[Stoves] Heat / cook stove - proposed design

[Darren]

Hello Crispin,

On 25/10/12 02:10, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:
> Dear Darren
>
> Everything you describe seems spot on for that design. The inspiration to lay the fuel on the grate lengthwise was exactly what we taught users in UB. The blocking of the air at that time gets the fire going as a proper crossdraft burner, then gradually opens the under-air automatically.
My thought was that it would help the fire propagate into the bottom of 
the hopper as it just has to burn along the long split pine rather than 
jump from stick to stick.
>
> If you use dry wood to get the system hot, it will probably burn the damp ash well. Can you see any smoke after, say, 10 minutes?  Don't confuse steam condensing after exiting the top of the chimney. Steam is whote and disappears immediately.
Yes once the heat is up the ash is burning well.  I've not been keeping 
a really close eye on the smoke situation but every time I've checked 
when it is burning properly the chimney is smoke free.

I did have a bit of trouble lighting again tonight.  I had to drop a few 
extra blocks of pine and screwed up pieces of newspaper to get things 
fired up properly.  Probably my own fault though, after carefully 
building up the fuel load in the hopper I just threw some willow sticks, 
split pine and newspaper into the combustion chamber and lit the top.  
Next time I'll build it with a bit more care.

Best

Darren