Eugene Howard

This is a commercial boiler setup that comes as close to continuous burn potential as any. Use wood chunks vs. sticks of firewood?

Have given the situation OP describes a bit of thought, and it occurs to me what is needed is to graft the rocket concept onto a central heat distribution system. I am aware of one direct application...........gasification boilers.........and another older system that uses hot air convection......same as with most forced air heat systems.

Commercial made gasification boilers.......both updraft and downdraft can be purchased, but are fairly expensive. The most common in US are the outdoor boilers. Nearly all of those are batch burn of firewood. But move on to the euro market and there are larger boilers that use biomass.......aka.....wood chips with automated feed systems. Very expensive.

As a kid, the home we lived in had a wood or coal fired forced air furnace. My grandparents had a big two story home that had a similar furnace in it. I don't know the mechanism, but a fire in the firebox heated an enclosed area above, and then the hot air was pumped thru ductwork like any other forced air furnace. I can't remember how the heat exchanger was setup. My dad built a 28 x 40 shop and it is also heated by a stationary wood burning floor furnace, with blower. No other  ductwork or heat distribution. Not even radiant heat as the firebox has an insulated jacket around it.

I found this photo on another site of a one of build a guy uses to heat his uninsulated metal shop. Both radiant and convection heating......

He runs a hot fire in the heater, and heat exchanger are the pipes that run thru the firebox. But imagine a batch box running off to the side and exhaust routed thru this like a bell........and heat output ducted so it could be pumped around?

Lastly, am curious if anyone has ever used wood chunks.........about tennis ball sized chunks in either a J-tube or downdraft gasifier? One that could be employed as a continuous burn?

Question on ISA.

Is the internal surface area related to the size of the fuel load in the batch box? As in one load of fuel will heat this much area?

Or.......if you ran a 6 inch J tube.......and just kept it going.........if you had an ISA say 150% the maximum for the batch box......would it eventually get it up to temp?

OK, am familiar with them. May even be registered there. Will check it out.

Merry Christmas to all!!!

The other forum? Permies? Or........?  

Big fan of your videos. The burns are impressive. Always thought something like the unit shown in the video could be made into a central core that could be made commercially, then shipped to a build site to be installed in a masonry heater to replace countless ineffecient conventional fireplaces.

If starved for entertainment and looking for a new direction, am wondering if something similar could not be developed as a down draft unit, which could then be fed continuous like a J-tube, vs. a batch box? Keep feeding it until you get your thermal mass where you want it, then let it burn out?

Either way, for widespread appeal, the glass door to watch the fire burn will be important. Being able to also watch the vortex burns is the cherry on top.

If it has been mentioned, I apologize, but where are these being made and how much in US Dollars to buy one?

Can we move this one to RMH forum also?

to moderators........can you move this thread to the RMH thread? Wood burning stoves is not the right place for it. Thanks1!!!

OK, did a bit closer look at one of Uncle Mud's videos, and it does appear the ceramic heat shield does extend into the burn chamber. So got that covered.

This is a hasty, poorly drawn sketch of what I think this might look like. I would have combustibles on both sides of the brick enclosure, so not knowing how hot a bell would get, figured a guy could put in a space between bell and outside wall as a thermal break. Once into the build, if there was room, you could put top and bottom vents in the thermal break area such that it would be allowed to draw, further cooling outer wall and drawing heat into the room via convection......in addition to radiation. The heater enclosure would be surrounded by a bell.......two legs with a crossover on top. Fire exhaust dumped into one leg......rises....goes up and over heater, then cooler air sinks to bottom of second leg, enters chimney pipe, then goes up and out the roof. There is existing stovepipe for the fireplace, and it all runs inside and interior chase. So the whole thing should draw pretty well once it gets going.