marc dostie

I too am looking for a more efficient means of combustion in my rumford fireplace. It does heat up nicely and radiate well (42" x42"x13" deep at the center), but I'm tired of pulling out buckets of ash.

Wytze Schouten wrote:
Well folks, I have been experimenting with different configurations inside the fireplace shown in my previous post.

Just as a reminded, the objective is to have a modest rocket mass heater and leave room for a regular touch-the-wood-and-see-the-flames open fireplace.

Attachments to chimney: don't work
To begin with, all attempts at taking the air from the rocket heater's chimney and trying to push it back down through some sort of brick channel... failed. Maybe it was because I piled up the firebricks without sealing the cracks, so the chimney might have been less hot than it would in a final version.

Do you mean you tried to create some type of bell/baffle around the RH chimney?

Wytze Schouten wrote:
Plain J-tube setup: works okay
Second batch of attempts, I decided to go with a model where the rocket heater's chimney would simply end after about a meter (3 feet) and let the air go up into the fireplace chimney. That seemed to work a lot better. A simple J-tube in this setup worked fine.

The nice part of this setup, for my purposes, is that you can use the J-tube as the floor for a regular open fireplace. If other experiments (see below) don't work, I could put in three adjacent J-tubes, each with its feed towards the room and its chimney against the fireplace back wall, and have an open fireplace (fireback and all) sit on top of the three horizontal parts.

+ The heat radiation up from the J-tubes would do a lot for the efficiency of the open fire, as a bonus.
- Three J-tubes and an open fire require a lot of air. I would need to channel that from elsewhere. But I should really be doing that already anyway.

I was thinking of trying a j-tube, before checking out the winding fire tunnel below.

Wytze Schouten wrote:
Winding fire tunnel: might work
Finally I found a great example on YouTube of a Finnish rocket mass "floor" heater. Basically, this extends the horizontal part of the J-tube into a small maze before the air goes up the chimney. So long as the chimney is free-standing (i.e. you don't push the exhaust back down into a barrel or anything else), this ought to work.

When I tried this, it sorta worked and sorta didn't. Using the really tiny size burn tunnel in the video was a no-no. That may work in the open air when it's windy, like in the video, but not inside a fireplace in a home. I had to increase the tunnel size to a diameter of 3/4 by 1/2 of a flat brick.
Also, I tried to make the chimney as wide and non-deep as possible (i.e. not square, not round, but rectangular in diameter) to have a maximum surface area to absorb the exhaust heat. Again, reducing any dimension of to below 1/2 flat brick (say, 4 inches) will not give enough draft.

I got stuck at this point for lack of good dry fuel. Also, an alternative for this whole project appeared when a lot of Googling finally led me to the Lorflam and Polyflam systems. Both are French systems which allows you to have a hidden woodstove in a stone mass below a regular open fireplace. That basically solves my dilemma of wanting more firepower without losing the open fireplace's charm.

I may do a little more experimenting with the mass heater concept before the Lorflam or Polyflam is installed (if we can get those French folks to come all the way here to install one). If anyone is interested, just give me a buzz on this forum.

Have you done any more testing / research with the winding tunnel design? This one makes intuitive sense to me, since the heat is radiated from the floor, and you can direct the chambers next to the firebrick of the fireplace, allowing them to soak up more heat. Were you able to generate enough heat in the flue to draw out the exhaust?

I'm going to get out my CO2 meter and tinker with some of this stuff. Again, really just looking for a cleaner burn in my rumford than open combustion is giving me now.

Additionally, what do you guys think about a j-tube with a drum that doesn't fully enclose the combustion chamber - sort of like a bell / baffle to trap some more heat? I'm thinking in terms of tuning the size so as to extract more heat and allow for adequate updraft.

Regarding the trees - I have a newbie question or two. I've never planted fruit trees before.

1. I don't have a lot of space (1/4 acre), so I'm concerned that any fruit tree I start from seed is going to be a spitter (and wait a few years for it at that). Any guidance on growing from seed then grafting if I don't like the fruit vs. starting from rootstock / transplant (no tap root 'goodness') from the start? From what I've read so far, it seems that most apple trees for example are grafts to ensure palatable fruit. Rootstock is cheap, I'd just assume send it through hugel bootcamp and plant a new one if they don't make it.

2. When is the best time to plant an apple tree? I've heard fall & spring, should I wait till next spring? Does rootstock vs. seed change things?

3. If I start from rootstock, is it OK to plant it into the hugel bed, or should I give the tree space to root away from the wood?

I'd like to be able to plant below this tree, at this point I'm thinking of trying an M-9 (dwarf). Also thinking of putting these inside a fenced garden area (16'x24') on smaller hugel beds. Think I can get away with an M-7 semi-dwarf? Maybe try a bunch of M-27s?

Thanks again for the input!

Loved the videos, subscribed. We're starting our research on much of this stuff at the same time, looking forward to seeing more. Good luck!

Thanks, John. I think I'll try at least a couple of those. It's nice to know there may be some hardy enough options for my zone - winter always seems to be a depressing waiting game as far as the garden is concerned.

Peter - nice to meet a 'local'. If you find any permie groups or meetups, let me know. My wife's been talking about getting garlic in the ground here as well, but I've got big holes in the garden at the moment

I'm trying to fight analysis paralysis with respect to my garden, so I've gone out and straight away started digging a ditch in my sandy, compacted soil to bury a rotting maple and some other fungus bearing logs. What should i plant in the berm for the winter here (zone 7a, ~45" annual rainfall)?
I'm thinking clover and vetch, and maybe trying some fruit and nut tree seeds.

I'll be putting in a few beds that will (spring) be planted with nettles, cabbage, carrots, squash, comfrey, various lettuces, a goji bush, potatoes, beans, arugula, asparagus, strawberry, tomatoes, onions, and paw paw.

I'm going to plant them out in guilds following the companion planting guidelines I've seen. But for now I'm just going to put in the cover crops (vetch / clover). Any input good or bad is much appreciated. Thanks All!

Peter Ellis wrote:Position your hugel bed so it has a south facing slope with good sun exposure and you should be able to get it significantly warmer than a flat bed in the same location. Add a pond (or other reflective body) south of the bed and the reflected sunlight will add to the effect.

OK, I don't have the land for a pond, it's really just going to be a conventional 20'x30' garden converted to a hugel bed(s). I've got fallen maple starting to rot on my property, so it seems like a no-brainer. The short edge of the garden is southern facing, so I'm thinking I'll make a few 20'-ish wide mounds with south facing slopes. The garden is fenced to keep the rabbits and gophers out - the 'dept. of making you sad' in my town won't allow the type animals that might keep them in check, and my son is allergic to dogs.

Would rocks on the southern edge of these help retain heat? There is a huge oak on my neighbors property to the east that shades out the morning sun during cold weather months, so maybe some tiles on the eastern part of the fence would retain some heat.

If you've got any ideas around gopher/rabbit management that might allow me to grow outside the fence, please let me know.

Thanks!

-Marc

Hi All, just joined permies, completely new to all these concepts (found Paul about a week ago) but fascinated by them.

I'm in zone 7a in coastal NJ, I'd love to be able to grow avocados here, but even the hardiest are out of my zone. Is it possible that the heat of biomass in a composting hugelkultur could shift my effective zone? Is there a way to quantify based on bed size/volume, what zone becomes accessible?
It seems that this is exactly what Sepp has done, but in a more "throw it in and see if it'll grow" type manner.

Thanks (and greetings!)

-Marc