I have a thirty foot long flue on my wood stove. Because of the convoluted smoke path I think at least that length is necessary. No problem getting the fire started each day even with no residual coals. But it is all updraft, natural convection. I have seen diagrams of peoples built in wood cook stoves with a smoke path that goes down, across the bottom of the oven chamber, back across the top and still seems to draft. Never understood that until I built the Rocket Mass heater. That is down draft, horizontal draft and then updraft and will work without a draft booster fan. That horizontal run is 15 foot long, makes a 180 and then back 15 foot to a 8 foot flue pipe. It won’t start without the duct fan on top of the flue pipe all though rocket heater purists would not use one. The run is probably a little long for a six inch diameter piped system. The barrel over the heat riser will show about 350 to 450 F when it gets running on it’s own. Add the 130 CFM fan and it will jump up to 650F in about a minute. By the time the hot gas goes through the thirty foot of duct that is buried in a bed of cob nearly all that heat has been bled out and flue temp will be around 90F. With the fan off, flue temp will be about 75F. Kind of amazing I think.
Talking about chimneys - my dad used to tell the story about this guy that was always really slow paying his bills when he had his new house built and then the mason knowing this, laid a piece of glass halfway up the chimney. Then on Christmas eve the guy was showing off his new house to guests and decided to light a fire in his new fireplace only to smoke up the house. He angrily called the mason who agreed to fix it in two minutes if the guy would produce payment for the fireplace - which he agreed to and the mason dropped a stone down the chimney. 
Hey ALL,
Want to strip out all of the drama back and forth, and topic drift on any long topic?
Or just be able to quick read?
It is made easy here on the DOW.
Go back up to the originators first post. Scroll wheel. R.H. slide bar up. Or R.H. slid bar just click on it’s top originating date.
At the bottom edge of the originators first post will be blue highlighted Read AS A Summery action button. One click and all superfluous will be stripped out. Just that topic’s meat&potatoes posts left.
Also handy to find there is all of the respondents listed on that topic string.
Then you can avatar there click them up. On that screen get an actionable summery of only their posts on that topic.
Neat huh, how this all works.
The way to keep sanity in an information overload world is to screen-filter your inputs to acceptable to you.
You are welcome
Steve unruh
Steve, I am glad you have good internet now at home instead of sitting at the library. Now you can find all this good stuff!
Now another technique to keep your blood pressure under control.
You absolutely hate a topic. A topic having nothing to do with wood, say.
You know, you absolutely know, to open and read it will cause your fingers to jump out, and mouth off, getting you in trouble . . .
But you like a particular responding person. Really want to see what they are saying . . .
On the live active all topics page. R.H. edge click on this latest respondance’s’ avatar thumbnail. Then on the short page that brings up. Click on the much larger avatar head picture. Then you open up a page with their recent ACTIVITES actionable word. One more click on that and you can select and read just their comment, NOT being drawn into that no-no for you topics stream.
Oh yes. Probably is a bit rude to the topics originator.
But hey . . . you are responsible for your own mental sanity . . .no others. Do what you must. Never let other easily push your mental buttons.
S.U.
cleaned wood boiler , brushed out boiler tubes . Started small fire , Made charcoal in bucket . Wind chill below zero . turned off propane . will put on more wood in half hour .
Found this today, really interesting designs. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTz8EmLnnFq7wpUmzrYRkIQ/videos
Hi Al,
Best i have seen for a long time…thx for sharing.
To take from that/this/those: simplicity , smart, functional designs, following good basic principles of combustion.
Most important to notice: requires operator skills and understanding… not for lazy attitudes…
This is inline with Jean Pain, and putting synergies to work. Always was interested in Jean’s work, built two compost heat pile versions.
Fluff:
Root:
Start a topic about Jean Pain and your experience with your piles. Did you have coils of tubing in them?
I second that. I know someone who has tried it without any real result. I’m sure her piles were too small. She is building a larger one right now. I’d love to mess with it but I don’t have manure and have never made hot compost. Mine Usually take about two years to break down really well.