Okay smoke

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Re: Okay smoke

Postby tt10_99 » Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:25 pm

Matt the hole in the top of the barrel does that help draw air at all
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby matt walker » Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:49 pm

Well, there's a slight improvement in efficiency if a very small amount of air is allowed in from the top right before the burn tunnel. Typically this opening should be 5% of the size of the riser. If your riser is 8" this works out to the equivalent of about a 1 1/2" pipe. These barrel fireboxes don't really have a "burn tunnel" per se, so I'm not sure if it applies in this case anyway.

In my experience, one or the other is better. Air from both top and front can be more trouble than it's worth. My inside stove does have both, but I typically run it with one totally closed. I would say that with a bit more experimentation you'll find what works best for you. Keep in mind that the riser is creating the draft, and it can only draft so much. If you allow air from both top and front the force with which they are drawn in is lessened, so it can sometimes allow smoke to make it out one or the other opening.

If you saw my early video of the first outside batch box, I did have a top feed, and then a front feed. I've since been building the batch burners without the top feed for ease of use. If your door seals very well, you will need to let a bit of air in there to keep the burn alive when the door is closed. Easiest thing for me is to leave the door just slightly ajar, but a more permanent solution might be a little port down low on the door, and maybe a slide to control the size of the opening.
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby tt10_99 » Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:32 am

K will try the slider and will build up around the burn area I still have bricks might go back and see if they have any left. I also have enough cut barrels to make a small one so may do that also in the new year... I was thinking I could build an outside one and pump the heat into the house with some some sort of fan setup but run the cob and stack outside with just the bench running in the house... I dont know if that would work I like the look of the cob furniture. I did buy that rocket stove book so have that ..
They run wood stoves like that but cost a fortune to buy.
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:03 am

Putting the burn chamber outside to keep the mess out of the house has been done, but most of the radiant heat comes off the main barrel so I would think you would want that inside the area to be heated. The heat stored in the main cob bench to be released over time should also be in the area to be heated. There is a couple who use a RMH to heat their yurt. For safety the burn chamber is outside the tent but the barrel is inside and they ran the mass area under the floor so that it heats the yurt evenly. You can see what they did by checking it out on line. Just check, yurt heated by Rocket Mass heater and it should pop up. :)
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby matt walker » Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:45 am

Like Guy says, it's been done a few ways. That yurt build he is describing is pretty cool. It's here....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fishermans ... 133608314/

However, I totally understand what you are describing. I have thought about it often, and folks who sit on my outside system seem to come up with that idea a lot. My outside system, the one in the half barrel video, had a bench that was a dead end. The hot gasses from the system worked their way out through it through a passive effect that's referred to as a "bell" in masonry stoves. I thought that would be neat as well, just have a dead end bench from an outdoor system go inside a house to provide warm seating or sleeping areas. Upon further reflection, to me it really only makes sense for a small guest cabin or something, where heat was only desired occasionally. If you were trying to heat a place that way you would waste a lot of heat by having the barrel outside, and it would be a pain to always go out there to keep it going.

I still think it's a great idea, especially for summer guests. Well, here anyway. Summer nights are cool, and after sitting around a fire outside it would be really neat to go inside and sleep on a warm bed/bench. Going outside in the winter to try to heat up your inside though, not so much. That's my take on it, but I still think it's a cool idea.
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby tt10_99 » Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:03 am

I looked at that it is pretty cool... A Yurt would never make it here except maybe in the summer... But then you could heat water... I have a solar water tube heater not set up yet but You could combine it I think... Our winters are brutal most of the time... With the green house i piled compost all around the outside, which raises the inside temps by 10 degrees ..I figure i cant lose i will have nice soil in the spring. Plus I have the worms as a thermal mass ..Plus i bring in about 5 ton of compost products per week so have lots. Actually I surronded the green house and my workshop... Im heating the workshop with an electric heater right now it is 1500 sq feet and a little heater keeps it at 10... I have hooked up a big woodstove for Jan... Last year I had to use three heaters in the workshop before i used the compost.
I am building more solar furnaces but no sun no heat... That goes for solar water also ... So if you combined the rocket stove with the solar water it could be a good system perhaps just putting the stove on at night. Plus if you used the yurt concept with all the pipes branching out. and a fan system or that is what i see the use of a fan system to spread that heat around.
Last year I tried water in barrels for capturing the heat but did not work.. this year I filled the barrels with compost was working until we hit minus 20 but I think If i keep a fire going it will work.. When we hit Minus 30 or 40 with a wind chill... Waiting until mid Jan before I start any gardening projects.
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby tt10_99 » Wed Dec 26, 2012 3:29 am

Went to see what our growing zone is . It is 1A
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:29 pm

I just looked on the map of the USA hardiness Zones. It looked like you have to be up in the Artic Circle to have a zone that low. WOW, that is unbelievable. Just how far North are You for goodness sakes? By comparison Matt looks like he is in a Zone 8 for goodness sakes. I can see why you have a large greenhouse. Are you able to grow anything outside in the Garden? or is it mostly inside in the Greenhouse?
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Re: Okay smoke

Postby matt walker » Fri Jan 04, 2013 6:32 pm

Hey Terrill, I've been wondering about your stove. Do you have any updates you'd like to share?
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