Stovepipe thru cob walls and a diy chimmney cap

I struggled last winter with a poorly drafting wood stove. One of the causes for this poor performance was the heat sucked away from the pipe by colder cob walls that the stovepipe passed through. My solution was to chop around the pipe and cram fireproof insulation in the gap. I had recycled refractory insulation that I shredded up and then packed it in the gap with a stick. I then used hardware cloth mesh as a lath and plastered up the opening. The trapped air and insulation have made the pipe draft much better. If I was building my house again I would have heavily insulated the opening with recycled beer bottles.

Another cause of poor drafting was down draft caused by my microclimate. Strong winds would literally push the draft backwards. I used 3 galvanized tee hvac fittings to make a chimmney cap that reduces downdraft drastically. Chimmney caps like this were common in the past, especially in situations where the stack had to be short. Single wall painted stovepipe is certainly not the best choice for this job but it's what I have on hand now. When it rusts away I will invest in stainless steel pipe.