[TheForge] coal stove

[jerry Frost]

Good treatise on controlled fire, be it in boxes, engines or where ever.
Pete, experience shows.

While I used to have and even once made a really efficient coal stove I
don't have any info that'd be much help burning black rocks, especially not
banking coal.

For wood burners I'm all for modern multiple burn zone stoves. Our Jotul is
super efficient and clean. Since we changed out firewood strategy the only
time you can see anything from the stack is when we light it from cold. We
now buy next winter's wood a year ahead, there's nothing like letting split
wood dry a year of more. While the inside of the stove pipe isn't shiny it
only carries a light layer of white ash dust at it's dirtiest.

Installing an outdoors wood furnace is a good thing, IF you buy one. The
commercial ones are UL approved, GVT. efficiency compliant and your home
owner's insurance will cut you a significant break if you move your furnace
out of the house. Most of the ones I'm familiar with are wood gassification
and or coal boilers.

I've made quite a few wood burners but I'll stick with a barrel stove kit if
I need one anymore.

Jer

-----Original Message-----
From: TheForge [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Peter
Fels & Phoebe Palmer
Sent: Monday, November 3, 2014 7:28 PM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] coal stove

Kim; There are a bunch of variables in stove efficiency.
Like a forge or a carburetor, the air mixture is critical as is the velocity
and temperature of the incoming air.
The refractory qualities of the fire box matter a lot as does the efficiency
of the fuel/air interface.
Adjustability of the air intakes and their shape and placement matter , as
does the stack flow and velocity, and, of course, the ratios between them.
The object is a hot, clean fire.
Once all that is tuned in, the stove has to extract the heat for you without
ruining the draft.
And stuff like that.
My vague recollection is that some of those stoves were designed for wood,
others for coal and some tried to compromise awkwardly.
A strong grounding in fluid dynamics would be helpful in design.
Surprisingly subtle things have a considerable effect.
I welded up a bunch of one-off stoves and fireplaces over the years, and had
to change some of them a number of times before they worked passably.
Now you have been foolish enough to read ramblings about fireplaces and
stoves by an old guy who lives in temperate, central, coastal California. 
We don't know what cold is.