[AT] OT - Old Chimney Question

Larry D. Goss rlgoss at evansville.net
Fri Oct 22 12:27:01 PDT 2004


What you're describing is very similar to the way houses were built by
the German-Russian immigrants that came to this country in the last
century, Mattias.  Oops, I guess we've passed another century mark -- it
happened back in the 1800's and very early 1900's.  These were Germans
who were enticed to settle on farms north of the Caspian Sea (Volga
river region) during the reign of Catherine the Great.  A hundred and
fifty or so years later, they were essentially deported to the United
States through Kaliningrad and/or Hamburg to Boston and New York.  They
then settled in the Dakota's and migrated north and south from there.
You can find traces of their culture all the way from Colorado up
through Alberta and Saskatchewan.  My grandmother commented in her
diaries about the arrival of their "Germans" whom they hired to help
work the fields west of Longmont during the sugar beet harvest.  This
culture was also highlighted in "Centennial" by James Michener.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Kessen
Mattias (Road SE)
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 12:59 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: SV: [AT] OT - Old Chimney Question

And, yes you
can successfully have more than one heat source feeding into the same
flue and have all of them draw correctly regardless of which ones happen
to be working.

Yes we do that every winter no problem. In all older small houses round
here it's like that. Our chimney is probably pre 1840-50 since it's
originally made for a big fireplace in the kitchen(only room at least in
the winter) Then in the 1830's the oillamps appeared and made it
possibble to use stove without living in darkness all winter. O.K. I
know that timeline isn't chronological but I don't suppose our house was
one of the first in the country to get a kitchen stove ;-)

/Mattias

-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: Larry D. Goss [mailto:rlgoss at evansville.net]
Skickat: den 22 oktober 2004 03:22
Till: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Ämne: RE: [AT] OT - Old Chimney Question


Super heat and a "rip roaring fire" can make a marginal chimney work,
but a well designed chimney doesn't need that.  Ever.

Chimneys do indeed have a back draft.  Even the pressurized ones in
power plants act like super-sized pop bottles and "whistle".  The
frequency is so low that you can't hear it, but a monometer placed
almost anywhere inside a flue will show cyclical variations in air
pressure as the wind blows by. If you've ever watched the plume off a
stack from any distance, you'll notice that it appears to wave up and
down as it leaves the chimney.  If you pay attention to any one small
section of the plume, you'll notice that it proceeds in a straight line
as soon as it leaves the chimney top.  The waviness of the plume is an
optical illusion based on the fact that the pressure inside the stack is
constantly fluctuating and the smoke leaves at a different vertical
speed depending on the internal pressure.  Under some conditions the
column of air heading out the stack will not just change its upward
speed, but it will actually reverse as the chimney "whistles."  That's
when you get smoke inside the house.  A smoke shelf (smoke chamber)
helps because it effectively makes the chimney into a "stopped flute"
much the same as the organ pipe of the same name.  But making sure the
top of the chimney is clear of the pressure fluctuations caused by the
wind passing over the surface of your roof is also helpful for exactly
the same reason as the fact that the pitot tube on an airplane wing is
never mounted close to the wing surface.

This is more about chimneys than anyone probably wants to read, but the
bottom line is that chimney design is not guesswork.  You can predict
ahead of time what certain changes in a flue will make.  And, yes you
can successfully have more than one heat source feeding into the same
flue and have all of them draw correctly regardless of which ones happen
to be working.  There are guidelines to be followed for that.  I don't
know exactly where to turn for the complete instructions I remember
seeing when I was a kid, but Better Homes and Gardens is one of the
sources we used at that time.  Their "Back To Basics" book came out a
generation or so later and it gives some of the fundamentals, but there
is a more comprehensive source somewhere.

Larry


-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
DAVIESW739 at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 6:13 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] OT - Old Chimney Question

Heat is what causes the chimney to draw if you don't get it hot enough
it  
won't work.  A small stove in a large chimney just won't do the job.
Also  
always start out with a good rip roaring fire to heat the chimney then
cut it  back 
this will get things started and the smoke will go up not down.  A
longer 
chimney won't work if you don't have enough heat to get it  working.

When I put my stove in my house in southern Oregon I had a 10 in  1
pitch and 
the expert said that I needed to get the chimney up high enough so  that
the 
wind wouldn't curl around and come back down the chimney, I wonder
where he 
learned that bunch of BS from. We had 80 mph winds up on that hill I
don't 
think they could curl around and blow back on themselves. Now if the
wall  was 
straight up that would be another matter. 
 
The main thing is to match the size of the chimney to the amount or size
of  
the stove to get proper heat rise from it. A good stove shop should have
the  
details for what you need.

Walt Davies
Cooper Hollow Farm
Monmouth,  OR 97361
503 623-0460 
 
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