My Tulikivi masonry heater has arrived, just in time for winter weather! I ordered it in January, expecting it to be installed in May. But in May it was sitting in Finland, waiting for a shipping container during the pandemic.
Many people in the Pacific Northwest use wood burning stoves as a secondary, or even primary, source of heat. I wanted something like that to use during extended power outages or in the event the hydronic floor fails. I chose a masonry heater rather than a Woodstock stove or similar metal stove because masonry heaters are more energy efficient and they burn cleaner. In addition, I should only have to make one fire a day when I use the heater, which will make my life easier as I get older. And the Washington Department of Energy includes this model on its list of pre-approved manufactured masonry heaters, which made the building permit process easier.
This concept has actually been used for hundreds of years. Tulikivi just put it in a beautiful modern Scandinavian package.
For more details see this aging but still interesting NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/21/garden/rolls-royce-of-hearths-a-hit-in-the-rockies-heads-east.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FE8.VO23.NW4qvkyyNbaq&smid=url-share
This is what it looked like when it was delivered:
