|
|
Post by davidw on Oct 17, 2024 21:01:08 GMT -8
Umm. Just a thought and I know I'm a major stove enthusiast but... Have you considered using chickens to heat the greenhouse? It's not as sexy as a Rocket Stove heated thing but in many ways, it's more robust. I've never heard of chickens wrecking the plants with smoke and when it's cold, they will be inside heating your greenhouse, while you're tending to the frozen water lines. Chickens have their drawbacks and you'd want to build the separation between them and the plants very much chicken-proof. They have many advantages too, like eggs and free winter heating that doesn't need attendance. Either way, you have a cool project going. These folks gave you stellar advice, as usual (Love ya, Peter!). I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. LOL! I'm just now getting back to this project and decided to review the thread. Chickens might be a great idea if I had enough of them (-20 C isn't a rare mid-winter temperature in Ottawa), but the maximum number that my wife will allow is 0. A "shorty" RMH heating the bench still looks like the most promising approach. It would be an upgrade from the more conventional style that I've tested the past two winters. |
|
|
|
Post by davidw on Oct 24, 2024 10:07:34 GMT -8
Assuming using a fan, the bell could be closed almost directly above the Shorty core because the exhaust opening of this core isn't at the top of the riser. Building this bell out of insulating refractory materials should preserve most of the heat for the bench. Now that I'm finally ready to build a new rocket stove for the greenhouse, I've been looking at your Sketchup diagram of the Shorty version. The kind of firebrick you show doesn't seem to be readily available in Canada, only the half-thicknes kind -- in both dense and insulating forms. I presume that the dense kind is most appropriate for the firebox sides, but I'm curious about what you suggest for the top slab. Would a high-alumina pottery shelf (https://psh.ca/collections/high-alumina-kiln-shelves/products/14-x14-kiln-shelf-pizza-stone or psh.ca/collections/high-alumina-kiln-shelves/products/16-x-16-kiln-shelf-pizza-stone) be a good choice, or would it be better to cast the top myself using high-alumina refractory and make it thicker? Because my firebrick is too thin to be structural, I plan to surround it with aircrete -- the whole thing in a box form, similar to what I did with the earlier trial stove version. |
|
|
|
Post by peterberg on Oct 24, 2024 11:56:24 GMT -8
Kiln shelves are a good choice. Especially the 5/8" or 3/4" variant would be sturdy enough, much more so than a home-cast one. Temperature-wise, the shelves I used in the DSR3 and Shorty development models could handle all what I was able to throw at these. |
|
