price.

Putting a masonry heater into new construction is very straightforward. “You should plan to have the heater centrally located in the home,” Matesz advises. Retrofitting the heaters into existing homes is more challenging, but usually doable.

Why should you use a masonry heater?

  • They use a renewable energy source (wood).
  • They require less total wood and less tending than fireplaces or wood stoves.
  • They become the heart of your home, drawing families together around the hearth.
  • They provide natural radiant and convection heat and zones of comfort at various distances from the heater. This produces a more natural environment—akin to being outside where you could be in full sun, in partial shade, or full shade—stimulating our bodies more than the stale, unchanging single-temperature surroundings common to most homes, while encouraging respiration and blood flow.
  • A masonry heater warms people and things, not air, so you don’t need a “tight” home, nor do you have to restrict or electronically control the natural exchange of fresh air with the outside to feel warm. You can enjoy fresh air indoors, without being cold.
  • Because of the gentle radiant heat, indoor air is not scorched and dried as with forced air systems or very hot wood stoves. The result is a natural indoor humidity that results in less respiratory strain, dryness, and infection.
  • Masonry heaters, like wood-burning fireplaces, add value to your home. Any imaginable masonry surface including brick, stucco, natural stone, polished stone, or tile can be used to make the heater enhance your interior environment.
  • Many heaters come standard with a built-in brick oven that is always available for warming foods. Brick ovens are unique in the baking world because they cook food in three distinct ways: convection (the warm air environment of the oven), conduction (direct heat of hot brick transferred to food placed on the bricks), and radiation (heat emanating from all surrounding surfaces in the oven).
  • You have control over the cost of your fuel. Masonry heaters are not particular about the kind of wood they consume (as long as it’s dry). Many people scrounge for firewood and heat their homes for nothing. But most find that even at going firewood prices, heating with wood costs less than with other options.
  • Masonry heaters are one of the world’s safest heating appliances. Because a fire is burning for only a couple of hours per day, you can go to sleep or leave for work knowing there is no danger of a fire burning unattended. Surface temperatures, although quite warm, are such that you can touch the oven, realize it’s hot, and pull your hand away before there is any chance of being burned. Thus, they are safer for children.
  • You may not need a chimney sweep. When used properly, masonry heaters burn so cleanly that there is no creosote accumulation in the chimney, so chimney fires become a thing of the past. After four years of using his masonry heater, Ken Matesz hired a chimney sweep to have a look. The man was amazed not to find any buildup.
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  • wiljennie 3/23/2008 12:00:00 AM

    I happened upon your magazine as I was looking at information on
    masonry heaters, and I enjoyed your article. Yours Jennie

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