Post by erikweaver on Feb 11, 2015 14:17:07 GMT -8
Not that I know of, Erik, I don't know of a summary either. My way of building up a theory is emperical: doing an experiment to prove or disprove whether a theory is valid or not. When it isn't, devise another setup to check the next brain wave. Insight is aquired slowly this way but it is proven at the same time.
The bell thing is reasonably described at Kusznetsov's site The whole theory of free gas movement is unproven, his combustion chambers are crap in my opinion. But the bell idea is quite good documented, it'll take a lot of time to read it all.
Thanks, Peter. I was just hoping maybe someone had written something like the Evan's book, but for bells. Oh well.
I do like your emperical approach. It's the best way to learn. If I had the time and materials I would be inclined to do that too. However, I am hoping to get my build as right as possible the first time. I do enjoy experimenting and learning by trial, but sadly my time is really taken up by work, and play time (like experimenting with stove builds! yay!) has to take a second seat to making money. It is the sad economics of living in America.
Anyway, I've been reading through the Russian stove builder's web site. I've been only been lightly reading the parts unrelated to bell's. I'm not interested in baking of making hot plate areas, for example. From what I understand so far of the "free" or "natural" theory, it seems to boil down to heat rises and cool air falls. I must be missing some of the finer points. The point about the dry joint I've read about before, and that seems important for ensuring toxic gases leave the system too.
I also read through one of the other web sites listed (I've forgotten the URL) where they experimented with inserting two small bells before the chimney. Even that simple addition seemed to add to the effectiveness of the system. And really, all that was made of was two clay bells standing over a channel that lead to the chimney. It seems that was enough to capture heated air rising into the bells, and holding it there until it cooled sufficiently to continue it's journey to the chimney.
That does make me wonder about making the cob bench, more like a long pair of bells, shaped like a sideways U. Really just like one would build the cob bench out of large brick, like adobe for example, instead of using duct work or pipe for the air way, except somewhat taller in the "bell" configuration. But if it is a bench, it is going to obviously be much shorter than most bell designs I have seen so far.
Guess I need to read through the various threads on using half barrels too. Cutting grease barrels or something like that in half would make for a very easy roof for these bell-channels. Fortunately I have several months to read about what others have tried.
Thanks for sharing all your hard won empirical knowledge! I appreciate it.