Hello Xylobenzen,
For me, the efficiency of a stove depends of 2 things:
1) How complete is the wood fuel burned ? As long as visible smoke can be seen, leaving the chimney, there is no complete combustion of the wood and it cannot give off all its energy.
2) How hot are the exhaust gases leaving the chimney? How much heat is allowed to leave the chimney afterwards?
It is quite logic, that the energy that we don't allow to escape through the chimney, will be found somewhere inside the house. That is the useful part. How we use it or how fast we use it, is another question.
Dirk
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