Avoiding the Draft

Greetings, Glorious Readers!

 Ok. Too dramatic. Let's tone it down a bit.

Day of rest is it? Sunday. Something along those lines.  I have taken to start watching Dr. Who episodes. (From the 60's beginning) I remember watching them as a kid on PBS. Although, those were the color versions. Say 70s/80s.

Anyhow.

Most of the insulation is up. Only parts remaining is the South wall and the ceiling. South because it is a bunch of cutting. Ceiling... well, that involves me actually finding the stapler. Insulation will happily remain in a wall cavity until you find the stapler, however, when gravity abounds... Not so much.

A few days ago I remarked on a posting... hmm, I think it was Liz's down in Australia. Drafting. Yes, about needing a longer pipe. With the setup here involving ten feet worth of pipe indoors to get most of the heat from the fire before it vents above the roof, not a problem.

Since the first fire, I have been impressed with how well the camp stove keeps the smoldering smoke from leaving the wide open doorway.

Last night was different. It started to smell a bit weird in the house. A small amount of smoke. For the last week since gooping all the attachment points, there hasn't been any smells at all. Turns out, smoke is back drafting out of the box.

Hmm. Not good.

So I have to leave the door closed to keep the smoke inside. A pisser because when the door is closed, it blocks a lot of the heat/radiation coming into the house.

Heat transfers by three methods. Conduction (Hot thing touches bare skin), Convection (Can't sleep at night because its too damn hot in the attic), or radiation (Egads - Its 40F outside and yet I got sunburned! Feels lovely with the sun though...)

They sell those radiant barriers. The aluminum foil sheets you place in your attic or walls. Blocks out the radiation transfer of heat.

That is what your fireplace door does. In my case with it being a metal door. Yours probably is glass which is nice to watch plus let the heat out.

Get back to it already!

OK ok. So, I had to crawl up the ladder the 14ft up to the roof to pull the chimney cap off. See if it was blocked up there. The pipes inside were hollow. (Sound)

Inspecting inside the  vent without the cap revealed a little soot on the walls but no major blockage. I didn't expect much because its only been a month of burning. Actually fairly clean.

I suspect that the main pipe is pretty clean. The box gets hot enough to combust it plus clean the pipe.

Most of the wood burned has been the dry creek willow. It burns hot. When you allow it to really burn instead of smolder, it keeps it all clean.  The other day I purchased a thermometer to place on the pipe to guage the proper temperature for creosote buildup.

Now the cap itself has a bunch of holes in it. Let the smoke out. I knocked the cap a bit on the ground to clean out the vents. Then reinstalled it.

Came back in to start a new fire. Voila. Drafting back as before. Perfect. I can leave the door open (supervised) to get more heat indoors.

Conclusion. Vent cap is crap. I'll be looking for a different design. One that is a tiny cap over the top for precipitation and large fencing around it for critters but wont lend itself to being blocked up.

I believe it built up over the last couple days due to playing nicer with the pipe temperatures, plus burning pine exclusively. A local friend dropped off a couple buckets worth of pine log pieces.

In lazyness, (not wishing to go harvest/break up the willow in the creek/after spending all day putting up insulation).

It is a learning process.

Oh happy day! Back to Dr. Who. Season 1 ep. 12. It is going to take me a while to catch up to the 50th anniversary episode.