Adrienne Wimbush wrote:I had the pleasure of 8 days touring Sth Korea with my daughter whom is at Uni in Seoul, in February. By choice we stayed in 'Hanoks'; traditional Korean homes, and I delighted in the ondol heating in each. With a move from sub-tropical to cool temperate shortly, I'm converted as to the livability of these systems. It's not unheard of Down Under, (hydronic underfloor heating) but it's rare enough that I've only walked on it a couple of times before. My daughter, 10 flights up in a share apartment in Seoul, says that they can tell when all the apartments around them turn theirs on, as they get heated up too! Sometimes to the point of having to open the windows to cool off!
I got a few photos of my trip over, I was fascinated by the wooden pieces on the floor - all totally removable. (I didn't try!) I was a little tickled by the stylishly printed bubble wrap on the rice paper doors, too!
I'm flumoxed as to how to add pics though - I don't have a website that I put them on, barring my facebook account.
We did get to spend a (very wet) day at one of the Folk Villages on Jeju Island. That was amazing. There I got pics of the original ondol systems.
Adrienne
Greetings--
just some clarification for some of the photos you uploaded:
*0006 is 청마루...so isn't heated
*0014 isn't actually rice paper, but simply "frosted" glass on a wooden framed door. If the design wasn't manufactured onto the glass at the point of fabrication there's a ton of different patterns available to block vision in the form of adhesive (plastic) film rolls. The bubble wrap is simply a budget workaround in an attempt to bleed less heat.
*0030 is a wood fired modern ondol system, note the manifold system to the left, usually valves are integrated so you can "turn on/off" rooms if you don't want to heat certain parts of the building.
*0021 appears to be a non-kitchen burn hole (note the cones as fuel next to it, as a starter)
*0022 is the kitchen with the 가마솥 kettles, under and to the back of the kettles the heat/smoke goes into the underfloor chamber(s) heating the next room
*0033 the kitchen is situated lower than the rest of the ondol system to keep in line with the heat/exhaust path. there are also usually elevation features within the system to account for "drainage" of heavier gasses (the cold and humidity) from the underfloor chamber keeping in line with this pattern.
Additionally, if folks are looking for more resources on constructing these types of systems, there is a fellow who publishes many (many!) lectures on youtube detailing DOs and DON'Ts--however be forewarned that he goes over many of the DON'Ts and don't take them for systems that he is suggesting... (and take those auto-generated subtitles with a block of salt). He runs an Ondol "Research Center" up in Gangwon Province. There is a different guy who runs another Ondol "Research" Center just 15 min away from where I work, however I haven't been able to pin him down to ask questions....seems very insistent that I take his course. Here all the videos are there for the taking. Enjoy.
Myeong-hwan Kim's Ondol Lectures
