Wood burner

madlyn

I had a wood burner installed earlier in the year, a friend has said to put a kettle on top of the burner and the water will help keep the air moist, she also said put a scented oil in the water to make the room smell nice.
Is this true and if so what sort of kettle?

FreeBear

A free standing wood stove will get very hot - I personally wouldn't put any container on top. Water would boil off pretty quick, and oils would be a fire risk. A stove top fan would be a better idea as it will blow hot air around the room.

Jeepers_Creepers

I wouldn't bother with any of that unless you do find that the room feels dry and stuffy with the heat. But I doubt you will - open your room door and let the air and warmth circulate throughout the house.

But if you do want to experiment making the air more moist, by all means sit anything on there that'll hold water, won't melt, allows steam out, is safe and stable, and looks nice - a coffee pot? 

If you really want to add a couple of drops of scented oil, pretty sure that won't blow up either...

I'm always intrigued by the stove-top fans FreeBear has mentioned - they look cool, but how on earth do they work?! :-)

theoretica

Stove fans are fun - they have a little thermo-electric element that drives a weak motor to power the fan.  Good if you are trying to spread the heat through the room, not needed if the stove overheats the room without! 

Apodemus

Yes, stove top fans are great!  The big fins on top act to disperse heat, so are cooler than the base of the fan on the stove top.  Sandwiched between the top and bottom is a peizoelectric layer, which creates an electric current when there is sufficient temperature difference between the top and the bottom.  This drives the fan.

The whole process works the other way round in the very small drinks fridges that you can get.  The electric current from the mains creates a temperature difference across the piezoelectric layer, giving a cold side to the inside of the fridge and generating heat on the outside which gets radiated away. 

Petriix

... However, stove fans don't actually shift much air at all in practice. They look really good but have minimal effect.

FreeBear

theoretica said: Stove fans are fun - they have a little thermo-electric element that drives a weak motor to power the fan. 

There are a few fans that use a Stirling engine to drive the blades - These little motors can be quite hypnotic to watch. Good fun to make too if you are in to that sort of thing.

gamston

we sometimes put a bowl/container of water on the hearth to add moisture to the air

Jeepers_Creepers

Thank you Theo, Apod, Pet and FB - they actually have wee electric motors in them?! I didn't see that coming. I'd assumed they simply used the thermal air flow to drive the fan, and my thought then was how can a flow that drives a machine then be employed to increase that flow even more - an energy generator!  But it's a piezo-powered electric motor! My head hurts. 

Sterling engines are just fab.  Pretty much useless, but absolutely fab :-).

Davesnave

I don't find the air too dry when the stove is on. Might be different in a passivehaus, but mine's unlikely to approach that level of airtightness any time soon!

Jeepers_Creepers

That's my experience too, Dave. By their operating nature, stoves will be drawing in a constant supply of 'fresh' air to the room, from other rooms, windows, draughty floorboards...  Most other heat sources don't do this.