Sign into an existing account

tl;dr if there's smoke coming out of your chimney there might be a problem, and you should read more below.

When I ask if your wood stove is efficient, it's not to "save the planet". It's because if your stove isn't running right that means you're burning more wood and putting out less heat than you could, and you may also be depositing more soot in your chimney than you would prefer.

Cheap single-chamber stoves tend to be pretty inefficient. Properly designed double-chamber stoves, and most of the stoves on the market qualify even if the second chamber is small and not easily noticed, run IMO acceptably efficient. Catalytic stoves are even more efficient but the added expense is IMO not necessary.

First thing, you won't have no smoke at all coming from your chimney. All stoves will produce smoke until they get up to temperature. You want to get the stove up to its regular running temperature before you check the chimney.

White smoke from a wood fire is mostly methanol, with some ethanol and some other products. The second chamber of the stove is where unburned organic compounds will combust once that chamber is up to temperature. White or light gray smoke coming from the chimney means either the stove itself is inefficient, or you're not allowing enough air into the stove or enough airflow through the stove. There has to be enough oxygen coming in to fully combust the carbon in the wood.

Note that white clouds from your chimney aren't necessarily white smoke. It can also be condensing water vapor. Water is a product of burning hydrocarbons and if the humidity is high that water will condense once the stove exhaust cools down. High humidity in the environment will increase this effect. Look closely at the top of the chimney, if there's a clear gap between it and where the white clouds appear then it's water vapor. A lot of water vapor may also mean you're burning green wood, which isn't a good idea for various reasons.

Darker smoke means the materials you're burning aren't very appropriate for the purpose. I'd recommend switching to different materials, or different wood, to help keep from fouling up your stove.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=U-7O-fIYSsY

This woman is living my dream life.

I need to add a few girls to the flock. I lost a couple of my older girls in the last year and I’m down to five now. Going to pick up some pullets, four I think, to liven things up a bit. It’s always interesting, the addition of new girls to the yard. Will be fun!

I’m fixin to can a bunch of tri-tip in the form of pot roast. I’ve used chuck in the past, and found it to be a bit heavy on the fat cap in the top of the jars. So, this time I am going for the leaner cut. Should work out fine from what I’ve read. I have a shit ton, like fifty pounds of tri tip on hand. Should be a long, fun day.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=2qcsWajivnI

Excerpt from the description:

In 1968, Charles Bello and his wife, Vanna Rae, moved onto 240 acres of redwood forest looking to live a simpler life off the land. They had spent their savings to purchase the land so they got to work building their home themselves. Their first structure was a panelized A-frame that they erected in 5 days (with help from a couple family members). The total cost was $2,800.

The property is a half-hour drive down a dirt road and it was bare land when they arrived so Charles and Vanna Rae built their own infrastructure: roads, bridges and went decades without refrigeration nor phone (they eventually installed PV panels and cabling for phone lines).

After 15 years in the A-frame, they built a cabin in the woods, and there they lived for a decade until the trees began to block out their views. In 1991 Charles (who once apprenticed under famed architect Richard Neutra) designed the Parabolic Glass House. With a curvilinear wood roof and two curved walls of windows, the home feels enveloped in trees.

Charles and Vanna Rae built it for $8,500 with the timber they milled themselves, using salvaged materials for everything from doorknobs to stoves. The couple relied on photovoltaics, solar thermal and gas for power, and a dug-in greenhouse attached to the home provided much of their food. By canning and preserving, they could go for months without going to a grocery store. Their two boys were homeschooled. The couple supported themselves selling Christmas trees.

I live abroad and recently have acquired 25 acres of land. I'm exceptionally interested in alternative building materials. Primarily because the only thing they used to build here is cinder blocks (or rather they're poor third world stand in).

I have to deal with typhoon winds twice a year and earthquakes. I have been exploring dome construction. I was very interested in monolithic domes. However the cost of acquiring skilled people to actually help do a build is limited.

I was just surveying the land, and remember geodesic domes. I am almost completely sold on using them as a greenhouse for my seedlings.

But that got me thinking about building a geodesic dome home. In steel frame construction. As I can have the pieces milled for very fair rate here.

Wondering if any of you have experience with this or general feedback.

https://files.catbox.moe/oymmju.jpeg
This was a test run with any easy recipe to see if my oven is worth a crap and if I’m up to it. I used a secondary thermometer, and my oven is off by 5-7 degrees.