The other day someone mentioned that it takes a lot of energy to get an iron stove up to operating temperature and this got me thinking how much heat is stored in my stove. The stove weighs 230 pounds. When the stove is really roaring the flue collar gets to around 600ºF while the lower parts can still be touched (maybe 150ºF). Overall, I guess the average temperature of the whole stove is in the region of 400ºF, an increase of maybe 350ºF compared to when there is no fire. Specific heat capacity of iron is 0.1076 BTU/lb/ºF so for my stove 230 lb * 350ºF * 0.1076 = 8661 BTU. Wood at 20% water content is 6800BTU/lb so we are looking at the heat from 1lb 4oz of wood being stored in the iron once operating temperature has been reached.
Does it surprise you how little it is?
Does it surprise you how little it is?