page_title: Masonry heater
section_title: Kachelofen
hierarchical_section_title: Masonry heater / Kachelofen
caption_attribution_description: Foto
context_page_description: A masonry heater is a device for warming an interior space through radiant heating, by capturing the heat from periodic burning of fuel, and then radiating the heat at a fairly constant temperature for a long period. Masonry heaters covered in tile are called cocklestoves. The technology has existed in different forms, from back into the Neoglacial and Neolithic periods. Archaeological digs have revealed excavations of ancient inhabitants utilizing hot smoke from fires in their subterranean dwellings, to radiate into the living spaces. These early forms have evolved into modern systems.
  Evidence found from 5,000 B.C. of massive blocks of masonry used to retain heat foreshadowed early forms of fire hearths that were used as multifunctional heating sources. Later evolutions came in the Roman hypocaust and Austro-German cocklestove, using the smoke and exhaust of a single fire. In Eastern and Northern Europe and North Asia, these cocklestoves evolved in many different forms and names: for example the Russian stove, the Finnish stove and the Swedish stove associated with Carl Johan Cronstedt. The Chinese developed the same principle into their Kang bed-stove.
context_section_description: The tilestove (German: Kachelofen, "tile stove") design, a relatively large home heater surrounded with ceramic tile, has existed for at least five centuries. During the Renaissance period, the builders of cocklestoves were part of a distinct trade and were called hafnermeister. A cocklestove uses a maze-like passage created out of firebrick to release gases and smoke from the wood fire slowly, allowing the firebrick to retain as much heat as possible from the gases and smoke. The ceramic tile surrounding the cocklestove also acts as insulation to retain heat. Cocklestoves were carefully designed so that the minimum amount of heat would escape, only as much as needed to warm the flue to maintain a proper air draught. The firebrick used in cocklestove construction holds 80% more heat than ferrous metals such as cast iron, while its heat conductivity is 1/45 that of iron or steel. A cocklestove is efficient enough to warm a house for up to 6 to 12 hours after the fire has stopped burning.
caption: Cocklestove by Joseph Effner, Schleissheim Palace (ca. 1720)
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