When we came to look at this home to purchase it we were surprised. Why? Well, because it had something that I knew a great deal about. It had Der "Original-Kachelofen" von Sommerhuber. Now, you ask, "what the hell is that?" LOL It's a German ceramic stove. You see, I lived in Germany for 5 years and had these things in my home there. The ceramics for the stove are made by the Sommerhuber company in Germany. The people that owned this home before us were German and had the thing imported and built. It's awesome, huge---and heavy! It weighs a ton and they had to have steel beams put in under the flooring to hold it. It is wood burning. It contains a tall, narrow firebox. Because of that we only need to burn 6 pieces of hard wood twice a day. That heats the entire kitchen, breakfast room (formerly a wasted family room) and master bathroom. It radiates heat outward for 12 hours per burn without drying the daylights out of everything. It also helps that we have ceramic tile floors in these rooms. Needless to say, it cuts our heating bill dramatically.
Not everyone can have one of these but if you ever consider adding a fireplace---forget it. Get one of these instead. If I were to build a home today that's exactly what I'd do. They come in many shapes and sizes. Some you can even cook in, some have benches attached and others you can view the fire better than ours. We absolutely love it. We also have another one in the basement. We have a full basement and it has no heating but this stove. For safety purposes the basement stove is connected electrically to a thermostat. We only need use it when we're hanging out down there. The basement one is interesting in that the tiles are 3-D reliefs of German forest animals. The upstairs one is in traditional German green and gold tiles...not exactly a thrilling decorative choice but, hey, I'm not one to complain.
Here are some photos of my stove. As you can see it wraps around from the kitchen into the breakfast room. We put all kinds of crap on it! Like dog food cans because it makes them warm for the critters.
This site has some photos of other styles of the stoves. Click on stoves/fireplaces in the left hand column to get some other views.
Other things we do to cut the heating bill are keep the thermostat at 66 for the rest of the house, wear sweaters and socks and we have many lovely blanket throws. We also check the doors and windows for any cold leaks. Any and every thing you can do helps to keep you warm and save money at the same time.
