Radiant Heat Floors
The most efficient, comfortable and healthy heat is a radiant heat floor. Our Solar Heat Tubes (left photo) provide both floor heating and domestic hot water. The glass vacuum tubes absorb the sun’s infrared radiation and transfers it to the water, which is then passed through the floor first, and then into your hot water heater. The same water that fills your hot bath or kitchen sink has already warmed your dome. This is a very efficient system because one heat source is doing all the work. It is simple, easy to install and maintain and has great longevity.
Stoves
The Deluxe Dome Options come with a stove vent flashing and pipe cap for wood stove installation. Comfortable temperatures can be maintained inside the dome while snow flurries outside. There are four types of stoves Pacific Domes recommends for heating your dome: pellet, masonry, gas or wood. They may look similar, but have different environmental impact. For the Basic Dome Package, the wood stove setup can be purchased separately.
Pellet Stoves burn clean and efficiently. The pellets are made from cardboard, compressed sawdust and other wood and agricultural by-products that are more expensive than wood.
Masonry stoves have long been popular in Europe. They are wood burning, large, free-standing fireplaces with a closeable firebox. The mass of the heater slowly warms up and radiates warmth into the room. They are much more efficient than fireplaces and radiate an even amount of heat over a long period of time. One heating typically lasts for hours. They have relatively low emissions because of their high operating temperatures.
Gas stoves provide the clean burning and efficiency of natural gas. You'll enjoy the warmth and look of a fire without the pollution. Efficient wood stoves emit only a small fraction of the air pollution, burning less wood and releasing more heat and less soot in your chimney! This is good news for the lungs of your family, friends and neighbors.
Wood stoves currently feature improved safety and energy efficiency. They produce almost no smoke, minimal ash, and require less firewood than older models.Many dome owners also connect radiant heat from the wood stove into the floor through water piping.
Rocket Stoves
Rocket Stoves can easily be built with metal drums and fire bricks. To use them for heating your space consider safely insulating yours with a thermal bank effectively retaining most of the heat to radiate it over a long period of time.