Cory Arsenault

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since Mar 03, 2011
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Recent posts by Cory Arsenault

Mike,

I was thinking about your issue of protecting the floor and I was wondering it it would be possible to coil your corrugated piping into a spiral vertically? This would lessen the floor space taken up and prevent damage to the floor.

Not sure how you could get it to stand up and hold it's shape. Perhaps make chicken wire tubes? An inner which you wrap the piping around, and then an outer to hold it together?

The inside of the spiral would probably get pretty hot and draw air up through it. Not sure how you could use that to your advantage.

Just a thought, I've never seen that done before and don't know what kind of results you'd get.
11 years ago
Mike,

Do you plan on having something to lift the exhaust off the floor to orevent heat damage?
11 years ago
Mike,

IMO, if youre planning on just using the house to store heat then a rocket stove with a verticle exhaust might be easier. Are you well insulated?

Building codes tend to disallow horizontal exhausts because of the issue of smokeback I mentioned before. As Satamax said, Id probably put a bell/barrel over it however there are models out there that dont have one.

As you probably know, J-tube stoves have the advantage of using gravity to feed the wood into the chamber which is what I would pick. L-tube models require you to push the wood in once in a while as it burns back.
11 years ago
Santamax,


I have played around with a simple rocket stove but have not yet built a RMH though i have studied them during my university studies which involved reading A LOT of materials on them including discussions with Ernie amd Erica. How many have you built? Id be curious to study your build and how youve been able to get a horizontal rocket stove to work since according to my research a horizontal flue withiut a thermal mass would be unable to get the proper air draw through the chamber which would result in smokeback. I notice you advised Mike on how to add a mass, why did you not advise him to build without one?

Am i incorrct that a rocket mass heater without the mass, is simply a rocket stove? This is pretty much what Ianto Evans says in his book.

FYI if we want to debate semantics it isnt necessarily "heavier" gasses which force up the air but "denser" gasses. I was trying to keep it simple.
11 years ago
Without the mass its just called a rocket stove. Plans are available online and the horizontal exhaust would not work because the air will be too hot. The fumes will want to rise up so a horizontal exhaust would backflow into the house.

The reason why RMH sometimes have horizontal exhausts is because the mass absorbs most of the heat from the exhaust fumes which prevents them from rising.
11 years ago
Dar,

Keep in mind that are be two types of keyhole gardens. The kind you're describing seem to be the African-style ones that have a compost area in the middle where you can place food scraps, plant cuttings and water. They also tend to be quite high; 3-4 foot raised beds. Then there are the regular keyhole garden which is really just a rectangular garden bent into a circle shape with a path into the center (where the compost area would be in an Africa-style one).

11 years ago
If I lived I the city I'd definitely do the car sharing thing. My cousin uses Virtuacar in Ottawa and he loves it. You don't have to pay for their gas either.
11 years ago
I just got a 2009 Hyundai Accent for 130 a month (I'm in Ottawa) and I'm pretty happy with it. Great on gas.

I used to have an Elantra and got over 400k klicks on it. I loved it. Only repairs I had to do was regular maintenance and change the alternator. The new ones supposedly get 60 mpg.
11 years ago
Up here in Canada there's a popular Reno guy on tv called Mike Holmes who recommends using insulated foam boards glued to your basement walls. You can find some that are notched to join together so there's no cracks. On the floor he also recommended using those boards and where ever there were cracks where they meet he used spray insulative foam from cans. Plywood was then placed over the floor and the walls could then be framed.
11 years ago
You could do an outdoor kitchen?
11 years ago