Heat store

[rary]

I have a fire in the greenhouse made from stainless steel, there are no holes in the body of the fire other than the loading door which has a good seal and a small vent door below the loading door, I also have two carbon monoxide alarms, now the inside is lined with four inch thick fire bricks, would I get better heat storage and dispersal from the brick if they were on the outside of the fire

[DWSmith]

I'm thinking it would be a toss up. Inside they heat up faster but the steel might slow down the release of heat. Outside they would heat up slower but release the heat faster.

Have you ever thought of filling some plastic containers with water and putting them in the greenhouse out of the way? They would heat up during the day and let off heat at night so they would somewhat stabilize the temperature.

Might be a good experiment to see if it works for you.

[Mr Bones]

I'm thinking it would be a toss up. Inside they heat up faster but the steel might slow down the release of heat. Outside they would heat up slower but release the heat faster.

I'd go with that plus with the bricks inside, when the fire goes out much of the stored heat in the bricks is likely to be lost up the chimney.

[rary]

I hadn't thought of plastic containers, so will give that a try, but my own thoughts were as Mr. Bones said am I losing heat up the chimney, normally I wouldn't be thinking about a fire at this time of year but the overnight temperature at times is down to 9c

[Snadger]

I stone clad the chimney on mine to try and capture some of the heat. When background heat is required overnight (when temperatures drop) the fire can be 'Banked up' with a bit of coke. I have been told that if you load it with coke and set the fire on top it will slowly burn down through the coke overnight.

Must admit, my mainstay is scrap wood and usually only while I am working in the summerhouse.

[rary]

Must admit, my mainstay is scrap wood and usually only while I am working in the summerhouse.

Mine is the same Snadger, but it has been quite cold some nights that I am considering putting the fire on to try and keep the temp. up, but my thinking was that if I put the brick round the fire rather than inside it, I would get a longer time using the stored heat