Re: Wonderful fans!

["Dean Still" <dstill@epud.net>]

Dear Paul, Tom, and all,

Peter Scott, Ken Goyer and I have been trying for a while to add a small fan
to a sidefeed Rocket. The experiment that shows best promise is made from a
8" high two inch thick home made firebrick cylinder inside a coffee can. The
firebrick combustion chamber is pushed against the inside of the coffee can
leaving a crescent moon space on the opposite side... A 4" in diameter round
hole is cut through both the can and combustion chamber, (near the base of
each) into which sticks, on top of a shelf, are fed. The space between the
top of the combustion chamber cylinder and coffee can is filled with
fiberglass insulation. A 3" in diameter computer fan is used to blow air
into the space between the firebrick cylinder and coffee can. The air enters
the combustion chamber through 1/8th inch holes at the level of the shelf
except where the holes would blow air out the horizontal feed magazine. A
higher ring of similarly positioned 5/16" holes, two inches above the level
of the shelf, adds additional turbulence.

The stove shows very little smoke, most of the time the air is clear above
the stove. A pot used to boil water (38% efficiency) had no soot on it after
the test. The yellow flames are very excited, as can be imagined. I'll post
a picture soon. Aiming the jets of air away from the horizontal fuel
magazine allows wood to be introduced in the normal manner while the fan is
cleaning up smoke and blowing air up the chimney.

Tom, as usual, is right, I think...Air is the solution to pollution. In this
case, the air is even cold but the jets of air make for a very active fire
that does not want to smoke even when too much fuel is pushed into the fire.
In our last experiment, Ken rigged up a regulator to the air supply. When we
pushed way too much fuel into the combustion chamber adding even more air
immediately cleaned up the smoke. Now if we could only do this without a
fan!

 Looks to me that a natural draft stove will not smoke if the operator does
not feed in too much wood but a fan allows the operator to be considerably
more cavalier. If the fan is reliable the chimney can be gotten rid of and
efficiency rises higher. Leaving a chimney above the fire lets the stove
function pretty well when the fan ceases to create its magic.

Best,

Dean



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