During our (successful) three-week summer road trip, my kid and I visited our dear off-grid hippy friends Tom and Liz in western Montana.

Tom is a big fan — and designer + builder — of masonry heaters (his company is Dragon Tech). With the help of Tom's unbridled enthusiasm... I'm also now a big fan of masonry heaters.

With Tom's masonry-heater design: Build a morning fire. The hot gases are directed into a big chamber (a "stratification bell"). As the gases cool, they sink towards the bottom exit.

The brick mass stores the heat, and releases it slowly for hours... long after the fire is gone.

The heat is like sunshine... radiant. Gentle and even.

Heat pumps are awesome too. But there's a different feeling to the heat. With masonry heaters... the heat transfers directly into your body, into the walls, into the floors...

In areas where wood is plentiful, consider a masonry heater. After all, wood — unlike natural gas — is a legit renewable resource when harvested with good forest stewardship.

Tom and Liz live in a small off-grid cabin (another blog post forthcoming on their wonderfully-quirky DIY solar + small-hydro off-grid system). Their living room is small. Before the living-room upgrade from wood stove to masonry heater... Liz was concerned about its size. In her own words:

Tom built a new [masonry heater] in the living room. Aside from the size, it is a marvel in heat production. I have fought this idea for three years, I'm still not happy with how big it is, but it doesn't burn like a wood stove. It evenly heats the whole house. It's very strange. Normally with a wood stove your heat disapates as you move away from it, so the kitchen has always been cooler. Now we build a small fire in the morning and the kitchen and floors are warm too. Everything is just warm. He builds another small fire in the evening. The experiment is surely a win as the wood use is so negligible.

Whether with wood or electricity... I really like thermal energy storage. Have the home nice and comfy going into the evening. If using a heat pump... pre-heat using sunshine power directly (without battery losses and degradation). And then chill out.

To learn more about Tom's masonry heater and the build process... check out his write up at the delightfully-1990s homesteader's forum permies.com.

BTW: Liz makes beautiful Montana-vibed art. Her Etsy page is here.