So for max bang for the buck,.....
Could ya put stainless racks in there, and a temp monitor, and use hardwood pellets, to smoke the Thanksgiving turkey, and the Christmas ham!
The most likely culprit is an ice dam building up at the eaves.
Because airflow is greater at the tips (not blocked by the bulk of the building!) Ice is a frequent problem, when it forms the water then backs up and can pull nails and generally wreck a roof.
This is why old timers did not make flat roofs.
If you install heat trace in a wave pattern on the roof it will ensure a path is created for water drainage. Heat trace is wonderful stuff, its a thermoplastic that conducts more electricity as it gets colder. It won't run for free...or even cheaply, (no its not prohibitive, it will run a few dollars per week of operation and as weather warms it stops conducting electricity) but it will save a poorly thought out roof.
I ran the flue of a 700 gallon Taylor water furnace into and out of a 55 gallon drum as a transition from a horizontal to a vertical chimney.
I ran it for three years without incident and then took off the clamp and barrel end to clean the flue, the fly ash build up was amazing!
There was probably at least 1/3 of the barrel filled with ash, on retrospect it probably was acting as an insulator and limiting the radiation from the barrel.
As far as draft, if the barrel is cold it will hinder draft but as long as the barrel is above ambient temperature it will assist. I would expect it to cool , and heat quickly as smoke is introduced.
Since most pellet stoves are forced draft I would think it would work fine, as a way of maximizing your exposure a baffle forcing the smoke through a twist or up and over a center divider may be useful.
+1 on the CO detector, it would be an awfully stupid way to perish when detectors are so cheap.
With enough zero's on a large cheque everything gets easy!
Yes a dirt floor would be an ideal starting ground, ...and much of the work could be done by yourself.....but we are far past my education.
A competent bonded engineer is needed to do soil tests, and tell you how broad and deep your foundation needs to be, concrete content, and reinforcement minimums, and then you, (or your agents) can build to those specs.
Anything less, and you're tempting fortune to kick your hiney!
I dunno if your comfortable burning ISO files, but if you are;
Try burning a copy of Linux Mint XFCE.
It will allow you to run the operating system from the CD to test it out. If all is copacetic you can install it.
If your system resources are too limited for that, a CD of Puppy Linux is remarkably able with equipment as old as the original Pentium.
If your familiar with formatting a USB stick to boot its an even better option
Be aware that Linux has a harsh learning curve, don't commit irreplaceable photo's or documents to it as an only repository until you've learned your way around, you probably will wind up reformatting and installing it at least a dozen times before you have a usable comprehension!
Linux is filled with jargon and finding your way through contraction, quirky (if not downright weird) naming conventions, and obscure references to completely obsolete programs that are no longer maintained or updated but are still needed for other applications to work, is not for the easily frustrated. I have been blessedly Windows free for ten years....but I keep a Win7 laptop available for those that are unteachable.
For an example read the front page of Distrowatch.com you'll find Linux is headed in a thousand directions all at the same time.
Well...
I dunno if your drawings are to scale but from a cursory look it seems that you have a common wall between the living and the music room that carries through the second floor bedrooms.
If a brick bell was built on the bottom floor with a batch box (preferably in the music room since it has outdoor access) carrying through to say at least 4' above the average floor level on the second floor you would have good exposure to four rooms.
At the least if building a 4' wide bell it would entail removing one stud from the lower wall and half of one stud from the upper wall, and the addition of a steel beam (supported by the bell itself!) to support the upper floor.
Alternatively it could be built against the wall, and the wall covering removed to expose the second room to the bell leaving he studs in place, but that seems like a far from handsome alternative.
The caveats are;
You need a solid foundation clear down into the earth for that much masonry, no stretch of the imagination will allow such tonnage to depend on framing.
$ 8,000 to $ 10,000 USD does not sound unreasonable if no unforeseen circumstances arise. Average heating costs run $1500 to $4000 yearly so the pay off is well within five years.
A sane man intending to occupy the home for generations would pay an engineer to ensure adequacy.
To my ever so limited mind...
A batch box feeding a bell....used as a wall between two rooms has always seemed like it had great potential,
Both to be aesthetically pleasing, and double your exposure of heated surface to two rooms at one burn!
If, (and mind you I'm stretching past my experience here) multiple floors had common wall lines a multistory bell could potentially expose 6 rooms over three floors to one batch box.
If overcooling the smoke was a concern then a narrow wall say four foot broad with a torturous path to ensure contact could still expose each room to heat.......
I lived in log houses for fifty years and while I wouldn't build another one deliberately, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one either, Everything organic can mold, not all molds are detrimental to health and bleach is astoundingly efficient at killing spores.
The biggest cause of rot is unintended buildup of moisture, (leaking toilet flange, dripping sink drains and supplies......and too tightly built structures)!
Of the three the last one is the biggest culprit in modern times, airflow through and past surfaces to carry away moisture is never a design parameter and we pay for it dearly.
Even areas specifically designed to have airflow (bathrooms, laundries) have airtight bubbles built into them, often there is an evacuation fan but no designed cross flow, if your fan changes pitch when you open or close the door you can be sure the fan is effectively useless, when the door is closed, simply burning electricity in a vacuum until the door is opened again. Floor coverings such as linoleum and vinyl plank entrap moisture and hold it to perishable (organic) materiel.
With modern home often putting ventilation fans on separate switches from lighting, fans are frequently not used during showers and wash ups. Vents into shelving and closets used to be de rigueur, but are not even a consideration any more, transoms and doors cut 2" above floor level were not a careless feature, but a deliberate design to ensure airflow in a time when a single source of heat carried the whole house,
With central heating the new paradigm has been control, control, control with awful consequences, usually not foreseen by the denizens thereof.
Efforts to conserve energy by closing vents and pushing towels under doors,have left pockets of dead air, and any minute source of moisture becomes a wellspring of decay,
Older windows with their sharp temperature differential are a font of condensation, boxes bags and piles of cloth, / clothing hold moisture to walls and give decay a starting point....by simply blocking airflow.
Unvented gas heaters are a horrific source of added moisture.
If I was building new, I would build with non organic materiel, and ensure airflow. Normal fiberglass will not support mold...but the paper backing will. Sheetrock (greenboard) can be bought with antimicrobial additive built in. Steel studding will carry it to its logical conclusion....but steel studs are weak in the case of fire.
VOC's are rarely a consideration...with adequate airflow, cross ventilation is your friend, and passive solar, a savior, solar preheated air reduces heat load, sunlight kills mold, and and a tidy house, minimally stocked, (as in not occupied by a hoarder!) will keep airflow at a maximum.
Well....
If you build broad eaves you can work in the shade!
But your cob may be slightly slower to dry.
But... as long as it dries, your work is protected from unpredictable weather....even if you have setbacks that don't allow the timeframe you expect.....
After several instances of a poorly trained grandchild locking doors cause it was "funny" I ensured nothing could be locked, and what had to be locked (poison cabinet, gun safe, cookie drawer!,) had deadbolts rather than handles. Dead bolts are wonderful in they give no purchase to someone trying to defeat the door, you have to break out implements of destruction to overcome them.
Its a no brainer to spend top dollar on locks, a cheap lock can be defeated by an ambitious eight year old in minutes!
Doors to bathrooms, and home entry doors swing inward, because its imagined that you'll be in a greater hurry to get in than out, a pocket door is a best compromise and (usually) the latches on pocket doors are easily overcome. Pocket doors make it difficult for electrical boxes and heavy loads to be hung on their exterior though.
When its over if you haven't made arrangement to be put through a wood chipper and spread on your garden.......
An average funeral costs roughly $8,500.00 and rising. $11,000 is not an unusual price.
If you buy (in advance of course) a coffin from Costco its $800.00 vs $3,000.00 at point of use.
If you have it in advance (and someone buries you within 24 hrs) refrigeration is not necessary, (in many states) along with, if the mortician doesn't make you look palatable (closed coffin!) and embalming is not required its an additional $2,000 conservation.
(For my part there ain't no way I wanna go into the ground without embalming! There are too many false diagnosis of death! Embalm and they won't survive it!)
If you rent a hall ($100.00 - $300.00) or a chapel (Free to $1,000.00) will be spent.
Almost all jurisdictions require a vault (800 lbs of concrete!) to keep the field level over the years, (ever go into a really old graveyard? All those swales are collapsed coffins!) and an excavator rental to dig the hole and lower the coffin, and swing the vault into place. $750.00 - $1500.00
If you elect to be cremated, a card board box is free! But the toasting is $300.00 and up.
A fancy urn can absorb as much of your grandchildren's inheritance as your survivors can stand, or you can have one on the shelf holding Christmas candy until its needed.
A chopper ride is the best way to spread ashes,
If you have stairs or steps a ramp prior to needing one is good planning!
A rise of one inch in one foot is easy wheeling, three inches in one foot strenuous for aging arms, four inches in one foot inviting runaway if the chair is controlled by the elderly or lightweight persons.
Stair lifts can keep a loft area viable.
While other denizens of this forum would disagree, change your bulbs above 5' to LED's while your still safe on a ladder, once changed you *probably* won't need to change them for the rest of your life.
A barrier free entry to a shower (as in wheelchair accessible!) will keep you socially palatable, stainless grab bars in the shower will help you rise and settle onto a plastic bench, non skid appliques on the shower floor a lifesaver.
If your hallways and doors are broad, a Hoyer lift can make a fall recoverable by a much smaller person easily.
If you are, or are put, on oxygen therapy an "on demand" regulator will stretch your oxy supply three times as far as a standard regulator. if it turns out you need it get an oxygen concentrator as quickly as possible. A portable unit can go a long ways towards staving off depression.
Vitamin D as well as whole spectrum lighting will help anyone overcome SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) a lack of sun and the same damn scenery every day (let alone the mind numbing idiocy of television) on top of creeping infirmity will bring the most resolute character into self doubt.....activity (no matter how limited) is the single best answer to maintain hope, or at least sanguinity.
While everyone around you will be urging you to retire and not do anything (its the old Union program...nobody moves and nobody gets hurt!) if you join into that program you will regret it in lost muscle tone within days.
Low impact exercise (think stretch bands) will help keep tone, an area devoted to it even better because irritation at setup and break down has many people skipping even basic maintenance.
Install wireless doorbells in the upstairs downstairs, shop, and any outbuilding / garden area
( I used these)
https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiaqbrx5fvsAhUJicgKHYvnAc4YABB7GgJxdQ&sig=AOD64_38KEu-9rIxCS0LoojLTBm9hebFYQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwil37Px5fvsAhWFiK0KHf1NCe4QwzwI7gM&adurl= Put buttons at front and rear doors one next to the shower, one next to the phone, and get a couple to carry in your pockets. You can program them for different ring tones for the front door, rear door, a different tone for "the phone is for you" and a different tone for "Panic! come help me!!"
If a loved one lives next door you can get boosters so the "Panic! come help me!" will ring at their house too.
A "help I've fallen and can't reach my beer" system is good too, but....has a monthly cost, and a visit from emergency services,
Too many false alarms will result in a case worker herding you into a rest home....
On the monetary scene:
Establish "pay on death" if you have independent accounts.
If any real property is in play put it in an irrevocable trust with a trusted third party as administrator, it has potential to keep your end of life medical bills from swallowing everything.
I've used a clear (in contrast to frosted) version of this stuff in solar shop heaters, it has been durable for the last 4 years and performed well,
Those that have tried many options, tell me I have opted for a Cadillac product when there were Chevy options available.
While it won't help an already damaged roof, , a broad copper ridgecap (that is raw copper with no sealants!) helps inhibit moss growth, Ditto for galvanized.....
For some reason many jurisdictions have outlawed these proven solutions and perhaps there will be unfortunate consequences in flower borders, a horticulturist might have answers.
Well...
For max bang for the buck I'd install 2 temp probes before and after the radiator, ......if your temp drop is not too drastic consider routing the outflow to another radiator, and if your temp drop there is not too drastic routing the outflow to another radiator.....
Also physics is worth its weight in mechanical energy, cold air sinks, so put your radiators near the roof to force convection.....
So....
I love the thought of bale construction but the more I read on it the less simple it seems.
I've got a pile of questions!
A; I know concrete is the kiss of death as far as starting mold......but gunnite is such a sweet concept!
Aaand...lack of maintenance such an attractive proposition!
Could a wall be;
Concrete from floor to ceiling if the top of the wall was left open, and ventilation provided through the crawlspace to the bottom?
Or barring that, concrete on the exterior to 6' and then plastered above, and inside. (Assuming the eaves would protect the plastered upper 2' from wear and tear....and the upper reaches would get significantly less abrasion).
B: Would it be adequate to make a hybrid building from a pole barn and straw bale, using bales under tension, with tin furred off the surface enough to promote airflow (1"?) and regular sheetrock furred off the interior? (the lack of maintenance on sheet steel is very attractive!) I.E. a cross section of sheetrock to vapor barrier to 1"x vertical furring on 2' centers on 1"x horizontal furring on 4' centers on straw with 1" x horizontal furring leading to 1" x vertical furring to vapor barrier to tin?
Assuming it was built on piers with a wooden floor and the entire area beneath loaded with Diatomaceous Earth to minimize the bug load and D.E. liberally applied as the walls were built, and hardware cloth "vents" between crawlspace and wall, and attic and wall...
The hope is to make a hyper insulated house that can be left indefinitely and survive with a coat of paint every ten years.
I have a coupla cheap solar charge controllers, both of them tell me that the input is for photoelectric input only, and specifically say not to hook them to a generator.
Why?
Is it to protect them from over voltage, over current, or just boilerplate?
In specific I want to put one between a tow vehicle and a battery bank to provide a three stage charging profile, is this a nonsense application and I should just depend on the tow vehicles voltage regulator (standard Chrysler electronic regulator) ?
Do the two regulators mess with one another and provide inaccurate results?
Does a blocking diode between the battery bank and the tow vehicle block the vehicle system from reading the battery state?
Hoping for answers prior to gambling $13.00 (US!) on a smoke test!
Well......
If you want a sunny prognosis you should skip this post.
My people were survivalists from the fifties forward, and while we called our "intentional communities" "camps" there has been a few ongoing lessons I have learned.
A; Everyone wants to "start" a community because, like Mr. Wheaton says "if it all falls apart, I'll be the one staying"!
In my area I know of at least 30 different individuals that have told the community at large that they were "building a place of refuge for hard times" some with decided religious fervor, some with ethnic co-ops (Ukrainians and Romanians), some ex military, and the ex intelligence people set up a redoubt and they want no one in the area at all!
Bizarrely even with so many like minded people, no one considers combining resources into a corporate entity.
B; A very few manage to attract the second generation (non owners) and none of them keep them for long because anyone who puts the labor in begins to feel they have "rights" which is a view terminated early, and often, by those whom really DO have rights!
Very rarely someone keeps someone around by providing room and possibly feed for services rendered, but at the end of the day that's usually a very large place, and the non owner becomes "the help",
And even that's inadequate, because there is no health insurance, no rights whatsoever and no potential to sell or monetize the years of labor invested, nor to pass it to a next generation.
Exceedingly rare is the owner that has the resources to pay for medical needs, (Birth through death!), and is willing to spend those resources on the "help".
C; Many State and County governments require "someone" to be responsible, whomever is in that position has potential liability, and criminal negligence if bills aren't payed, insurances aren't maintained, and living conditions sub standard, (as in toxic or overtly dangerous).
Many have specific rules limiting more than three unrelated persons in the same domicile, (after three its a boarding house! and subject to regulation and taxation.)
Yes you can slip under the radar for a while,
Yes that just means there will be a greater collection of people put out when it finally does come to light.
Depending on where you are, breaking a few acres down into lots requires zoning exceptions......usually denied cause that's why zone regs were instituted in the first place!
D; Finally you will be surprised on how much space is really needed even if you have NO stock,
Articles like "Five acres and Independence!" or "Self Sufficiency ON 1 Acre!" are a wonderful exercise in cerebral masturbation but communal living is a continual practice of patience, and endurance.
And every space you have so carefully planned out may not be appropriate for the plans you have......and in a commune, may conflict with someone else's careful plans.
Soo....
I would look for like minded individuals.....that can all afford their own 5 acres!
If they are invested that much the won't walk away easily....and still really could use the help of a community.
Obviously the downside of this is if you piss each other off, the offended soul can make a hog farm out of their five........
Ensure there are no covenants on the land.
As much as possible....Be as conventional as possible!
If you can't sell it when if you break up the band then everyone loses.
There are still many savings to be made in this scene, a water well can cost more than the acreage proper!
1 well could potentially serve multiple families, If you think it will be long lasting, the barns can be placed at a remove from the living quarters, mechanical facility's can be allowed their own scrap area
(I've never seen a successful homestead without a ferocious pile of scrap / raw materiel for the next innovation!)
In fact that would be a reasonable recipe for an "Intentional Community"
Make one lot a capable mechanic,
one or two lots capable farmers,
one a machinist / fabricator,
and throw in a couple of business majors to market it all and everyone shares the profit equally!
That gives you 30 acres to start.
Build a communal Kitchen and add another five acres and a cook.....that can, bottle and sell the farmers surplus,
hell add another five and make a nursery / daycare that offers service for free to the commune and for profit to the community at large.
Add another five and get a competent lawyer because the Devil has his due.
By now your up to 45 acres, and so far everybody is invested, and has incentive to solve everyone elses problems,
Find yourself a plumber and an electrician, and gain ten more acres!
Hell if your successful enough you'll need five acres and a hog farm at the border to clear off additional adjacent acreage.....
Ethanol is remarkably corrosive, to mitigate its effects, a top oil such as Marvel Mystery Oil can be added but for best bang for your buck....run the damn thing dry, leave no fuel in the carburetor, and empty the tank.
Fuel evaporates, and gets thicker, even with a top oil given time it will turn into a sludge that blocks jets and air passages, injectors and eventually delivery lines.
The down side to this is gaskets dry out, (3 - 5 years) the solution for that is to rub any cork gasket with lip balm, or Vaseline rubber gaskets usually last longer if given the rubdown too, as the normal enemy of rubber gaskets is tearing due to their bonding to metal.
Even with the minimal hours put on a yard machine, an oil change every couple of years is in order, my favorite time is before spring start up. after the first oil change a synthetic is good for longevity.
If your a political person campaigning for the removal of ethanol is a worthy cause, while its a boon to farmers it drives food and booze and animal feed costs up, contributes to the early retirement of equipment. It evaporates faster than petrol, and has far less btu,s per pound.....so what doesn't evaporate into thin air in summer heat, cost more as you travel less miles per gallon.
This is a battle that has been fought for a long time, an insulated trough, (tough enough to withstand animal shenanigans) is far easier / smarter / on the pocketbook than constant power input.
What power input you do spend can be minimized by simple physics....A; heat rises, B; exposure to air is all that required for aeration.
With the caveat that Its better to hydrate animals with adequate quantities of water, than to give them an inadequate supply of "fresh" water!
So.....to my simple mind a double walled trough with at least eight inches of insulation between two animal tough shells is the best start, then a simple 4" stainless tube passed through within 2" of the bottom, with caps, to contain 2 60 watt halogen bulbs in series for heat.
(Halogens create an extraordinary amount of heat for wattage input, wired in series they last forever because they are so far below their max power constraints, they are available cheaply everywhere!).
Aeration is accomplished via simply rolling the water from bottom to top because .....heat rises! But if you wanted a more dynamic aerator then put your heat source at the bottom of a "percolator" arrangement.
But!!....... the hotter the water the faster the evaporation, And!....the more water is exposed to air in the processes of aeration the faster the evaporation....so unless its attached to a float valve with a constantly on source, perhaps moderately stale water is preferable to clouds of steam building rime frost....
The outdoor boilers Achilles heel is its method of lighting a fire (manually light a fire and let it smolder forever!)
Thats why they usually have a short stack....a tall stack would create draft and fuel would just burn up briskly, and need to be refed (and relit) frequently.
Usually draft control is just a weighted flap that the combustion blower can overpower ...... a good draft could overpower it too.
A true controlled draft would starve the fire out.... and propane or some other method would have to be employed to relight the fire.
While steam clouds are obnoxious (they hold the smoke earthbound longer)....there is no reasonable method to eliminate the smoldering dynamic, without greatly increased complexity..and cost.
Dry wood will make the best of a bad situation, but nothing barring complex controls and extra energy added to light and relight the fire will ever render an outdoor boiler into a tidy appliance.
That being said......I loved my outdoor boiler, it saved me enormous costs in comparison to any other fuel source and fed the whole farm heat..( 2 houses, for heat, domestic water heating, and heat for the clothes dryers! and warmed the workshop it was housed in) my neighbor was much less useful, and was of no practical utility whatsoever.........
Count your blessings!!
I am a condimentoholic! every dressing known to man!
Barbecue sauces galore, and Steak sauces without number,
Picante, and chili sauces in every color and heat range,
Mole's, Soy, Wasabi, Worcestershire, anything piquant.
My beloved assures me we waste food because there's no room in the fridge!
Dunno how your husband is, but my sweetheart simply must have an unacceptable level of clutter to make her house feel like home!
No matter how small or large the space is she will drag home detritus from everywhere!
She doesn't do anything with them they simply sit in the way and collect dust, if you sneak them out she has no idea what she has or what she's missing and once the level of flotsam hits the HUGE annoyance level, I.E. something topples with every unguarded move she slows her collection actions.
When we move to a new place (often, because I'm building up rentals!) she will work tirelessly to fill the area with unneeded unused junk until every flat surface is overwhelmed, every closet is overflowing and the porches disappear under bicycles, boxes, coolers, racks, and exercise equipment. None of it is used longer than a week. Not only does she collect for herself but feels a need to look out for the wildest least likely potential need for an extended circle of friends and acquaintances!
When we visit someone that has a clean house she notes that it feels "clinical", and not "homey".
I had orchards and berry patches, I would tell people "you can have all you want just give me a quarter of your finished product"...if you make ten pints of jelly, gimme 2....if you make an apple pie gimme a slice, if you press a gallon of cider gimme a cup, I made this invitation for seven years running, in community forums and churches all over my area.
To date the bears, squirrels, and birds are the only takers, pears, apples, plums, and cherries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, hit the ground every season, in every church I have attended in the past seven years two or three families at minimum are on public assistance.
With some people, even if I picked it, and processed it, I swear I'd have to hit them in the jaw to help them masticate
On a really good night I can fly, and wear ten thousand league footwear.
On a really bad night malevolence personified sits in a dark corner of my room and whispers of hopelessness and doom.
On a really good night, my heroic efforts spring from joy.......never need.
On a really bad night the voice of evil fades with prayer for the people around me.
My closet is filled with a fantastic array of ordinance, aliens dream of keeping me from my closet!
On the nights I dream of making love to the most stunning woman in the world, I wake up and pursue the dream.
Most building code are in place for one of three reasons...
1: Someone before you left a toxic mess that others had to clean up.
2: Some peoples toxic mess got into the water table, or spread well beyond their borders, or left permanent changes.
3: Most people don't have the courtesy to burn down their "improvements" and leave the land the way they found it...in fact most people want to be paid for "value added" even if the value in question is inadequate, the next generation of owners want to insure these "improvements" and insurance companies want an inspection process....from the first foundation up. Concrete reinforcement, snow load,sane electrical, adequate plumbing doesn't happen by accident....and frequently doesn't happen at all, without permits and inspections, leaving future owners holding the bag, and insurance companies denying future claims because there is no record of inspection.
Neighbors call in authorities because they don't want property values declining because someone started collecting old tires (some of that toxic mess) for an "earthship", or septic leach lines within a few feet of a freshwater stream because the digging was easier, or a thousand other reasons an individuals "freedom" can impact their unfortunate neighbors or entire communities downstream, or just because population density is edging past the local habitat / aquifer's ability to disperse human impact.
If your septic option will be "perfectly legal if you paid the money to get it certified" for heavens sake get it certified why wouldn't you have to bear the same burden as the rest of your community?
Probably all that's needed is some cohesive plan, with some reasonable timeline, but at this juncture, country living looks like a lifeboat on the Titanic in comparison with continued life in the cities. Most of the denizens that had the good sense to leave a long time ago would like to see the invasion kept under control, so showing your compatibility with the community will probably go a long way to widening your options, vs having neighbors eager for that wide open vista you just obscured to be cleared up again....
If a realtor or seller misrepresented the property and its not open to development, your better going after the realtor / or seller than trying to change the minds of your neighbors, / county administration.....
Written communications are key to clear, satisfactory results. With every state / city / county agency.
That looks like creosote...and creosote is flammable in adequate quantity.
Creosote is a product of burning at too low temperature.
Airtight stoves (pre catalytic) are frequent sources of house fires from as little as two weeks of creosote buildup
On a rocket mass heater my understanding is....there is very little airflow control ..the intent is to burn a fire as hot as possible and absorb all the heat into mass.
If you have airflow control....you need to;
Arrange for creosote to flow back into the firebox.
Once a day burn the fire as hot as possible to burn off creosote.
If creosote is forming in your mass stop using it until you can get the fire hot enough to stop forming creosote! Everything should be consumed (including vapor!) by the top of the riser.
Chimney fires are the result of accumulated creosote.
Since most people use galvanized ducting rather than chimney in their mass, a fire in the ducting can result in toxic gas, the intent of the barrel is to cool the gasses to where the galvanized ducting won't off gas.
A lateral run can accumulate a remarkable quantity of creosote, certainly enough to burn completely through the ducting, if your mass is made of cob, the straw in it will light and smolder.
Most people who die in fire perish from smoke inhalation...frequently never waking to the danger present.
It sad but my dreams are entirely conventional......
I dream of metric tons of money at my disposal! And dispose I would!
An epic spending spree of such climactic excess that it would make the glitterati blush with shame at their unbecoming modesty!
I would dress my Beloved in enough fur and silk and Italian leather that the proprietors of such necessities, grandchildren could afford a sumptuous education and a lavish lifestyle.
My driveway would be long and bountiful overwhelmed with bouncing children of fat overpaid gardeners, meticulously tending the least detail of everything rare and beautiful
My fields would be so vast armies of caballero's would greet each other with family tidings from distant homes in the frozen wastes of Montana to the smoking slopes of the Sierra's wishing each other well and exchanging breeding stock in pursuit of perfecting a new strain of Pegasi
My chefs would crush mighty oak tables with feasts so sumptuous that superlatives fail and then relax the next day while their compatriots celebrate their excellence with feasting!
But......
While I prepare for that day.......
I'll climb into a state truck and grind my way across the face of Idaho admiring the excellence (or lack thereof) of the craftsmen plying their trade in the Land of the Free.....and that aint so bad in it own right.
Dudadiesel.com ......is the most economical place I know of to get heat exchangers, etc.
If you go for an outdoor boiler remember you can put your domestic hot water heating on it,
And rig an exchanger to your clothes dryer and a switch to turn off the heating element and generate significant savings there too.
If you go whole hog and install water baseboards you get silent heat and even better flameproof heat. You can safely allow clothes and detritus to accumulate on the heaters and all it does is dry the clothes and desiccate the forgotten pizza.
A damp towel over a small baseboard and a mixing bowl of dough creates an ideal atmosphere for dough to raise.
If you have wood than its hard to beat wood heat....a modern unit with a catalytic combustor will reduce your wood consumption by about 30%.
Pellet stoves are even more frugal, and can be easily tied to a thermostatic control but..(IMHO) the heat is not as satisfying, the pellets about break even with a good heat pump for operating costs, the units are far from trouble free. Still they beat huddling around a milk house heater.
If you have the time and own the property than a batch type Rocket Mass Heater seems like the mark to shoot for ...not that I've had one to compare, but on paper they seem like an improvement.
I've had outdoor wood furnaces and would recommend them heartily ....if you have significant resources to invest.
If your young...and hearty enough to get your own wood in, significant health benefits follow that level of exercise!....providing no extinction level accidents befall you in the woods.
If your sixty five plus and swallowing enough pills to allow your pharmacist to know you by name, than a smiling delivery man will fetch out a ton of fourty pound sacks of pellets that will remind you how wise you were to avoid wandering in the woods alone!
The further you are from a civic center the cheaper small acreage will be. After 100 acres its no longer "small".
For best bang for your buck,
Look for developed water, water well drilling is a crapshoot and you can spend $60,000 in a heartbeat and still wind up with dry holes, lousy water or inadequate flow.
Look for flat usable land, hillsides are cheaper for a reason. a flat terrace on a mountainside is good.....a mountainside will make you sweat for every day you own it. the steeper the cheaper, and less useful with every degree off horizontal.
If possible look for a structure / plan to the development of the buildings, lots of farms "grew organically" and they are a pain to move around on ....usually things are too close together to afford good access with trucks / tractors-trailers.
Buildings built close together are a fires dream, 50' plus between buildings give you a beggars hope of containing a fire. Worst combination a tight cluster of buildings on a rough hillside is almost completely indefensible, in the face of a windblown fire.
Look for large sturdy structurally sound buildings, homesteading takes a lot of space and if you jam everything into small quarters you'll spend more time finding things than working with them. Old and dirty is fine, avoid mold like the plague. Not that every mold is toxic...its just a sign of long term neglect.
Neighbors are a mixed blessing, neighbors that lend their tractor, watch your animals, and fetch needed supplies from town are a delight....neighbors whose goats eat your truck garden, shriek so loud they keep you awake at night, and shoot random things at random times...not so much.
On a practical note...make county tax structure an exclamation point in your search. all government is parasitic, and the counties only method of revenue is taxation, every improvement guarantees a heavier toll on your wallet and no improvement will be overlooked. Ten years of steady development can extract a brutal, never ending, ever increasing, burden that will ensure you struggle to keep it when your on a fixed income......
And a final edit to add, The more you can do with less tools / equipment the better. It's unreasonable to build the Taj Mahal with a Leatherman but the more equipment, / tool, / stuff you have the more time spent in upkeep, / maintenance, / to the point of no return,
Many start with a plan for a peaceful simple life and generate so much minutia in the process of "keeping it simple" they run back to the city overwhelmed and disheartened.
Its been thirty years since I lived in Spokane but at that time there was a city ordinance that the only entity allowed to generate power in city limits was Avista Power.
Avista ran the Spokane river through turbines in the city limits
As written it made a de-facto lawbreaker out of anyone whom had an automobile or other generator / alternator.
Of course it was indefensible but it made a good start at discouraging competition,
As with the rest of "the rule of law" how much money and time do you want to devote to ensuring you can behave as if you are free?
Its a crowd when you can't clearly identify whats being said in the room.....not to you, but in the room.
Its crowded when people have to lean close to share confidences.
Two people on either end of a US auto's bench seat is tolerable three is insufferable.
Heck with social distancing, if your close enough for me to smell your breath, your invading my personal space and I'll step back, and if you follow close I'll ask where the bar / restroom, / vomitoreum is.
If you continue I'll consider you a grade A, Type A, arse with intent to intimidate and avoid further contact, and finally if that is insufficient, happily pick a fight to give you adequate reason to avoid me.
The most obnoxious people are the "motherly", unrelated people, whom demand hugs and want to share confidences, and encourage the world at large to divulge their "feelings".
Unnatural enablers, one and all, constantly embroiled in unneeded drama.
Beyond that a thousand people on a spacious beach is a happy gathering, a thousand people in a high school auditorium is a virulent noisome atrocity.
Well......
Assuming you are working with a static quantity of water, as this advise is valueless with a pressurized system.
To establish a thermosyphon a temperature and elevation gradient are required.
The temperature gradient can be established by putting your heat source two foot lower than your heat sink. this will require a sump to situate your heating element, This can be as simple as a 18" piece of 4" stainless with a pex connection on the bottom, and a cross fitting at the top to accommodate a pex connection a temperature and pressure valve, and a long standing vent pipe at least 2' higher than anything else in your system, open at the top to atmosphere to keep this from becoming a bomb,(the T&P valve is backup in case this pipe gets plugged.).
The pundits say each gallon of water equals 1 stick of TNT at 70lbs steam pressure and reviewing water heater explosions (Google is your friend!) I can believe it.
Obviously overall temps must be kept below 212 Fahrenheit or you have just created (an inadequate!) pressure vessel, in the case of a blockage of the vent pipe, a button thermostat at the high point of the tank and the high point of the source to turn power off to the element would be in order
Using anything other than stainless or possibly brass, will introduce rust into your system. plastic will not hold up to high temps reliably, galvanized iron is just a slower (and not by very much!) source of rust, black iron starts rusting immediately.
The only thing that mitigates rust is a lack of oxygen...make up water provides a constant source of new oxygen.
Since your floor is (optimally) flat a holding tank offering a little elevation may be helpful. (My bet is it will circulate as you are depending on a hydraulic lock......but it may be extraordinarily sluggish!)
Think of your heat source as a pump, it draws cold water into the bottom of itself and forces the hottest water out of its top, the direction of flow depends on your connection to the sink, and storage tank, and keep in mind any air entrapment will break hydraulic lock, and stop thermosyphon.
My bet is best performance will be achieved by routing the hottest water into the top of the storage tank and pulling from the concrete sink for your source water...kind of heating the concrete as a secondary action to the pumping of water.
I've seen pics of charred flooring under similar setups and I would be grossly uncomfortable with a permanent full time use,
it seems like a small distance to fill between floor and crawlspace, could the floor be reframed and the area below the stove +6 " perimeter be supported with cinder block?
Then the "cinder box" could be filled with sand and capped with 4" concrete, or just filled with a concrete slurry.
You'd still like to have an airspace underneath to provide a thermal break and keep the majority of heat in the envelope of the building.....
