evan's ant village log

What was the temperature inside before you started running the heater?

Allerton Abbey is looking very nice. Thanks for your update on Ant Village, Evan.

It was somewhere around 45 before we started burning, but the temperature loggers were up so we'll know for sure for the experiment.

This morning it was above 50! So pleasant!

Day 250

The Allerton Abbey thermal inertia experiment is in the preparation stage, burning all day today has yet to raise the indoor temperature above 70 F. While the idea is to get it up to 85 F once a day for 10 days, getting it up to 85 in the first place seems like it will be a challenge all to itself. We may need to pull a few all-nighters.

More firewood! Cut it, split it, stack it, burn it. Paul has offered to donate a third of a cord of dry wood for the experiment, which will be a huge help as the wood we're pulling in out of the rain and snow will then have a chance to dry.

Hanging out in the Abbey and keeping the fire going will give us a chance to do some much-needed cleaning and organizing of the space. So far so good.

Yup, the mass is mighty cold right now. It will suck up a lot of heat.

What's the stone arch to the left of the fire box in that picture? Is it a place to preheat wood, or does it have some other function?

Just looking at the firebox. It's not a J tube or a batch box so I assume it's an L tube, is that right?

How do you find it to operate?, does it take a lot of attention?, do you get sick of bending down?, other comments

Alan, here is the thread with all of the info about that rocket stove.

https://permies.com/t/41202/rocket-stoves/Emergency-quick-small-batchbox-sq

Thanks Miles. So it is a batch box, the lack of a door in the photo confused me.

Evan have you been operating this without a door as it appears? If so how does it g?

Back in 1989 I built a masonry heater, at a place 5000 ft high in the French Alps. The same surroundings as where Satamax lives, just some valleys away. The house was built into the slope of the mountain for about half and the rest consisted of stone walls about two foot thick. My client went there in december and it took him the best part of a month to overcome the inertia of the house and the huge rock behind it.
In the years after that, he spent one quarter of his woodpile to get the house up to temperature and three quarters to keep it that way during the long winter months...

I can imagine it could be the same sort of process to warm the Allerton Abbey.