Hello from N.Z.

Kia ora gentle people,

After several attempts I have joined this forum and hope to pick contributors’' brains and maybe contribute a thought or two from my work and private experience.

I stumbled on R.S. via the Stumble Upon website for alternative energy.

I am an engineer trained by apprenticeship not University. I spent the last ten years of my employed working life managing the mechanical facilities of a small military training camp. My interest in combustion has involved coal, oil and biomass.

From time to time, since the 1970s, burning wood for domestic heating has taken up too much unprofitable time but provided much interest. The Whole Earth catalogue introduced me to the Scandinavian type two-chamber burners, but I have come to think that batch loaded burners of this type are not the best design.

A design by Ian Cave, who was a scientist with a N.Z. government research department, was shown to the public in about 1975, this was a proper two chamber burner with a vertical fire box & a closely connected highly insulated secondary burn chamber. Twelve years ago I was involved in building a burner to Ian Cave’s design at the University of Canterbury. This project was supervised by a friend Ian Gilmour, a senior lecturer at UC he had a long history of research in combustion devices. This burner now sits in my yard waiting for me to some more work on it and hook up to my hydronic heating system. This work has been delayed by earthquake damage repairs to our house.

In our kitchen we have an English Rayburn cooking stove which I converted to burn diesel which worked well until the price of diesel made it uneconomic. I plan to convert it to burning wood, pellets, or sawdust. My earlier attempt at burning sawdust worked but was so Heath Robinsonish that it could not be left untended. Diesel was easier at the time.

To take part in the forum I have to learn to upload to YouTube, but in the meantime am pleased and grateful to those good people who take the time to show and explain their efforts. I believe it is very important that we stop using fossil fuel as quickly as possible. I wish I had heard about rocket stoves and their designers much earlier.

Kind thoughts to all,
Old Engineer.

I was hoping that you would introduce yourself sir after reading your name and where you registered from.

I am looking forward to what you have to share, and as well will take from the forum and improve upon in hopes this will continue.

I have been convinced for years that more can be done with less in heating homes with biomass fuels.
I had a diagnostic engineer from Canada contact me one day after choosing to share my second rocket wood stove design that by all appearances was no where to be found any thing like it on the net and now there are hundreds of drawings and videos of others doing the same thing.

Not tooting any horn here as it really is unproductive, I wrestled early whether to  share my new design and after some thoughts on an a very old ancient proverb felt challenged to do just that.

I read one day there was a King who made an observation.
He observed a man who held onto what he had ever so tightly with clenched fists and it only lead to a greater want and a greater lack.

Then he observed a man who scattered abroad liberally and generously almost without care and he increased even more.

This runs contrary to common logic in industry.

So after reading this ancient proverb I shared my design from A-Z, within three days a diagnostic engineer contacted me from Canada who claimed they as well were a world renowned scientist.
Who participated with a group of scientists in Jan. of 2011 to conduct tests in Germany in an under ground lab to see if the earth had shifted on its axis.

They chose to remain anonymous and contacted to me to give me two suggestions to improve my design.
1. Figure out a way to integrate a vortex action.
2.Inject secondary air just at the entrance of the vortex.

The individual left it up to me as to the how and placement of each.

This individual claimed I should be able to cut my fuel consumption in half, and double my btu production.

I then did a mechanical drawing of my interpretation of what they described to me and ppotty1 from the UK, and caotropheus from Israel both saw my drawing and explanation and thoughts on it.

Both of them put it to the test each of them in a bit of a different manner and the results were quite good.

Then much later came Gary B who took ideas and concepts from different builders like myself, ppotty1 and others and put together a stove for his shop.

He wound up using a third of the normal consumption rate for the entire winter, his stove made such a stir in the community where he lives that he had over five hundred visitors to view his stove and his results because namely they just did not believe he was able to cut his fuel consumption in half and burn smoke free.

Three things are top on my priority list in research and development of the wood stove.

1. Efficiency
2 A smokeless burn
3. Particulate emissions

If many people of like mind like yourself and like the diagnostic engineer would engage those of us who do not hold the titles or the education but have the interest and desire and drive to improve cutting our fuel usage as well our air quality, if this kind of thing continues in a free exchange of ideas in a humble manner great things can take place.

We will see exponential advancements in combustion processes.

As an example which I can only show to any who think industry is not paying attention to what we are all doing, I can show you a biomass burner design of a biomass company that I had been following for several years that came out with a new design within months after posting my pellet burner design.

It is somewhat altered but has unmistakable similarities.

A bit long winded here I am sure, many will take away what they can use for industry and will not reciprocate in the same manner as they improve upon what they take away.

We have to understand that this will be the case, and hope some of the more advanced techs who do find us will share openly their advancements of what they are able to take and use for research and development.

If more like you would join in and mentor, and father those of us who have such a passion for this we can set the world on fire for the good of all mankind.

Welcome sir, I look forward to our interactions with you and hope some of your friends and colleagues well join in as well.

Sorry to hear about the damage you suffered in the quake, my heart went out to NZ when I heard the news.


be well/healthy
 



They were correct on their statement.

Welcome to the forum Old Engineer,

Looking forward to see your projects.

also welcome to the site old engineer

also looking forward to your projects