Wood Stove in a Wood part 3

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This Post is dedicated to
the "No See Ums"
Blood Sucking Nano-Monsters
The Dreaded Midges

As I told you in the last post, the problem on the day proved to be the blood sucking Nano-Monsters which attacked in very large numbers.

However we persevered and drilled the hole for the flue, installed the flue insulating jacket, sealed against the weather (and bugs), installed the flue itself with home-made brackets, and even made a flue cap from the cats drinking bowl!!! All this was done in double quick time - we only lost a couple of pints of blood!!!!

You can clearly see the sealing and the brackets here

We badly needed to replace the lost blood and sweat, so the new stove was pressed into immediate practical use - to boil the kettle and make the tea of course.

Polly put the kettle on!

Thankfully all worked well and there was no need to call the fire service. Only problem experienced was the burn-off of the paint the stove was coated with. This took a couple of hours and needed plenty of ventilation.

Our home-made triple walled flue through the caravan wall proved itself and temperatures were moderate on the outer skin. While you would not care to leave your hand there, it stayed comparatively cool posing no danger to the wall fabric.

Heat output and Efficiency?

Heat - yes plenty of it in no time at all. From such a tiny stove there was a very good heat output, way beyond what one would expect.

Efficiency? Hard to say without specialist testing. If we had put the flue running up the inside of the caravan no doubt the efficiency would be better, but that was too difficult an option to consider.


The finished flue with smoke rising around the cat's bowl cowl. You can get a glimpse of the wood and the really lovely countryside.

Thanks to "Polly", the pioneering owner and tea maker, who allowed the whole thing to be photographed, and no thanks to the midges who left their mark for many days!!





Addendum:

A note on the stove since writing this piece. The firebox of the stove is obviously tiny - like the stove itself. This however is a disadvantage because the fire will not stay burning for long without being re-fuelled. In fact it needs re-fuelling, when burning wood, every 40 minutes or so. With peat or coal it will go for longer.  A larger stove on peat or coal could give heat for most of the night - but not this little baby. This little stove would keep you busy constantly. Feed me - feed me now!!


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