Jeremy Allen

I'm in Central OR and put Ponderosa pine cones in my Tin Man and woodstove retort.  Works great and, as has been mentioned, crushes down easiest of all things I char.  The one down side is that, when all the cones are open, the deadspace is large and the final product is much less than when I use woodchips, sticks, etc.

Oops, need to upload it...  I'm still new here.  :\

Hi everyone!  So wonderful to have found this thread- I was thinking of writing one myself.  We found a used Esse Ironheart and installed it here at the homestead.  We live in a "high" altitude desert (only 3600'/1100m, can't really boast with this crowd) with ponderosa pine and juniper as our primary fuels, some douglas fir sneaking in as well.  When we got the Ironheart, the "Esse tool" didn't come with it, and I never got around to peeking under the Hob.  When we'd try to use the oven, with the older model slide out (off)/slide in (on), we'd get pretty heavy smoke out of the top air intake right above the firebox.  It was a lot more finnicky than I was expecting from such a "finely tuned" cookstove.  Well, when I finally got under there, the volume of creosote was unreal.  I scraped it and sucked it, and then the oven worked like a dream.  My understanding from the internet research I've done is that wood type isn't as relevant as proper seasoning/dryness/heat of fire in terms of creosote generation.  Any thoughts on this?  I wish I could have access to hardwoods, but the black locusts are small and are years away from being ready to be culled for firewood.

Also, any practical tips to stovetop use versus oven use?  I keep a bin of split wood nearby to load up when we want a quick fire for stovetop use, but haven't figured out how to turn a medium sized fire into a rager for the oven just yet. It seems I need set out with a raging fire to get the oven hot, and can't dial in manipulating the fire size to get into oven mode when I please.

Not sure if this will work, but here's our friend:

Thanks for the reply Lif. I’m going for mass genetic selection with a large number of bareroot whips 12-18” tall. I’m just wondering if others here know of a company selling saplings for cheap that ship earlier than mid-November, or if people think the risk of freezing won’t really be a big deal with these hardier pioneer species.

Glad this post came up. I live in “medium” altitude desert (3500’- I ain’t no 7k!) and have plans for getting about 1000 black locusts and 500 mulberries on my homestead. The best place I could find was Cold Stream Farm, in Michigan, in terms of having both trees and the volume I’m looking for at a good price. My issue is: they ship after dormancy, which for them is mid november, but that’s rather late for me (zone 5b, but desert). Thoughts?

Alan, Chad, thanks for the replies.  I was trying to keep it generic so it'd be more helpful to others looking for starter guides on this.  But maybe it's more helpful to be more specific about my situation?

Firstly, Alan, can you talk more about your Ecological Solar Design course?  What are the skills taught to a non-electrician like myself?

Anyway, my situation is that I am moving into an off-grid yurt in the coming months.  It would cost >$80k to have power brought in, and then I'd get the pleasure of a monthly power bill and the company assuming ownership of all of the equipment I'd need to install to get the power to my yurt (and future house) site.  So off-grid just made a ton more sense.

I already have most of the equipment.  I got a killer deal on the Clean Energy Storage Powergrid PG11, here's the stat sheet.  It contains the AIMS 8kW Power Inverter Charger, the Outback FlexMAX 80, and the Nuvation NUV300 battery controller.  It's supposed to be "plug and play" but I don't have the skills to know the minutia required.  I also got a crazy good deal on Canadian 275w solar panels, so have 20 of those.  I don't have anything to connect the panels to the inverter/charge controller.  I see the schematic in the Powergrid instructions, but wanted to make sure I was doing everything properly (as you pointed out, small mistakes can be big problems).

I have a southern exposed area that's close to the yurt for the panels.  I ultimately want some type of pole mount, since I could more easily shed the snow and change the angle to catch the sun in winter better.

Hmm, what else?

I will reach out to the local contractor who does off-grid systems, but felt like I had most of the work done and just needed to "plug it all together."  Of course, I'm not so naive to think that's really all I need to do...  :)

Thanks for your, and anyone else's, advice.  Trying to save money, but like not exploding.

Jeremy

Checked it out, I'm PST and so that's dinner/bedtime for my brood but looks like the webinar will be recorded and available.  Thanks again, will definitely check it out!

As a man of squishy sciences (biology, mycology, medicine- all squishy things) I’m less informed with things electrical. I’m setting up an 11kW solar system with PV to power my off grid home. Any helpful design sites out there? I’m having a hard time figuring out the best way to “plug it all together” including cables connecting the panels. YouTube has failed me. Much appreciated!

This is awesome stuff. I work in medicine and frequently am re-looking up stuff, using pubmed.gov over and over, sometimes bookmarking. Thanks for the tip!

Hi friends! Old to permaculture, new to Permies. Been playing with cone pits (free technology, mediocre charcoal) but trying to emulate the “tin man” style for the optimal char and cheap design. Here’s the rub: I can’t find barrels that ARENT 55 gallons. Anyone here have ideas?

-places to check beyond CL or buying a brand new barrel?
-redesign to the Tin Man retort?
-new perspectives?

Thanks!