The stove at home..

[mountaindreamer]

Oct 22, 2009 23:17:19 GMT -8 Donkey said:

Oh, and I found this image that I had forgotten about..

I have a slightly unrelated question, but I'm really curious. What's the square outline on the floor in front of the setup?

[Donkey]

That is a hatch to get under the floor.
This stove is part of a much larger design in my house, some of which got abandoned and/or redesigned.
I've built in a convection loop that goes from up at the ceiling inside the house, down under the subfloor, around to the front and up and out along the chimney. It's not fully hooked up yet, but the idea is that a loop of either warmed or cooled air can be channeled around the house without fans or pumps, no moving parts but hand operated doors. There is a solar chimney in front for convective in the summer and the chimney passes through to create convection in the winter. The entire air mass passes under the stove, and that hatch is supposed to be a clean-out/access-way.

[mountaindreamer]

Wow, that's really cool! I'm really glad I asked. Thanks.

[Donkey]

No prob...
Actually, it's kind of a hair-brained idea. I've no doubt that it will work, at least to some degree. There are simpler ways to go about passive heating/cooling.

[mountaindreamer]

Oh, but if we didn't try hair-brained ideas, would we be here?

[mountaindreamer]

[...And I think it's in our blood these days to try to make things more complicated than they have to be. Maybe not the best plan, but it's certainly quite the trend. :-P ]

[Donkey]

Seeing as how the "normal" way of doing things is letting us all down so...
What's left but the hair brained and untested?

[mountaindreamer]

Exactly! Currently working on an (not rocket stoves) experiment, and it's fun to see the faces of people as they go from confused to it registering in their brain and getting interested.

It's also odd for me to be working on this project in a garage we pretty much rebuilt last year, looking around at all the current-normal building stuff. Yuck. Doesn't smell so nice in there, but there's not really another place to work. Someday, someday... I'm working on it.

[Teach]

Wow Wow Wow, well done Donkey! That unit has major eye appeal. Looking that nice who would even care if it actually works? LOL. Seriously though, awsome aesthetics Donkey. I also like the idea of having two stoves within one unit.

[strivin]

Hi Donkey,
I think rationality has taken over, and we haven't heard of anyone else doing a dual level rocket...so a double, similar to yours, seems like it would do the tricks. Have you come up with any other "if i were to do this again" bits or any more extensive parameters of construction?
my husband is a big builder, but not a mason...we have mason buddies and one friend who is big into masonry heaters/ biochar heaters who is gung-ho to help, but if you would be willing to dish any more details, that would be great!
thanks,
becka

[Donkey]

The "if I were to do this again" rag:
I'd use a small-ish metal radiator, like half of a barrel or some such. It would be nice to get a faster heat-me-up when the house is cold.
I'd make a longer bench run and build it like a bell stove. Or actually multiple bells.
I'd place it in a more central location in my house and bring air in through a tunnel from the outside.
One big one that I'd change is how the different materials (brick, steel, fireclay and cob) are put together. Unfortunately 4 different materials are coming together in the hottest part of the stove and they are currently pushing away from each other due to the heat expansion/contraction cycle. The stove is developing cracks and before too long I'm gonna need to break into it and fix it. At that time I'll mess with the design a bit, add the barrel, maybe some other features. I'll post the updates here as they happen, though I plan to put it off as long as possible.

Honestly, if I were to start this project today, I'd approach it completely differently in just about every aspect.. The good of that is that it would likely be a much more useful and efficient stove all around. The bad is that I would be less likely to find the happy accidents, like how I've settled on feeding it and such..

[ronie]

Nobody posting anymore... love this thread.

[bud]

Donkey,

I've read about your stove/heater and viewed the pictures you posted, but, having the mechanical aptitude of chimpanzee, I'm having trouble visualizing the design. Being able to load with a large charge of wood and heat a large mass so it lasts for a while is exactly what I'm looking for, sort of like a mass masonry heater with the advantages of a Rocket. I've read Ianto's book on the mass heater, but I can't visualize how your design differs from the "orthodox" type of rocket. How is riser oriented relative to the burn tunnel and other components of a rocket? Since you fire from the back, does this mean that your cleanout port is lined up with the front oven door in a straight line? I'm not interested in a cook stove, but a large capacity firebox in the heater portion will give me the same advantages as a masonry heater--but with more flexibility. Do you have any sketches of the inside of your unit,
of could you elaborate on the internal components?

[Donkey]

OK!!
Due to popular demand, I've FINALLY got a rough sketch of the inside works of the heater side of this stove..


Red is the main box front side and rear clean-out (which is now the feed) Yellow/Orange is the channel/pipe bench through-way, Blue is the ORIGINAL intended air intake path through the fire and Purple is the CURRENT path through the back of the stove, horizontal feed stylie.

[woodlander]

Thanks for all interesting posts. I'm trying to wrap my head round the workings of a 150 yr old Estonian stove (remains of) which I want to get up and running before I freeze to death here. You've been a great help. Looks like my summer work is planned already.