mark best

Thanks everyone for the replies. As i have thought about it more, it seems to actually be something quite complicated.
PM 2.5 is just a measure of particle size, however i'm pretty sure the chemical composition of what is burning will also matter.
The other things i have seen online also ignore how much you need to burn. So they quote simple log burners that are not that efficient. RHM are not only cleaner, but you need  to burn less.

Burning Biomass is a significant part of energy production (at least where i live). I am not sure how clean those power plants are but it would be interesting to know.
Obviously saying electricity is 100% clean is questionable.

The analysis posted seems to make a lot more sense since it measures efficiency and also combustion by products like CO.

Mainly the stuff I have been reading about is more about the wider environmental effect rather than the in home air quality.
I'm now just wondering why people are quoting PM2.5 number so much when talking about home heating. It doesn't seem to be something that really looked at by anyone who's looked at this in detail.

Hello Permies,

I have not been here for a while so i hope you are all well.
There seems to be a concerted effort recently to talk about wood stoves for heating and the general jist is that a wood stove puts out a lot of pm2.5 particles. (attached diagram i saw today)
A lot of the stuff on line seems to just be attack pieces as they conflate open wood fires with modern home stoves (there is zero talk of german Kachelöfen or RMHs).

I had a search on here about RMHs and PM2.5 particles but i couldn't find what i want looking for.
Is this something that has ever been done as a part of the testing?

thanks in advance.

Mark

I just went back to the Ernie and  Erica book and its in there under the section for cold starts.
It's good to know about, not sure how I missed it. Thank you for the information.  One day i'd love to build one. If I do ill make sure it has a bypass.

Thanks for the replies. I had not heard about the bypass idea before. But as you say low tech has a lot of benefits. When the bypass is closed, does it need to be done in steps or is the draw of the riser enough to circumvent the cold plug?

I was listening to the recent podcast about the rocket mass heater in the teepee. In general there seems to be a issue with draw/ cold plugs when the mass is  cold. I was thinking about ways of increasing the draw using a fan at some point in the final part of the chimney. Using a fan is a bad idea as anything motor related would melt. I researched venturi vacumes and this seems like a viable solution.



The idea is to have a nozzle in the exhaust that is used when the mass is cold. There are no moving parts and the only part exposed in the flue would simply be a pipe with a nozzle. I think for a full working version this could be fan driven rather that using compressed air. Due to the pressure and the nozzle the pipe doesn't have to be large so won't affect flow during normal use.

A more advanced version could have the fan speed automatically set via a pressure sensor before the burn chamber. This way the fan can automatically turn off when the system is up to temp.

I don't know if this has been suggested before. I googled permies and couldn't see anything mentioned related to this. If you think the idea has legs then I can maybe follow up with some plans/drawings. I love the alternative technology stuff so this is fascinating to me. I really like the recent stuff about mycelium insulation.

Keep up the good work.

Mark

I was wondering how people found/researched the community they are currently living in?

I am planning on moving from back to the UK (Devon/ Somerset) from Spain but don't know the area and don't really know what the communities are like.
I am originally from the north east and a lot of the areas up there have a lot of problems with decline due to the de-industrialization and lack of employment. This has really impacted the community since most young people I know left to go to the city.
Are there similar problems in the agricultural areas like Devon/Somerset or are there still strong communities there? Is this something that exists more in wales?

One idea I had was to just drive a car around but i figured this will take ages and there has to be a smarter way I can do some of the work from here.

I thought about looking up permaculture projects there and visiting them so i can get an understanding of the areas. I also thought this must be much more of a problem in the US since everything is so much more spread out.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Mark

I didn't know about the concessions Ben had to make especially the one about not being able to have his kids take it over.

I do know that the planning regulations have changed relatively recently and they were simplified to about 50 pages from over a 1000. The 3 main parts they want to see in the plan are economy, community and ecology. This has made me more hopeful but its really tough to get information since there have been so few people that have or want to live like this. I don't know what the UKs long term plan is about affordable housing since from what i can see getting about 3-4 acres with a house on it is around £300-£350k.

Once i have read the rural planning handbook, i will post a little bit about it and say how useful it is.
Your other suggestion about talking to someone in the council is a good one.

The other consideration would be, even if you had the bottle to fight the planning authorities for 5-10 years doesn't mean its a good use of time. I will also consider wales and if that time/money would actually be better spent doing something productive. Also I spoke with some people in Kent and they said one thing that is missing about the area is a lack of people with a common outlook. At least in wales the community is likely more sympathetic to the cause.

Thanks for the reply, I am not easily deterred.
My understanding so far is that you cannot change the use of agricultural land but that you can live on it if you can show you are using it for agricultural use that requires people living there (see ben law). This is basically what i am trying to find out by reading the rural planning hand book.
I had not thought about all the issues with the building regs but this could make things expensive if I am expected to put all the utilities in.
I am also wondering what it would be like to live close by to an area of agricultural land and to work it that way. Given that zoning is central to permaculture, having everything in zone 5 doesn't make that much sense to me.

If tilling is so bad for soil life, then what is the consensus for using pigs and chickens to till areas before growing?
Do they till differently to a rotovator? Is it ok since they are manuring the soil? Is it really a question of animal pressure and not having animals so densely?
I like the idea of both having pigs but also i like the idea of no till so was wondering what your opinions are?

so i found some information out. There is a book called the Rural planning handbook that can be found here.

http://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/shop
the search for "Rural Planning Handbook for Low Impact Developers"

I have ordered it but haven't read it but it in short its a set of information of people who have developed raw land in the UK and how they managed to traverse the planning guidelines.
In case any one else is trying to do this it might also be worth your time.