Post by spedley on Apr 25, 2015 13:59:43 GMT -8
I had a very steep learning curve with my very first proper attempt at making a stove. This is my second stove - 2.0
I believe the failing of my first stove (L shaped) - other than no insulation - was a lack of feed air. I have since done some research and found this. I have yet to double check my calculaions but it looks like 1Kg of wood needs at least 70,000 litres of air! (1lb wood to 8400 US gallons air). That is for total and perfect combustion which is highly unlikely and roughly 50% of the real figure.
It seems that my conclusion of more fuel = less air in an L shaped stove could well be correct.
Following the idea of constant cross sectional area I have come up with the following plans (based on the materials I have available).
Assuming an L shaped stove can never have constant cross-sectional area it seemed logical that there must be space around the fuel for air to feed in. If you can imaging many long sticks filling the small vertical tube you can see there is sufficient space for the air to flow around them and in the 'burn' chamber (slightly more space because of the parts I have). I included a front air-inlet tube in the hope the air will be funneled into the bottoms of the sticks increasing burn rate and then flow easily around the sticks and up the chimney.
The vertical fuel feed will permit some air in the stove (hopefully no smoke out) but should be filled so the sticks are vertical but can still drop into the stove as they burn.
You can see the obvious [deliberate] flaw that the sticks will be against the chimney and could well start smouldering, however my ultimate goal is preheating fuels so I accept this before I start the test.
If I can find some perlite or other I will insulate the stove to compare it's output.
Currently I have cut most of the parts and should be able to weld and perhaps test tomorrow.