RADIANT HEAT

Radiant Heating with a Masonry stove

We are often asked, how can the warmth of a Masonry heater reach beyond the room in
which it is located? The assumption of the person asking this question usually is that, unless
air is being forced from one room to the next, even heating of adjoining rooms will not take
place and that the room with the masonry heater will be very warm or even hot in comparison
to the surrounding rooms. This is, in fact, what happens when a wood stove (rather than a
mass storage heater) is used for heating. Since most people in this country are familiar with
wood stoves, and very few familiar with mass storage heaters, it is not surprising that people
are sceptical when told that the air temperature, between the room with the Heater and the
adjoining rooms, will be quite even if not the same temperature.

Radiant Heat Distribution

So why is a Masonry heater able to heat more than one room relatively evenly? The answer
lies in the way heat (BTU) is transferred to the living area by a heater versus a traditional
wood stove (or for that matter any forced air system). With a Masonry heater most of the heat
is transferred to the living area by radiation rather than convection. Instead of heating the air
directly the radiation from the stove passes through the air in the room, and warms all of the
solid surfaces in the room that it "shines" on. In effect, the Heater becomes a miniature "sun"
in your living area, warming those surfaces evenly to, for example, 75 degrees. The surface
areas warmed, and now effectively heating the room, can add up to many hundreds of square
feet. The amount of mass warmed, and now effectively acting as a thermal flywheel
stabilizing the room temperature, can equal many thousands of pounds.

Heating Adjoining Rooms with a Masonry heater

So what causes heat from a Masonry heater to migrate to adjoining rooms? Don't you need
fans to move heat from the Heater to other rooms? Would it be a good idea to place the cold
air return near the stove in order to circulate its heat throughout the house? The answer to
these questions, which assume that heated air must be moved mechanically, is actually no.
The secret lies in the fact that the surface temperatures in the adjoining rooms (i.e. walls and
floors) are cooler than in the room directly heated by the Masonry stove. The laws of thermal
dynamics dictate that heat flows from warm surfaces to cool surfaces. This occurs through
convection of air between rooms. As long as there is an opening between rooms the air
temperature will equalize naturally. The natural convection process will continue until the
wall surfaces in both rooms are equal. Convection will not stop until the Heater stops
radiating to the surfaces of the room in which it is located (normally between 12 to 24 hours).
When you walk from one room to the next it will be similar to walking from the direct ray of
the sun in to the shade. When you walk into an adjoining room you will loose the direct
warmth of the "sun" but the air temperature will change very little if at all.
In order to understand the advantages of radiant heat from a Masonry heater, it is
helpful to know how radiant heat works.
When you stand in the sun, you feel radiant heat. Is it simply warm air that is reaching
you or is it something more like radioactive radiation?
Actually heat is a form of energy resulting from the motion between particles of matter. If
particles of matter are absolutely still their temperature will measure absolute zero.
Temperature measures the intensity of heat but also is related to the degree of motion
between particles of matter. Anybody who has ever rubbed their hands together until they are
warm has experienced how the energy of movement can be converted into heat energy. It is
the increased particle movement caused by friction that produces this heat sensation.

The law of thermal equilibrium is a nice example of how, in nature, everything is evenly
distributed. Nothing is allowed to retain heat energy for itself without limit. Everything
stands in relationship to everything else; heat is constantly being exchanged in an endless
circle in search of thermal equilibrium. Liquids and gases exchange heat chiefly by means of
convection, while solids exchange heat by means of radiation and - when there is direct
contact - by means of conduction. Conduction occurs when a warm object is held against a
colder object. Vibration of particles on the contact surface of the warm object transfers to the
particles on the contact surface of the cold object. These in turn make the deeper-lying
particles of the colder object vibrate. The vibrations move like a wave through the cooler
object as it warms up. The vibrations (heat energy) on a very hot object can be painful to the
touch. Touch a very hot object and the molecules that make up the surface of the skin start
vibrating so strongly that the skin actually comes apart. The result is a burn.

The transfer of heat through radiation is more difficult to understand. All matter with a
temperature higher than absolute zero gives off heat in the form of infrared radiation.

Quantum mechanics explains this radiation as a stream of separate photons, which have
characteristics of both particles and waves. It can be rather frightening to think that the
radiation (infrared light) falling on our body, whether from the sun or from another source of
light, consists of countless tiny particles being shot off at enormous speed. Fortunately these
photons are so small that even scientists are not sure whether they are particles or just pure
energy. They are probably both at the same time, or something that is alternating between the
two at an enormous speed. In any case, photons behave at one moment like particles, and at
another moment like waves of energy. When these photon "particles" collide with other
particles of matter they cause increased particle movement, which in turn result in an increase
in temperature.

Because the particles in solids and liquids are relatively closely packed together they are very
good at absorbing any radiant heat photons that happen to strike them. On the other hand,
gases, such as the air we breathe, have enormous amounts of empty space between particles.
As a result, the chance of photons hitting a gas particle is much smaller. The distance that a
photon can travel through gas before striking a molecule is dependant on the amplitude of its
wave motion. This amplitude will be greater (higher) in radiation from a hot object than in a
cooler object. The greater the amplitude, the longer the path a photon "particle" will follow in
order to cover a given distance through the gas and the greater the probability of encountering
a gas molecule along that path. This is why a warm Masonry heater at 100 - 200 degrees F.
will radiate heat a much greater distance than a hot metal stove at 400 - 600 degrees F.

This is why a Masonry heater will shine through the air warming the surfaces of a room
through direct radiation as opposed to a hot metal stove which heats the room air directly
setting in motion convective air currents.

Convection is heat transfer by means of a flow, caused by differences in density that result
from differences in air temperature. Cold air particles have less movement, are packed closer
together and have more weight per unit of volume than warm air particles. Convection is
simply a word for the phenomenon that warm air raises and cold air sinks, a phenomenon that
enables man to suspend himself in the atmosphere by means of a hot-air balloon. Heating
through convection heating is air heating. Put warm air in the bottom of a room and it will
automatically rise. As it circulates in this way, its heat will be transferred as contact is made
with cooler surfaces in the room. The heat will also dissipate as the warmer air particles
simply mix with cooler air particles with result that the average air temperature in the room
will raise and the temperature of the warm air circulated by convection will fall. Convective
heat is an indirect form of heat transfer. The heat is not transferred directly, but rather
indirectly through the medium of the air in the room which acts as the means of transport.
The continual movement of air in a room heated by convection from a hot metal stove or a
forced air system results in uncomfortable drafty conditions and uneven temperature zones.
By contrast, in a room heated with a radiant Masonry heater the air remains still, eliminating
uncomfortable drafts, with air temperature staying comfortably even.