Overnight Continuous Buring Solid Fuel Stoves

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Life has been a bit busy lately for me, and the blog has suffered as a result. My apologies to my regular readers, and my sincere thanks to those who contacted me with concern and well wishes.

Tips on how to achieve

Overnight Burning

in a Stove or Closed Fireplace

1st of several posts on the subject

One of the most frequently asked questions about solid fuel burning is: How do I get over-night or continuous burning for 8 hours or more?

A short answer is: Not difficult if you have the correct stove, the correct fuel, and a little know-how.

The Trick to having a Toasty House

The trick to having a really comfortable house is continuous 24 -7 burning. It maintains the fabric of a house at a stable temperature. On off heating never really warms the floors, brickwork etc. it tends just to heat the air. When the heating switches off, the house rapidly cools down again to ambient temperatures. But when a house is heated continuously for several days without a break, the entire fabric of the building takes in heat and - like a great big storage heater - acts to maintain an even temperature.

Fuel and Air Mix

I learned many years ago, while attending training at the Shell BP training facility in Fulham London, that combustion, whether in a boiler, stove, or fire, was dependant on 4 things:

(1) Fuel that is appropriate to the situation,

(2) Oxygen in sufficient quantity to maintain efficient burn,

(3) Mixing, the proper mixing of the Fuel and Oxygen in order to get efficient burn, and

(4) Ignition to start the process in the first place.

However, even before considering combustion efficiency, the first thing to look at is the device or vessel in which the combustion takes place. In this instance, a solid fuel stove or enclosed fireplace.

Stove or Fire

To achieve efficient, controlled, and extended burn, you must have a good stove or enclosed fireplace. An essential defining factor in a good and efficient stove or fire with a fire front door is the facility to fully control the oxygen supply to the fuel.

This is the single most important function. If the air can leak in through damaged doors, seal, air controls, or cracked casings, it will NOT be possible to fully control the combustion rate. This in turn will lead to inefficiency and possibly to the damage of the stove or fire grates.

I will be looking at (1) Fuel, (2)  Ash, (3) Adjusting Burn, (4) stoking etc in further posts. 

Keep a look out for the posts.

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Sustainability in Ireland and Trends

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What are the General Trends in Ireland?

Is our Economy and our Society

Currently Sustainable?

I am not qualified to interpret figures and trends. I have collected a set of statistics and surveys over the last year and to my uneducated eye, they show a very bleak outlook indeed, both fiscally and for the stability of society in general. I truly hope my observations are incorrect. I would really like to hear from any of my readers who see these figures in a brighter light.

Here is my collection of statistics and reports:

STRESS and DEPRESSION IN IRISH CHILDREN up in 2 years by 30%

ALCOHOL and SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN IRELAND up by 42%

(increased 42% in 5 years 2005 to 2010)
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE up from 2010 to 2011 by 15%
(11,000 women and children sought refuge in 2011 according to SAFE organisation).

UNEMPLOYMENT has increased by 352%

( from 4.2% in 2007 to 14.8% by October 2012)

UNEMPLOYMENT among 15 to 24y group nationally stands at 39%

UNEMPLOYMENT in the 15 to 25y group in some areas is at 74%
HOUSE BUILDING homes built 8,488 has dropped over 90% since 2006 at 93,000, and is 20% down in one year.
BUSINESS INSOLVENCIES Up 13.30% from 2010.
(1,684 companies failed in 2012 alone)

FUEL POVERTY, (the decision to Eat or Heat) estimated to affect 40% of citizens

FOOD POVERTY in 2010 was estimated to be at 10%
FOOD PRICES have risen by an average of 12% in the last two years.
HOMELESSNESS up by as much as 45% in Dublin.

(from 70 in 2010 to a current estimate of as much as 101)

RETAIL SALES are down by 5.50%

SUICIDES are up in 2011 from 2010 by 7%

TRUST in the Irish Government in a recent survey fell to a mere 20%

DISSATISFACTION WITH GOVERNMENT stands at 73%
POLITICIANS are the 2nd least trusted profession in Ireland.
(Only 14% of Irish people trust politicians - I wonder why?  How about 26 TDs, members of the Irish Parliament, each claimed €5,000 expenses for August - when there are no sittings of the House)

DISPOSABLE INCOME SURVEY: 1.60 million Irish have €50 or less left each month after paying for essentials. In other words, roughly 36% of the Irish population have disposable income of €600 or less per year.
DISPOSABLE INCOME in lower income groups effectively down by nearly 19%

By contrast the imbalance in incomes:

INCOME FOR TOP IRISH EARNERS is up on average by over 4%

DUBLIN CITY MANAGER salary €190,000

COUNTY MANAGERS salary €153,260

Compare salaries:

SPANISH PRIME MINISTER'S salary €78,185

Addendum:

Recently published figures from the Irish Central Statistics Office are frightening and sickening:

CONSISTENT POVERTY rate for Ireland up by 60.87% in 3 years 2008 - 2011
DEPRIVATION in Ireland is up by 56.35% in the 3 years 2008 to 2011

Actual figures from the CSO:

Deprivation rate for 2008 was 13.8%   - - for 2011 it had risen to to a shocking 24.50%
Consistent Poverty rate in 2008 was 4.20% - - it rose to 6.90% in 2011

This is happening at the same time as the well off are increasing their wealth by an average 4%.

Shame on Ireland, and shame on those who have caused it to happen by their greed and recklessness, and shame on those who are not doing enough to re-balance the situation.

In nature, large imbalances ALWAYS cause a flash-over, an earthquake, a flood, a volcanic eruption, or a social revolution.

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Magdalene the Irish Gulag

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The Irish

Gulag Archipelago

Magdalene Laundries

Looking like a scene from Oliver Twist  - an early photograph of these terrible prisons where innocent Irish girls were enslaved and mistreated.

In the above photo, time has passed but the situation remains very much the same - in a harsh, bitter, self-righteous, and largely uncaring Ireland.

More time passes and yet the scene still remains largely unchanged.

Ireland Oh Ireland what have you done?
How blind and self-righteous were you,
Wrapped in an outer shell of religiosity,
While, with hard heart and blind eyes,
You failed your poor, weak and vulnerable.


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Irish Government Make Progress on Job Creation

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Irish Government

Making Progress on

Job Creation

How to MAKE JOBS

a painting by Shame-us O Con-man

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Irish Government Taxation Shameus O Conman

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Taxation in Ireland

a painting by 

Shameus O Conman

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Graphene Research Project for Trinity College Dublin

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Ireland to Have a Direct Hand

in the Development of

The New Super Material

GRAPHENE

I have just been reading some news reports that the Crann (meaning Tree in Irish - and pronounced 'crown')  Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin is to receive major research grants and thus become a significant player in the exciting development of the new super material Graphene.

My previous post expressed my hopes for Graphene as the genesis and major component in the development of a new breed of Super Capacitors.

This news that Trinity College and Ireland is to have a direct hand in the development of this exciting material is most heartening in these times of recession and lots of bad news. Congratulation Crann, Trinity, and Ireland!



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Super Capacitors and Super Batteries

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New Hopeful

in the Hunt for a

Safe Super Battery

Boeing Dream-Liner Burned-out Battery

I have written fairly extensively over the years about the universal world need for a quantum leap in battery design. The recenty reported battery electrical problems that grounded the entire stock of Boeing's Dreamliner has again brought into sharp focus the urgent need for safer, lighter, and higher-capacity batteries.

BATTERIES

Batteries are essentially CHEMICAL FACTORIES. Electricity is both stored and retrieved by changing the chemistry of the substances inside the battery. These chemical reactions cause the release of both heat and gasses. As Boeing have to their great expense now fully realised, heat and gasses are very much not wanted in an enclosed space.

Another disadvantage to batteries is that they take a long time to charge up, and cannot release the charge very quickly either. If you try to charge or discharge a battery too quickly - they go on fire or blow up, as Boeing are only too painfully aware.

The reason the all-electric car has not taken off is because the batteries are:

(1) Way too expensive.
(2) Don't hold enough electricity for long journeys.
(3) Take WAY too long to charge.
(4) Are too bulky and heavy.
(5) Are too Short lived - a few years - where a capacitor could out-live the car twice over.
(6) Are prone to overheat or blow up.

CAPACITORS

By contrast, capacitors, to date, have only TWO of the above disadvantages - bulk and weight, and charge capacity.

The other way to store electricity is by the use of a CAPACITOR. A capacitor stores energy in a very different way to a battery. It is a charge device - meaning it does not generate ANY chemical reactions, heat or gasses. This is a huge advantage.

The problem with capacitor storage has been the charge capacity to size/weight ratio. In other words, you needed tens if not hundreds of times more space and or weight to hold the same amount of electrical charge.

In recent years nano technology has made great advances in the development of Super Capacitors. But till now they still need to be too large for many uses, for instance, as a main power source in electric cars.

FAILED PROMISES

In posts to this blog ranged over years, I have outline some of the many hopeful contenders in the race for a better battery. To date all have failed to produce the holy grail of energy storage, and many would appear to be no more than "vapour ware".

There are lots of hopefuls out there ferreting away trying to develop viable batteries but nothing much has actually been delivered in more than 5 years of development.

THE NEW HOPE

Now on the horizon appears a new hopeful, it is based on a cheap, natural, safe, non toxic, and plentiful substance. The form of this substance was only discovered some five years ago.

Graphene, a form of carbon, is what I speak of. The above picture is the form of graphine first produced using almost a school boy low tech method of Scotch Tape to peel and peel and peel layer after layer of graphite to arrive at the all important single layer.

Graphene is a matrix of carbon atoms in a single layer - looking something like chicken wire. It has some truly amazing properties, one of these properties may lend it to the development of a compact and efficient Ultra-Capacitor. Developers have come up with new ways of producing graphene in usable quantities.

STORAGE CAPACITY DEMONSTRATED

Graphine is known to have amazing electrical properties. A tiny but viable capacitor has been demonstrated that can hold electrical charge many many times greater than anything previously demonstrated in a capacitor.

Now the development chase is on full-speed - to learn to produce industrial quantities of graphene and turn it into amazingly high capacity capacitors.

Mobile phones that would charge in seconds and last a week, electric cars that could re-charge in 10 minutes and travel 300 - 400 miles before re-charging. We will hopefully wait and see.

This - at last - is looking hopeful.


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Chinese LED Lamps Good and Bad

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Good Chinese LED Lamps

and 

Rubbish Chinese LED Lamps

The above Chinese LED lamp is an example of some utter and complete rubbish being exported from China. If the Chinese government or trade bodies had any cop-on, they would ban the export of this sort of trash. It can do nothing but get Chinese industry a bad name.

I am a sucker for a bargain and for trying out different things. I bought several lots of 3 watt GU10 lamps on EBay. On average they lasted about 3 weeks before dying, some died after 5 days in use, and a few hang on. Do yourself a big favour and skip this particular rubbish if you are trying for a bargain on EBay.

Not all Bad News

Another purchase that I made turned out very differently. The above GU10 lamp is a 12 Watt 3 emitter lamp. It cost about $10US including postage. There is very good light output and it has been going for 2 months 14 hours a day so far. The only negative comment I have is that the light is a little bit too warm or yellowish.

It claims to have Cree emitters, and as you can see the heat sink is fairly massive - that is a good point because what tends to kill LED lamps is heat. If there is a good heat-sink, that means - big in size and plenty of metal, the lamp has a greater possibility of longer life.

In the crappy Chinese LED lamp exports, another cause of failure is poor quality driver circuits, some makers use cheap and nasty quality capacitors and other components.

The Chinese lesson for today with regard to LED Lamps is "Caveat Emptor"



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Review of 2012

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In 2012

How Sustainable was Ireland

Socially, Economically, and Morally?

The figures speak for themselves. On Environmental issues, carbon taxes are said to have reduced our thirst for carbon emitting fuels. However, I personally would dispute the actual cause of reduced consumption. Fuel poverty has grown to unacceptable levels and people simply cannot afford to properly heat their homes, and are doing without. Another factor is the unemployment situation which has increased by a sickening 352% in 5 years. Unemployed people leave the country, and they also do not use cars as much.

However, the statistics that worry me the most are the ones pointing to social instability, and the dearth of moral leadership by those in charge of running society.

STRESS and DEPRESSION IN IRISH CHILDREN up in 2 years by 30%

ALCOHOL and SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN IRELAND up by 42%

(increased 42% in 5 years 2005 to 2010)
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE up from 2010 to 2011 by 15%
(11,000 women and children sought refuge in 2011 according to SAFE organisation).

UNEMPLOYMENT has increased by 352%

( from 4.2% in 2007 to 14.8% by October 2012)

UNEMPLOYMENT among 15 to 24y group nationally stands at 39%

UNEMPLOYMENT in the 15 to 25y group in some areas is at 74%
HOUSE BUILDING homes built 8,488 has dropped over 90% since 2006 at 93,000, and is 20% down in one year.
BUSINESS INSOLVENCIES Up 13.30% from 2010.
(1,684 companies failed in 2012 alone)

FUEL POVERTY, (the decision to Eat or Heat) estimated to affect 40% of citizens

FOOD POVERTY in 2010 was estimated to be at 10%
FOOD PRICES have risen by an average of 12% in the last two years.
HOMELESSNESS up by as much as 45% in Dublin.

(from 70 in 2010 to a current estimate of as much as 101)

RETAIL SALES are down by 5.50%

SUICIDES are up in 2011 from 2010 by 7%

TRUST in the Irish Government in a recent survey fell to a mere 20%

DISSATISFACTION WITH GOVERNMENT stands at 73%
POLITICIANS are the 2nd least trusted profession in Ireland.
(Only 14% of Irish people trust politicians - I wonder why?  How about 26 TDs, members of the Irish Parliament, each claimed €5,000 expenses for August - when there are no sittings of the House)

DISPOSABLE INCOME SURVEY: 1.60 million Irish have €50 or less left each month after paying for essentials. In other words, roughly 36% of the Irish population have disposable income of €600 or less per year.
DISPOSABLE INCOME in lower income groups effectively down by nearly 19%

By contrast:

INCOME FOR TOP IRISH EARNERS is up on average by over 4%

DUBLIN CITY MANAGER salary €190,000

COUNTY MANAGERS salary €153,260

Compare salaries:

SPANISH PRIME MINISTER'S salary €78,185

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Is Time Running Out for Ireland?

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Is Time running out for Ireland?

a painting by Shameus O Conman

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