Residence: Bowdoin, Maine

Background: Eric lives with his doting wife and energetic daughter in Bowdoin, Maine, where he loves watching people respond in amazement and disbelief to the tiny amount of wood he burns and how wonderful it feels in his home when everywhere else in the state is a misery of arctic desperation.

Eric’s fascination with this ages-old yet rare-in-the-U.S. masonry heater (also known as the kachelofen, grundofen, poele de masse, finoven, kakelugn, and other names) was kindled during a research project on propaganda and indoctrination in modern democracies. As you might imagine, that particular topic requires frequent breaks to keep from losing one’s mind, and those breaks were often spent rambling about the stacks of the libraries in which much of the research was carried out.

One day, Eric found The Book of Masonry Stoves (Chelsea Green Publishing, 1998) in the stacks. He found the perfect mix of natural, sustainable and economically feasible, and his life was changed forever. He fell in love with the straightforward honesty of the masonry heater: It does a relatively simple job with fantastic durability, faithfulness, and efficiency. Within two years of that moment, Eric was traveling from heater job to heater job and working with anyone who could teach him anything. He has traveled from New England to Washington State, and to Austria, Holland, and Canada to learn. He’s also invested in the most state-of-the-art computer modeling technology in the world — and survived with minimal personal damage to tell the tale.

Eric has been designing innovative masonry heaters since 2006, consistently breaking out of the box in overall stove shape, size, firebox design, and heat exchange layouts. He’s grown accustomed to figuring out how to make your ideas into realities and complementing the architectural aesthetics of the homes his stoves complete.

When he’s not playing with fire, Eric likes lifting weights and putting them back down, helping people buy and sell real estate, traveling, taking part in church life, and drinking coffee with old and new friends. Drop him a line and you’ll find a man willing to help you in whatever way he can.

Connect with Eric at Eric Schroeder Stoves and on Twitter.