Mark Miner

Hi Brandon,
There are a lot of variables, like your frost depth, what kind of pipe you are dealing with, and the flow rates and pressures involved for the field and the house. However, since you are planning to tap the line between the well and the house, expect a significant reduction in house pressure when the irrigation is running (my house was set up this way, and I don't love it - it's hard to do dishes or laundry if the timers are on, and they somehow eventually wander from when you thought you set them).

One way you might get around this is to tap with a smaller line to the irrigation, but fill a tank with it. Then you can let the high-volume flow out of the tank when you are full, and the house sees little effect. It just costs more, and depending on how cold you get during irrigation season, might not work well.

If you want to supply any more details, it might be possible to talk more specifically.
Good luck,
Mark

Hal Schibel wrote:Would it be a cheat to have the dog lick it clean and skip the animal bucket to go straight to the animal?

While I see where you are coming from, the BB instructions are what they are. To successfully submit for a BB, please treat the required photos in the BB as a checklist. I hope your dog can enjoy the scraps anyway, but keep it clean for the volunteer reviewers!

Interesting. A May article indicates that they captured their first CO2 earlier this year: https://www.brevikccs.com/en/node/522705

I will be curious how cost effective it can be, as the cement industry tends to always aim at the lowest price. Perhaps Norway will incentivize using the Brevik product.

Thanks for sharing, it will be good to see if it can be scaled and replicted affordably.

Best,
Mark

Thank you all for the warm welcome!
Permies has been a great resource for me, and I am happy to learn the ropes and help a bit.
Best,
Mark

Howdy, Permies,
I've not been idle, just busy with lots of different things. Thanks to Glenn & Thomas for your input, and to Peter for lots of rocket-y project inspiration in the forums recently, too.

Specific answers to specific questions: I am planning a double brick bell, 2in air gap between the layers (because 4in x 8in brick). I am planning a 6in system, as Thomas astutely suggested, and I get ~58ft^2 of ISA in the layup I have sketched.

I've rough-sketched the space I am working with, dry-stacked a mock core to get a sense for the size and brick count. The core concept is straight from Peter's website, batchrocket.eu, but I do have a few questions.
The chimney as shown is 10 courses high (47in from plinth to top due to base layer), but this will push my roof high, and increase the ISA for the footprint that I am targeting. I do think I may want to extend the body by 1/2 or 1 brick, because some of the log rounds I get are pretty long.

Should I narrow the inner bell to reduce ISA, or can I make the core chimney shorter?

I know the throat, where the draft is pulling into the chimney, is a very sensitive region for setting the fluid flow. Is dead-center best, or is a slightly-off-center throat effective? Dead-center demands a dual-vortex in the chimney, as the flow splits at the back wall. Off-center will set the direction of a single vortex, which will have more energy and less drag. I'm liable to import "conventional" combustion ideas into RMH-land, so I want to be careful. I'm leaning on Peter's spreadsheets for details of the cross-section.

Has an off-center throat been explored?

In order to keep the chimney relatively near the wall, can the outer bell be notched/skipped at the exhaust region? The brick structure would be weaker then, and lots of half-bricks would be needed, assuming it's best to not tie into the inner bell there, but it would buy a much tighter installation.  The wall has a chimney penetration that I plan to use, as it's a busy wall near the electrical panel, and I won't cut new holes in it, so I can't penetrate the wall low and do the rise on the far side.

Is notching the outer bell to embed the chimney a dumb idea?

I'm assuming based on some ash cleanout discussions that a pair of service doors through the bells, near the chimney intake, would be advisable. I'd think this ought to be two separate doors rather than an assembly, to avoid a thermal bridge between the bell walls. The operability of the doors can be poor (like, threaded fasteners), since it sounds like the frequency of use would be every-couple-years.

I'm game to embed thermocouples in the nested structures, and would love some suggestions of where key points might be. K-types should be fine, cable lengths may be restrictive (3, 6, or 9ft)

Thanks again to all the rocketeers here! I'm hoping to get lots of vicarious experience from y'all, to reduce the number of mistakes I have to make along the way, but I'm sure there will be plenty left for me to make!

Happy heating,
Mark

Hi Trace,
I have cut a short piece of PEX pipe to replace crumbled bail handles, though it requires unhooking the bail from the bucket on one end, and if the bucket is very old and crumbly, that can sometimes do it in.
Best,
Mark

Welcome to Permies, Annie! Enjoy all the great ideas!

Hi Patrick,
I observed preconstruction (plan/permit/engineering) costs to run between 2-5% of a project (in AZ), but with lots of variability! A lot will depend on how much engineering your jurisdiction requires, I had a Flood department add 5mos and $8k to a project before the dirt was scratched. If your jurisdiction has adopted the International Residential Code appendix S (for strawbale), and if your plan conforms to code, and if your site is "normal", life should not be much worse than a conventional house as far as preconstruction costs. However, there is no upper limit to how much time and money you can spend tweaking plans, so beware of that trap!
Best of luck!
Mark

For a while, I officed in the shipping container that was also the power station and water hub of our property. 1hp jet pumps will make a Zoom meeting awkward if you are 6ft away. However, Douglas is spot on, hearing it kick on at night after dinner washup and kids abed was usually a reminder to go check something. Also, the noise difference between 3/4hp and 1hp is large in the Franklin VersaJets, and that is why I suggest (and installed for clients) the 3/4hp for modest domestic use!