Max, Author at Firespeaking

Open Source Heater Building

January 22, 2022 / 1 Comment / By Max

Progress is made painfully slowly by isolated individuals and small artesan companies each having to invent and build the wheel themselves. To the extent that each can make contributions to the overall body of knowledge and benefit from the shared resources that result, it might be possible to gather more momentum for this interesting and resilient technology. This article explores the potential for an open-source approach in masonry heater design and construction.

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Corner Masonry Heater Designs

May 30, 2021 / By Max

A design review of corner masonry heater designs.

Masonry Heater Foundation Details

April 6, 2021 / Leave a Comment / By Max

An in-depth article including detailed drawings of a basic foundation strategy for masonry heaters including footing, stem wall, base slab, insulation, and rough opening specifications.

Core for Masonry Heater with Oven, 3-Side Heated Bench & Hot Water Heat Exchanger

February 2, 2021 / Leave a Comment / By Max

Here is a summary of recent design work showing the core of a versatile masonry heater design. We offer pre-project design assistance, full course-by-course drawings, parts, and hardware for projects like this. If you have questions or want to provide feedback, use the comments section below.

Improvements to Firespeaking Website

February 2, 2021 / By Max

We are looking for someone to work with on improvements to our website. This person would ideally have familiarity and expertise in website design, WordPress, WooCommerce, Child Theme Development, PHP & CSS, SEO and specifically Yoast SEO. Here is a list of things that we think needs work on our website, somewhat by priority. Toggle

Masonry Heater in Meditation Space

December 29, 2020 / Leave a Comment / By Max

A beautiful masonry heater, built by Noel Adams, with heated benches and finished with natural plaster. Firespeaking provided design, training, a core kit and hardware for this project.

Basic Masonry Heater Design

November 18, 2020 / By Max

These are some common variations for basic masonry heater design. These heaters are symmetrical and show how you can choose to include an oven and benches around the main volume. Additional options include the see-through firebox which includes a door on both sides and choosing to have the oven face the opposite direction as the firebox.

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Making Pizzas in a Masonry Heater

October 18, 2020 / By Max

What a pleasure to help a family get to know their masonry heater by making pizzas with them! We want more people to know that masonry heaters are not only the best way to heat your home with wood but also offer many options for cooking food throughout the cold months of the year!

Rocket Mass Heater Cookstove

October 11, 2020 / Leave a Comment / By Max

A Rocket Mass Heater with a custom fabricated cooktop replacing the metal barrel and a long heated bench constructed for the 2016 Masonry Heater Association annual meeting.

Locating a Masonry Heater in your Floor Plan

September 7, 2020 / By Max

This article goes over the basic options for placing a masonry heater in a floor plan you are designing and includes some sample layouts.

The Pizza Farm Concept

July 14, 2020 / Leave a Comment / By Max

Building an oven on a farm is a great way to generate business and create community! “Pizza Farms” are becoming popular venues where people can go to have excellent wood-fired pizzas topped with fresh farm-to-table ingredients and enjoy the country environment.

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Masonry Heaters: Part of an Ecological Cycle

April 13, 2020 / Leave a Comment / By Max

This illustration demonstrates the role of masonry heaters in providing heating and cooking capacity for homes in a long-term sustainable flow of energy and resources. Masonry heaters are essentially a solar energy solution. Well-seasoned firewood acts as “batteries” for the solar energy captured by trees in forests through photosynthesis. When the wood is then burned