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Post by interlockon1 on Nov 8, 2014 14:16:56 GMT -8
Hi guys, First, thanks for the info and the effort put into the continuing design of these things. My RMH is a 6" batch box. It works fantastic for heating my 1 1/2 car garage. My issue is, this thing eats a lot of wood. I'd always assumed these things were lite on the fuel consumption. Mine ate 10 bowling pins in 4 hours. It seems a little excessive. There is something I missing in the efficiency dept. Specs 36" insulated home depot firebrick riser 8" 1/2 brick firebrick box 9"x 2 3/16 port 50" x 18 1/2" barrel/pipe 6" outlet It works great. Great draft and no smoke out the chimney, only steam. Any thoughts on consumption? Or is this the way mines going to run as built?
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Post by ronyon on Nov 8, 2014 14:39:48 GMT -8
Bowling pins? Doesn't seem like a lot compared to conventional woodstove. Also, are you using a mass?
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Post by interlockon1 on Nov 8, 2014 14:58:32 GMT -8
Ya bowling pins(minus plastic). There made of rock hard maple and I have an unlimited supply.
No mass yet, it's across the garage awaiting implementation.
I guess I'd always seen the J tubes (I know different animal) being feed by twigs and such and figured this couldn't be THAT different.
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morticcio
Full Member
"The problem with internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" - Aristotle
Posts: 371
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Post by morticcio on Nov 8, 2014 23:48:50 GMT -8
No mass and most probably an uninsulated draughty garage. It will warm up a bit but you will have to keep feeding it.
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Post by peterberg on Nov 9, 2014 1:09:02 GMT -8
Efficiency has a lot to do with two things: combustion as complete as possible and the temperature of the exhaust. In order to get your garage warm you need to compensate for the losses. Maybe the losses are huge and the exhaust hot?
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Post by shilo on Nov 9, 2014 4:56:35 GMT -8
only 1 barell?
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Post by interlockon1 on Nov 9, 2014 17:13:54 GMT -8
No mass and most probably an uninsulated draughty garage. It will warm up a bit but you will have to keep feeding it. Your right on the uninsulated garage part. I massaged it today. I made the box another fire brick longer, to load more at a time. Now i don't seem to have to fiddle with it as much, or so it seems. no ill effects so far.
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Post by interlockon1 on Nov 9, 2014 17:24:07 GMT -8
yes, it's actually a 5' piece of pipe that covers the firebrick riser. It's actually too big. It takes all I've got to get it over the riser. I'll bet it weights 75LBS.
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Post by ericvw on Nov 9, 2014 17:41:11 GMT -8
Hi there Interlockon1, I've got the same local big box hardware store fire brick too, used as a test bed. I stood the feed area bricks on end, 4 or 5 deep, had great results, no barrel tho. Didn't even dip them in slip, as I say, just for test. Can u stick a magnetic thermometer on the flue to roughly gauge your exhaust temps? I'm sure u plan on insulating the whole shabang, which should help a bunch, as noted by the masters! Morticcio has spoken to the need of insulating the flue, but if your not having any smoke back issues, I guess it's ok as bare? Keep us updated, looking to get mine up soon (already had one lite snow!!). Would love some help, as my lower back is chronically tore up . Eric VW
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Post by DCish on Nov 9, 2014 20:37:55 GMT -8
For reference, Peterberg has said on other threads that one batch runs about an hour. The batch box is tuned to run hot and fast to charge a mass, while a J produces less heat all at once, "sipping" fuel. I'll look forward to the flue temp, hopefully all you have to do is harvest more of the heat, maybe store some to spread out the heat dissipation.
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morticcio
Full Member
"The problem with internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" - Aristotle
Posts: 371
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Post by morticcio on Nov 10, 2014 1:31:55 GMT -8
To me, running a RMH without any mass and in a draughty un-insulated garage then wondering why your fuel consumption is so high is like driving a convertible car with the top down and air-conditioning on and wondering why only your feet are cool and your gas mileage/MPG is so poor!
Sounds like you've got the rocket bit working, and as DC said, you just need to harness the heat it is producing otherwise all you will be doing is feeding the dragon and keeping the birds warm!
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Post by satamax on Nov 10, 2014 3:08:21 GMT -8
Build a bell to the left. Whether made out of barrels for quick heat, or made out of denser material for long term storage.
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Post by interlockon1 on Nov 15, 2014 15:41:31 GMT -8
Fired it up again today. I found that huge gusts of wind could give me some smoke back, so I solved it with the H pipe (works flawlessly) Going at full throttle, this seems to be the highest temperature I can maintain at the barrel. I took some exhaust readings during this period. barrel outlet was 290 degrees mid pipe was 250 degrees outside at the H pipe 150 degrees. I used some forced air today for distribution until I get the mass built. (box fan pulling the warm air from the rafters) The high temp today was 36 degrees and the garage stayed 65-70 degrees, as long as I as I feed the box every 45 mins. I think I'm going to use a 55 gallon drum with a grate about 12" high from the bottom and fill it with medium sized river rocks, port the exhaust over to it under the rocks and then a 4"x 8" register for the barrel lid then out the window. Not the best but I'll store some heat until a better heater is built. So far everything is working good. I've got a secondary air port channel drilled into the fire brick in front of the port that I've never used. I think I'll uncap it and see if it changes anything tomorrow. I've got a giant coal pile on my property I finally have a way to slowly get rid of it and get something out of it. Now I need good Ideas for The wood ash. Some goes in the compost piles. any other good uses? Attachments:
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Post by interlockon1 on Nov 22, 2014 16:32:25 GMT -8
As I was forced to work on he truck this morning (and not building the mass part of the equation), I fired up the heater.
First I built a triangular fire brick slightly smaller than the port and slid it inside and against the back of the riser. I'd always sat there and watched the fire blast away at the back of the riser with an upward trajectory and thought it wasn't doing enough swirling and burning as a round riser with the same dimension. (my riser is 6" square) My thought was to split the incoming air and create some turbulence.
conclusion of my non scientific experiment. It sounds a lot angrier. no temperature changes anywhere that I can tell. BUT! at least 10% more draft. Even when the batch is getting smaller and usually a little lazier in the draft department, it's still pulling pretty good.
Anyone care to slap some science on me and tell me whats going on?
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Post by SteveStuff on Mar 15, 2017 8:58:16 GMT -8
Any updates?
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