Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] the hydrogen argument/wood

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] the hydrogen argument/wood
  • Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:56:46 -0700 (PDT)

Aloha,

> Masonry stoves are pretty good, using about half the wood of a metal
> stove.

Plus they can burn coppice and 'scrap' wood - best designs burn it hot for
low emissions, and quick, but hold most of the heat generated and release
it slowly, as with the Aprovecho designs Toby mentions.

High-temp combustion (like the 'rocket' stove and others on the Aprovecho
site) and masonry/mass heater principles can be combined very low-tech and
cheaply.

Take a high-temp combustion chamber design and capture the heat from the
exhaust in cob mass before it exits the building. The exhaust can zig and
zag some, as it does in masonry heaters, so that as much as possible of
the heat is absorbed by the cob.

These can be built right into cob or part-cob structures, and
'retrofitted' into any kind of building. I've seen - and felt the mellow
warm glow from - one in a very mainstream house structure that used to
have a typical inefficient fireplace.

In the absence of metal stovepipe manufacturing (pretty high-tech,
actually) ceramic pipes can be made (locally if there's clay) and used, or
exhaust channels can be molded right into the heater mass using methods
similar to those for making the firing chamber of a cob oven.

Likewise, firebrick for the high-temp firebox is pretty low-tech and has
been around long before the industrial age - and from Aprovecho's reports
holds up much longer than typical salvaged/reused metals.

> A well managed woodlot will yield 1-2 cords of wood per acre per year
> sustainably,

I've heard more like 1/2 cord/acre in New England - are you talking
Western N. America, or...?



John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page