This is a sample of some of the positive feedback Temp-Cast has always received from our customers - please note that some letters have been edited for length and personal details. (Watch this page for future updates, including some of their own photos.)

Tempcast in Strawbale Home- Feb 2006:

"We picked our stove up at your facility the fall of '02. Jim Shuman, who is a friend and local mason, assembled the stove in our new strawbale house yet that fall and we moved in the following March. So we are now in our third full winter. Just to let you know we are very happy with our stove. It is the only heat source in addition to some basic passive solar for our ranch-style strawbale house with a daylight basement-- approx. 1650 sq ft of interior space on each of the two levels. On most days we do one fire. Three days this winter we have done two fires, although this has been a mild winter. We also enjoy the bake oven and we are glad we have the chimney-top damper. I think there are two pictures of the stove on our website.

I talked with Jim Shuman this morning and he said he has inquired about being a TempCast dealer. He has not asked me to contact you, but I would highly recommend him. He did a great job of installing our stove including the chimney. He was one of the few sub-contractors who came in well under what he had quoted us. Two weeks ago I was down in Maryland helping Greg Newswanger with his strawbale house. He also recently got a stove from you after having seen ours. I recommended Jim to him for installation and they have been in touch.

Thanks again for your great product."

Barry from Akron, PA 17501

A customer in BC installed their Temp-Cast 2000 with hot water coils in January 1998. This installation is unique in that it will complement a radiant floor system and the top of the heater forms the top section of the stair case leading to the main level of the home. Although the house was not yet insulated, the customer wrote:

"I'm sending along our pictures of our "under steps" Temp-Cast. So far we find than it can heat the whole house to about 60° F. when temperatures drop to -20° C. (-5°F). Our house has 1580 sq. feet - I haven't figured out the cubic feet. We haven't got the underfloor pipes hooked up yet - the plumber is still working on that.....
Yours Sincerely,
Janet Pattinson."

Another BC customer wrote:

"A great wood stove - far beyond all expectations. This unit is by far the space age way of heating with wood. The heat is radiant and silent. No drafts, fans or noise. The heat can be almost instant by standing in front of the always clean glass door and also long lasting by way of having the mass of heated masonry. Its great first thing in the morning to have a comfortable heat in the house and not to be shivering and shaking trying to coax a regular woodstove back to life. We were using the stove about a month when a neighbour asked "are you ever going to use your woodstove - I never see any smoke." The combustion is so complete that you just get a vapour from the chimney - similar to a natural gas furnace. If your serious about wood heat this is the only way to go. It exceeds all your advertised criteria and specifications. .....
Good luck and we will be happy to show our stove or answer questions if you want to give our name for reference."

Sincerely,
Gerald McDuff

This Temp-Cast 2000 with bake oven option and gold arched door is installed in Michigan and incorporates a wood storage box behind the heater and a beautiful dumbwaiter for wood handling. (We'll be getting his photos scanned later!) He had this to say:

"...To date, our unit has really worked well and we are pleased with it. We get a lot of positive comments and just plain interest from our friends. .... In conclusion, this was one of the most enjoyable projects I've undertaken. It has been a pleasure doing business with Temp-Cast Enviroheat."

Sincerely,
John Nienstaedt.

This next couple installed a model 2000 Temp-Cast heater with a bake oven, hot water coil, arched door and roof top damper, in a new timber frame home in the fall of 1997 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. They sent the following letter:

"Dear John,

    The Burnett/Irish masonry heater installation is finally completed, and your phone can rest a little easier. Thanks for all your assistance during the installation process. In the new society, every community will have a few masonry heater experts, and you will be relieved of the coaching aspect of your position. One must dream.....

    My husband and I just wanted to let you know how thrilled we are with our heater. We have designed our life and our new home with "sustainability" as the primary factor, and a masonry heater was the only heating system that fit the bill in our climate.

    I hope you add to your educational/marketing materials the concept that masonry heaters aren't just for the financially secure who hire their home's design & construction. Although we hired our framing roughed in, we designed and made the timer-framing part ourselves, and the finish work; the masonry heater was a key component all along. Although the short-term cash cost of a masonry heater is substantial to those, like us, who choose to live on a low income, when considering long-term heating costs and environmental costs of other heating systems, the cost of a heater is very reasonable. I know this is not news to you.

    We will promote your heaters in numerous ways - but already we can see that it speaks best for itself. We already have 3-5 people interested in one for themselves. It would probably be worth your while to send us a few sets of information packets to give to such people. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a prime area for masonry heaters: lots of environmentally conscious people, lots of wood, lots of cold.

    Best of luck to you & your company. May your phone ring off the walls with requests for information about your masonry heater - that has now become the heart of our home. "

Sincerely,
Nancy Irish
Chris Burnett

The following testimonial comes again from British Columbia, another area of cold winters and strong environmentalism. (A diagram accompanied the letter showing 2 floors with 1200 sq. ft/floor.)

"Dear Brian,

    Many thanks for your letter dated June 19th. Regretfully the roll of film arrived after we had completed the building process; we have faced ours with river rocks 5" to 6" thick. I will send you some photos.

    Our house consists of 2 floors plus basement; we have triple glazed windows to the north, and we are on water frontage along our southern aspect. We've also added a lot more insulation than needed. We deliberately placed tempcast in centre of the house below the upstairs passage. We have some electric baseboards upstairs because in B.C. the building code states that you cannot have wood as your primary heat source. We've only ever had them on on two occasions. Our first winter here was typical with outdoor temps. below - (minus) for most mornings for about 3 months. Snow on the ground sometimes. We found one burn a day sufficient to keep the whole house warm; we did have 2 fires one day & ended up with the french doors open for hours it was so hot in here.

    I baked everything in the bake oven, I also used it for drying herbs, fruits, vegetables, its ideal for rising bread, making yoghurt, meringues come out a dream! We dry all the laundry outside in summer and winter, then I air it at night around the chimney (our damper is on the chimney top). 40 gallons of water is heated to about blood temp, we top that up with electrical heat.

    John will know the tank we purchased. The Victoria, B.C. manufacturer had a stall next to John LaGamba's at "the log house" trade show in Abbotsford, April 1995. I know they exchanged a lot of information.

    I should like to say that your manuals are excellant. We had alot of fun building it. Many people came to our home just to look at our exceptionally safe, efficient and beautiful looking temp cast. Living in a timber house surrounded by forest, I like the fact that there is virtually no possibility of chimney fire, (or) sparks spitting out of the fire.

    We built our home at the same time as good friends built theirs 3 kms from here. They have a regular wood stove that they have to keep going day and night and they also use electrical heat upstairs. Their wood consumption was about 4 to 5 times ours and their hydro (electrical) bills were consistantly more than double for a N. facing 2700 sq. foot open plan home very similar to ours!.....

    Yours sincerely
    Sonia Lambert"

We recently received this email from a customer in northeastern Illinois, who had completed his standard heater in 1998.

"John,

Every claim you made is true. Christmas day we lit a small fire in your heater. Wow, what a display! A glowing red hot fire without overheating the room. The glass door stayed clean ---- clean like it wasn't there. The next morning, very little ashes remained and the heater was producing a 10 degree F rise from the top vent on the heat capturing cavity. It took 36 hours for the masonry to exhaust its' radiant heat. While checking, I observed a maximum rise of 15 degrees F before it slowly declined to ambient. I wish I hadn't built the wall behind the fireplace in the master bedroom, but it still is working to release heat into the house.

John, this is a great product! Do you need a representative in the Chicago-Milwaukee area?"

Thanks,
John Schueneman.

We received this via the strawbale discussion group on the Internet. Jorg Ostrowski, a highly respected architect in Calgary Alberta, was answering a query about wood fire combustion. He has designed and built a truly remarkable demonstration of energy efficient, sustainable housing in Calgary, which just happens to have a Temp-Cast masonry heater for heating, baking and hot water.

"Rene: You have a very interesting stove, unless you mean 1000dF. Our masonry heater will heat up anywhere between 700 to 1200dF. 2 hydronic heat exchangers from California in the primary combustion chamber, another one where the heat/smoke enters the chimney. It is our only back-up heating system when it is -37dC in the City of Calgary. 40 pounds will burn for 1.5 - 2.5 hours in our Tempcast masonry heater. Space heating, hot water and baking. Better than TV."

Jorg-Dietram Ostrowski, M. Arch. A.S. (MIT), B. Arch. (Toronto), Ecotect
Phone: (403) 239-1882, Fax: (403) 547-2671 e-mail: jdo@ucalgary.ca  

• in full-time professional practice since 1976
• Straw Bale design since 1978
• environmental/architectural design, ecological planning, consulting
• lectures, seminars, workshops
• 3 residential demonstration projects in Canada, +80,000 visitors
• college campus and office tower retrofit under construction
• living a conserver lifestyle & working in a sustainable home and office
  

This email was received in February 2000.

We received these comments February 4, 2003 - clearly, some projects take longer than others!

"A few years (!) ago, my husband purchased one of your units (we started construction of this addition in the Fall of 1998).  We have had the core pieces together for about 2 years, but just recently finished the facing masonry, and although we have not completed the entire room, I am sending you some pictures of our unit.  I know at least a year ago, you sent us a letter in the mail requesting pictures, but we were not done at that time.

So far, we love the heater.  Although we finished it right after the temperatures climbed out of the single digits, it has been keeping our new room (as well as the rest of the house) quite comfortable. 

If you would like, I will send you more pictures after we get the floor and furnishings in the room (which may still be another month or so)."

Sue & Steve Warner

Although these next comments from Ontario were brief, the enthusiasm for the product still shines through. (March, 2004)

"Sorry it has taken us this long to get some pictures to you of our Tempcast. Absolutely fantastic. Floor heat has kicked in only about 10 times in the early morning hours during those -31 windchill days. Can't say enough positives about it. Showing it off and bragging to anyone who will listen."

Oscar & Sandra Van Binsbergen

We received this email Jan 19th, 2005 - not so brief, but they don't come any more enthusiastic than these British Columbia customers!