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Woodstove development using rocketstove technology
 
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 Batch box wood loading and few thoughts

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Gary B.




Posts : 48
Join date : 2014-03-18

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PostSubject: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyWed Feb 11, 2015 6:44 am

Gary B here from MN. I have been burning my batch box rocket stove daily for 11 weeks now. I have four positive air controls. Well I have been trying several different configurations as far as wood loading amounts, when to load, how much to load, what kind of wood, how much air to let in, and where to let it in. I have windows both on top of batch box, and top of riser(looking right strait down it).
If you have been following my stove story you know this thing puts out a lot of heat for the amount of wood loaded in it. (Now someone stated that my shop is 2000 squ.ft and not insulated) Well it is that big but my shop is a stick built,insulated 2x6 walls 10 ft. high,finished inside, double pain windows and insulated over head doors the ceiling has blown insulation R40. So this is close to new house building standards. I tell you this so you have a bigger picture of of what I am about to share with you.

Anyway I am having trouble with two much heat out put. I know this sounds crazy but let me explain. For those not familiar, my fire wood was all cut to 20 inches long (white oak 60 cords) so my batch box was built to handle this size wood. Now here is what a normal day goes like for me as far as loading and burning my stove.

I can get up to 12 hour burns but I do not load it up that way any more. Let me tell you how I do it now on a normal day and then I will explain why.

Ok I get out to my shop at 7 am. My fire has been out since about 7 PM. So now my shop temp has fallen to 60 degrees F. My stove and chimney is room temperature. First thing I do is rake my ash over a small cast iron grate I have in the middle of my batch box so all ashes fall into my ash pan (11 weeks burning I have gotten about a half of a 5 gallon pail of ash which is almost baby powder fine and almost weight less). Then I load in 3 splits of wood open up all air controls accept riser one. I place a rutland fire starter square in middle of stove on top of my cast iron grate light it close front wood loading door so it is open about a 1/2 inch. The fire takes right off and is rocketing in just a few minutes (no kinling needed). Then after 5 minutes with door cracked I close it. Oh I forgot to mention my stove has a riser heat exchanger bypass sliding gate. I also open this for starting (this allows smoke to got up my riser then directly up my chimney). This really helps warm chimney fast and makes fire starting a very simple none smoke back event. (I recommend a bypass for any rocket stove) yes they are a little extra work to make but after you have it complete the time you save and no smoke back it is worth it.
Ok now fire is roaring and I close the door I let the fire continue to build until I have a batch box inside prop temp
of at least 1200 degrees F and a riser probe temp of at least 1000 degrees F. This takes 20-25 minutes. Now stove is good and hot (you must get stove hot first I can not emphasize this enough). I start closing my air supplies to maintain these probe temps. Now here is the wild part, my fire changes color from all orange and dancing flame to a purple slow wavering flame with just orange tips. Now this is when temps start climbing another 200-400 degrees F. My stove is an air pump and by slowing the air supply it gives more time for heat to get into your room. It also allows higher internal batch box temps that burn all gases. In other words your wood stove is burning at its best. When you are able to see this in person for the first time it is an eye opener. Your wood lasts twice as long and you are getting way way more heat out of your stove for twice the amount of time. I have showed this stove burning to over 500 people and all are amazed.
Now lets talk about reloading. At first I was letting fire burn way down then reloading like I did in my old stove. Well I have found it is much better to add a small amount of wood say one or two pieces when I still have a 1 to 2 inch hot coal base. (I rake them flat to the size of the wood I am going to add). This does a bunch of good things, for one you can stay smokeless, this hot bed of coals cooks the gases out of the fresh loaded wood and the fire burns above and away from wood towards my burn tunnel right out of the gate. So now by not waiting for fire to burn low and then get back to temps I need for what I call the purple burn my stove burns hotter and longer by not waiting. For my stove first loading last 6 hours (three pieces) second load 1-2 pieces lasts me another 6 hours. That is a normal day for me. So now my fire goes out at say 7PM and I come out next morning at 7 AM and do it again. If I burn it this way I get no dripping of the black ugly crap(what I call chimney drippings). Now here is my problem I have my windows open in the afternoons or it is 80 degrees in here. So what I have learned is my stove is over sized for my needs. So my plan is to make a stove exactly like this but a smaller version so I can keep my windows closed. If anyone has a need for a high out put stove like mine it will be available. I am looking for only my cost of materials as I have had so much fun building and showing this stove. This stove would be excellent for an older farm house or larger shop or a smaller shop that is aloud to get cold between fires.
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gadily
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Posts : 1477
Join date : 2013-12-08

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyWed Feb 11, 2015 6:58 am

thankyou for your information

i dont know if you have a samsung phone or another type of phone thats pretty new as with different settings in it to adjust the quality you can get somewhere near 45 mins to record with it as i have with my phone

if using this phone you could video what you do it would be an aid to yourself in the future and also anyone else that does one

also you could video your own build of it as a reference to what was built and what changes that you might make to it

i may move this post to either lounge or either ideas and research which would be the correct place for the post
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Gary B.




Posts : 48
Join date : 2014-03-18

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyWed Feb 11, 2015 8:01 am

I did just send trying2hard a video of my stove burning right after I got your post. I am an old guy and I have tried posting videos here and no go. Anyway it seems I never get things posted where or how you want them. For this I apologize. From here on out I think I will just watch from the side. This computer and phone tech stuff is over my head.
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gadily
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Posts : 1477
Join date : 2013-12-08

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyWed Feb 11, 2015 8:32 am

gary more than appreciated you may say that but i can say is youve shown many of us young guys up with what you have achieved in your build

phone settings are a pain to do unless you know how to do them and only the new range of phones give good quality over a small file

with my samsung galaxy phone i just click on camera then slide it over to the video side of it then click on the cog wheel look for resolution click on that and it gives you choices
mines set at 320x240 which will do 45 mins at under 200mb per file
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Lizard




Posts : 54
Join date : 2015-01-26
Location : East Coast

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyWed Feb 11, 2015 9:02 pm

GaryB....send me the video and I'll post it for you. Edited email out of posting.


Last edited by Lizard on Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:06 am; edited 1 time in total
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Lizard




Posts : 54
Join date : 2015-01-26
Location : East Coast

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyThu Feb 12, 2015 5:55 am

GaryB....I got the video via email but I can't upload it from work, I'll do it when I get home tonight.
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Lizard




Posts : 54
Join date : 2015-01-26
Location : East Coast

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyThu Feb 12, 2015 9:05 am

Here's GaryB's video that I'm uploading for him.

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gadily
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Posts : 1477
Join date : 2013-12-08

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyThu Feb 12, 2015 11:03 am

thanks lizard for doing the upload

also thanks for aiding other people on the site to aid them
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Hitchhiker




Posts : 246
Join date : 2013-12-26
Location : nomad

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptySun Feb 22, 2015 12:51 am

interesting flame
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keepittoasty

keepittoasty


Posts : 113
Join date : 2014-11-13

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PostSubject: Re: Batch box wood loading and few thoughts   Batch - Batch box wood loading and few thoughts EmptyFri Mar 06, 2015 5:35 pm

sounds oversized indeed!

GaryB, Id love your stove, too bad we are quite a bit a ways from each other, and sadly it would take away from the experience of building my own.  But it sure would fix my greenhouse problems hahahaha.  Great work, that thing is a monster!!

One question, I know you usually load three splits and get too much heat.  Theoretically if you needed more heat and a longer burn, could you load more wood in there?  how long do you think your stove could burn for between reloading?

oops, I read your other post and see you have loaded her up and got 10 hrs. Do you think that's the max?


feel free to put a couple stamps on that thing and just USPS that baby to the Rockies :)
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