[Stoves] Excess Air and >>>>

[Philip Lloyd]

Dear Stovers

We all seek to minimize fuel consumption for a given task, and that in
effect means maximizing the efficiency, probably under varying heat output
conditions.

I have seen little consideration of the fact that nitrogen in the air goes
along for a free ride, but reduces the efficiency because you have to heat
up the free rider along with everything else. 

It is for this reason that the Excess Air Ratio tells you so much - it tells
you if you have enough air to combust properly, and not too much to waste
heat on nitrogen (and other inerts in the atmosphere like argon and CO2).

You can gain quite a lot in efficiency if you control the excess air as the
fuel is consumed in a normal batch burn, and once you have learned how to
control it you can find ways to implement that control - which is the really
exciting part of stove design.

Now to >>>>.  On this thread, stovers tend to reply with everything that was
in the original, and in order to find something that interested you in the
index, you then have to scroll through pages of >, >>, >>>, >>, >, >>, >>>,
>>>> etc ad inf.

As a courtesy to other users, it is kind to delete everything non-essential
to your reply.  Outlook does not appear to have an option "Reply without
message" that some other mailers possess - for those others it is quite
simple to reply neatly, but Outlook users really need to save us from the
dread >>>>>>>

Regards to all

Prof Philip Lloyd
Energy Institute
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
PO Box 652, Cape Town 8000
Tel:021 460 4216
Fax:021 460 3828
Cell: 083 441 5247
lloydp at cput.ac.za