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  • From: Jeremy Baker <childscrick AT yahoo.com>
  • To: fingerlakespermaculture AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: Seeking help, materials or advice on rennovating an out of commission woods stove
  • Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:56:40 -0700 (PDT)

I have lots of experience heating with wood and have studied heating systems
extensively. I aim for low wood consumption, clean combustion, safety, and
comfort. Sounds like a great project and potential for renewable heating from
our tree friends. There are some basics of wood heating to consider before
designing a system.
Starting with safety: any cracks or holes in a stove or pipe may potentially
emit deadly carbon monoxide which is odorless. A rusty stove should be
scraped to check for holes. The exhaust should not be rusty and be
appropriate diameter for the stove, well supported, long enough to draw well,
and insulated on the section outside which should rise above the peak of the
roof. If you live in a building code enforced county the there are guidelines
that help install a safe exhaust and distances from walls. Insurance
companies may check for code compliance. Fire-rated insulated fixtures are
used to penetrate the ceiling and roof. I found a competent builder to help
me install ours. Stove pipes can get red hot if a stove air damper is left
open or a creosote fire ignites in the exhaust. Keep the pipe the recommended
distance from anything flammable. Burn dry seasoned wood to reduce creosote
Don't use ducting pipe, stovepipe is thicker gauge steel than ducting and
holds up much better. The straighter the exhaust the more draw, ease of fire
starting, and less smoke escaping when the door is opened. However, I have
used several stoves with exhaust exiting through the wall that worked OK but
ash can build up in a exhaust pipe that is not vertical.
People have used clay/sand mixture as refractory mortar to make stove
exhausts components and fabricate custom systems such as cob rocket mass
heaters. Perlite is also a non flammable insulator but is also a conductor so
will heat anything it is in contact with. Air is one of the best non
conductive insulators. A pipe within a pipe and perhaps even a third pipe has
been often used. Many systems use insulated stovepipe from near the stove all
the way through the roof. The goal is to maintain hot exhaust in order to
increase draw and prevent condensation of flammable creosote in the pipe.
However, heat may be wasted with this setup. Another method is to burn a hot
fire and install several Magic Heat heat recovery units in the exhaust which
exits through insulated stovepipe. With this system a more complete
combustion occurs with a hot fire but the heat is recovered before exiting.
The fire burns out faster and needs to be monitored more but is more
efficient in my opinion than the damped down slow combustion strategy of
popular myth.



Sent from my iPad

On Sep 13, 2011, at 1:29 PM, Stephanie Colombo <st.colombo AT gmail.com> wrote:

I am currently a tenent at a ramshackle but lovely cabin in the woods on the
edge of someone's property. The cabin was built by someone else in a loft
model with two floors and a skylight/attic. It has a few started if left
unfinished ammenitites. The most daunting task will be to fix the woodstove
which is not yet functioning. The base of the stove is there, the box rusty
and there is no flue/stove pipe. There is hole cut through to the 2nd floor
and a place to cut through the aluminum roof for the chimney to exit. My
primary questions are:

- how rusty can a woods stove be to still be usable?
- can the stovepipe/flue be built of found piping metals or must the metals
be a galvanized steel or some particular grade of metal?
- how can one make a double-layered chimney flue?
- how far should all burnable materials be from the edge of the stovepipe?
- how hot can a stovepipe get and what are the exploding hazards?

I thought it would be a lofty (pun intended) but fun fix up to try and make
livable in the winter. I really don't think I'll live in the winter, but I
would like to get through October potentially. Is there a way to make this
workable, or create another heat source that makes this a place that can be
slept in?

Any chimney or wood stove people in the house?

--
Sincerely,

Stephanie Colombo
321-331-3719

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  • Re: Seeking help, materials or advice on rennovating an out of commission woods stove, Jeremy Baker, 09/15/2011

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