[AT] OT Heating with wood

[Indiana Robinson]

	There will be an awful lot of people that will jump in and 
burn wood this year that have no experience with it. One 
thing that many will learn the hard way is that it is 
imperative that they check with their insurance company 
first. Many insurance companies will not even tolerate a 
wood stove being installed let alone not pay if it is not 
to code. Some policies go void the minute you carry it into 
the house. My insurance company does a little better than 
that. They just want to know if you have one and that it is 
a UL approved unit. There is no "code" on such things here 
other than new construction but many towns have codes.
	I retired a large stove some years ago, that I had built, 
due to the UL requirement. It worked great for a good 
number of years but was uninsurable. It was made of an old 
275 gal. furnace oil tank I acquired and was surprised how 
heavy it was empty I got to checking it and instead of the 
normal stuff it was made with about 1/8" step plate with 
the grid on the inside. I had a concrete block stove room 
with a concrete floor and a metal ceiling to put it in. I 
mounted it on very short legs and put a stove pipe outlet 
in the center of the top. I cut a 4 1/2" hole in the top of 
each end a couple of inches down from the top. I slid a 
piece of 4" steel pipe through the top and welded it in 
place. The pipe was a couple of feet longer than the 5' 
tank. I cut a door in the side (not the end) that was 2' 
tall and 42" wide. I welded a frame around the top and 
sides of the opening made of 2" angle iron with the flat of 
the angle facing out for a door to mate against. At the 
bottom of the door opening I turned the angle iron so that 
it made a 2" ledge to sit a door on. The door itself was 
the piece of steel I had cut from the opening and it had an 
angle iron frame around it. At the bottom of the door I 
made two pieces of 5/8" rod sticking down about 6" but 
curved. Those fit into two slightly oversized holes in the 
angle iron ledge at the bottom of the opening. The door 
could be just leaned out to check the fire or opened down 
like an oven door. It could also be lifted completely off 
and sat aside. The door was held shut by two iron levers 
that worked like oversized turn-buttons and were spring 
loaded so that they worked well hot or cold and held the 
door tight. There were three air intake holes in the lower 
front. One below the door and one on each side of the door 
down low. They just had pivoting flap doors held with a 
bolt and spring.
	I could get wood as long as 4' in there if I jockeyed it a 
bit. I could open the door down and set a log on the door 
that was 3' long and as large as almost 2' in diameter and 
roll it into the stove (OK, I was younger then)   :-)    By 
putting a big piece in first and filling in around it I 
could build a fire that would hold (hold, not big heat) for 
36 hours. Since the pipe was so close to the top all of the 
heat and flame that went out the stove pipe opening passed 
around that 4" steel pipe. On one end I mounted a 4" 
squirrel cage blower that blew very hot air out around the 
room in addition to all of that surface area of that big 
tank.
	It was a great stove but I must admit that this pellet 
stove with the glass door does look better. Of course the 
big stove was hidden by a wall which is now opened up to 
just a couple of 5"x5" rough sawn wood post in an 8' wide 
by 7' tall opening which is framed with the same stuff.


-- 
"farmer"
Hewick Midwest

Try my "Cheap Computer" email list at:

cheapcomputer-subscribe at yahoogroups.com

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net