Graham Chiu

Satamax Antone wrote:Modified the stove again. Laid some firebricks on the whole front of the "barrel" To cut a bit of direct heat.

And the final answer is, yes you can make pizza in my rocket.

So that's a black oven?

Just an update on this thread.

The system had to be disabled on the 28th December 2020 after I woke up to smoke coming from the basement.
Two fire engines later, and lots of CO2 as well as powder from their cannisters the heat kept increasing.  The lines company electrician then went onto the roof to pull all the cables from the panels so that the solar power wouldn't keep feeding the fire.

It was repaired yesterday but one of the hybrid inverters needs to be replaced.
The cause of the fire was water in the DC isolator which was on fire. This is a common cause of rooftop fires in solar installations in Australia but my DC isolators are in the basement.  We had thought rain water was being directed by conduit from the roof into the isolator, and the guys who came to repair installed grommets everywhere that they should have been before.  But water was found in the connection that penetrates the wall of the basement from the rooftop.  This had not been sealed fully.  I asked them to install service loops to stop water from entering the switches again, and they said it wasn't necessary as long as it was installed correctly.  Luckily I wasn't dependent on the solar system and still had access to the grid.

I have a metal heat shield on my ceiling, and asbestos-lined walls around the fireplace.

Can't you just cover the rafters with the ceramic fibre blanket as a temporary fix?

Maybe your sticks are too wet, or the cinder blocks too wet. Do you get a fire going if you feed the sticks from the top?

I don't know if this has been sorted yet, but since catalytic stove allow for the combustion of the fuel at lower than standard temperatures this results in the release of more dioxins into the environment i.e. the air you will be breathing.  At higher temperatures these dioxins are incinerated.

You can cook inside as well as outside. I started to use wood pellets because they're cheaper than almost any other wood source in the shops.

I used my artificial logs here as well to heat up the burner so that I could cook naan inside on the walls

Phil Stevens wrote:Graham! MATE! That is Rube Goldberg stuff right there. How did it come out (taste wise, that is)?

Hi Phil.  Tasted just fine.  Took 2.5 hours to cook but other references said that this was standard for this type of "camp side" cooking on the side.
I've now bought myself a tripod so I can try this out in front of my chiminea!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
But hardwood or softwood? Thoughts?

Softwood have higher BTUs since they contain more lignins.

I use these https://www.ebay.com.au/i/112621909241?ul_noapp=true

Burns for about an hour and I add them to small logs as that helps them get going.  Lasts about an hour.
I don't recommend their use in a ULEB type stove though.

You can see my use here