Hey! Oddmar stopped by for a visit!
Thanks for reading so attentively, Oddmar; and thanks for your input. I've been worried about my build. I've had a couple of fires and I've had some smoking issues every time. After trying Matt's suggestion of using candles and priming with newspaper things have been MUCH better, though I still have some problems. Sometimes the draw seems to be okay but then the fire will creep up the feed and towards the end I'll have problems. It seems that the stove just isn't all that "rockety".
The caveat is that I don't want to worry too much because there has never been even a 10* difference between the outside air temp and the air temp in the basement where my stove is. Not to mention, the bench is still wet, and my attic is probably staying pretty hot. So, I'm hoping (foolishly perhaps) that things will work out once the temperature drops. But I am a bit of a worry-wart anyway.
Perhaps the plenum area
should be bigger, but honestly I don't think it can be any bigger, so I might just have to live with it. We'll see.
As for insulating all the pipe, I could easily get up in my attic and fill the space between the stove pipe and the masonry column with zonolite, but I was actually thinking rather than insulating it I want to increase the heat transfer from the pipe to the column. As I think I've said somewhere along the threads, that column has done a fine job in heating my upstairs for years, and I really depend on the heat from that to keep us warm upstairs. One of my big fears with the RMH is that I'll be losing all that heat in the column that I used to get with my old potbelly. I've thought of shortening the pipe run through the bench... and I suppose I will if I have to. We'll see how it works first. If worse comes to worse, I can hook my potbelly back up in about 15 minutes flat.
Insulating that section between the bench and the column might not be a bad idea. I might start there if I have problems. I don't forsee the copper pipes being a problem at all. I'm going to put some insulation around those at some point but I really doubt that they will take any significant heat away from the exit flue.
So really what I'm thinking, heating with wood my place never gets below 70*. If it's 50* or lower outside, isn't that temperature differential always going to be enough to keep a good draw? I mean, a good 5 months of the year it's below freezing outside up here!
Eh, we'll make it work. Time for me to go relax and have a homebrew. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Oddmar. I really appreciate your input!
"Knowledge is power. Arm yourself."