Intrestesting read on soapstone..

[MountainStoveGuy]

I came across this .pdf searching for the r-value of soapstone. I dont have time to read it at work, but skimming over it, i found that it has some intresting and scientific points about the wonders of soapstone.

(broken link removed)

 

[Rhone]

If you're still looking for the info, it's at

(broken link removed to http://mha-net.org/msb/docs/course.PDF)

It says it's 1/4th that of concrete, which is R0.08 per inch so it's somewhere around R 0.02/inch. Soapstone usually comes in splits of 3/4" thickness so that's R 0.015 per split. Soapstone has a very high conductance when compared to other masonry materials (low R-Value). It heats up extremely fast, and cools extremely fast. That ability lets you use soapstone stoves in a similar fashion as cast iron & steel stoves. When we say steel stoves are very peaky, and soapstone stoves buffer those peaks... in the masonry world Soapstone is extremely peaky compared to other masonry materials particularly brick. If you want even less peak than soapstone, granite is half the R-Value of soapstone and would not be as peaky, brick... it blows soapstone away in smoothing out the heat spikes. A brick masonry heater is something where you light a fire and it'll spread the heat out over 24-48 hours, a soapstone unit of similar construction will spread it out over something like 12 hours. Course, Marty S certainly understands this stuff better than I.

 

[Marty]

Nice links guys.

This one may be a little more esoteric, and you may have seen it before, but this thread seems like a good place to post it.
http://www.stove.ru/index.php?lng=1&rs=3

 

[Harley]

Pretty interesting stuff there. Somehow I knew Rhone would be the first to find the answer - Thank you. I don't know what made me think of it the other day, but it was bothering me that I couldn't find it. Thanks, MSG and Marty... pretty interesting articles there too.

 

[webbie]

A russian stove site (.ru) !

 

[Marty]

A russian stove site (.ru) !

Ya. I find the guys language almost poetic.

A lot of it seems to be more theory than practice but it's fairly extensive.