Class E? coal stove and other projects - Pics

[K1JJ]

Bill/ W1AC -

I would get the manual over the web and see what you can do. Did the installer give you the panel codes? If not, you have a problem. If so, try to troubleshoot it. You could always buy a new panel and go from there in case it's bad or you don't have the installer servicing code for this panel.

Other than that, check out FrontPoint Security on the web. They have a cellular based monitored system (Simon XT) that is about $30 per month. You install it yourself and they will program it over the cellular wireless. Depending on the options, you can pay no money upfront or add more features and pay a little. They give you the servicing codes too.

I opted to hardwire my entire house. (doors, all windows, floor sensor, motion detectors, smoke, CO, etc)  I also have web based video and cell phone auto-calls for perimeter breaches or house entry. You cud do the same if desired.


Frank -

OK on the larger-sized stove coal. Yes, I like that idea of have bigger air gaps too. I will stick with it. I tried for 36 hours last night and it JUST made it. 24 hours is a better time span before shake-down and reloading.

CO det NEAR the floor? Please explain??

T

[Mike/W8BAC]

Bill, If you haven't yet, try checking the power transformer that is plugged in a wall socket somewhere close to the alarm box. They sometimes look like a door bell transformer instead of a normal molded plastic wall wart. They supply low voltage AC to the alarm box and a rectifier board in the box makes DC for the system. Check to see if you have any juce at the transformer output.

If you have keys to the panel you can check the backup battery and see if you have voltage from the transformer all the way to the box. Some simple checks might save a bunch of money.

As for the back up power issue, try to decide what comforts you need and what you can do without in a prolonged outage. Add up the wattage than add another 50% or so for good measure. You don't want the generator running at max for long.

[Opcom]

Now about the heatsink placement...  Bear are you saying I should stand the heatsinks up on end?  The problem I found with that is they did not couple much heat in from the top stove steel plate. The air transfer was dismal. When they sit flat with their plenums against the top plate, they conduct heat into themselves bigtime.  So maybe in this case a fan blowing air thru the fins is the best way.

Pat, I think I understand what you were saying - is it about like I just described?


BTW, Bear - good War of the Worlds, Mercury Theater spoof...   

T

I think so. My reasoning with horizontal-flow oriented heat sinks was that the arrangement would benefit from something that would force air to pass within the vanes and spend some time in contact with them, and why not use convection?  In some old in-wall gas heaters the burning chamber is enclosed on all sides except top and bottom by what is basically a 'tube' that lets air convect up between the fire wall and the outer case. Some of them have even 2 layers of this if intended to be mounted in a wall. The cool air is drawn in at the bottom and exits the top. They don't have heatsink fins, but that would cost $$..

[K1JJ]

Pretty cool idea, Pat.   I can see how the cool air would be naturally drawn upwards thru the sinks using the chimney effect , especially with pic #1.


Some sheet metal work and I'd be in business.


Your photo shop job makes the stove look better too...

T

[WA1GFZ]

Look at the weight of CO VS O2
When do you want the detector to go off when it collects to two feet above the floor or hours after your death?
BTW fins up is a close second to fins vertical. Horizontal fins make me laugh since they are about useless.

[KL7OF]

TOM!!...Great idea with the heat sinks on the coal stove......I had about the same idea around 1974-5 ...I had a little plant that manufactured the "Pentagon Wood Stove"...( any one ever hear of it?)  This was started during the Arab Oil Embargo of the 70's...I applied for some grant money that was available to alternate energy type manufacturers and lost out to a solar powered $hitter....My Idea was to use a masonary heat sink to store and re radiate heat from a wood burning stove.....We sold several thousand of the "Pentagon wood stoves" ( They are 12 sided, shaped like a pentagonal dodecahedron) but never got to persue the masonary heat sink idea......

[K1JJ]

Look at the weight of CO VS O2
When do you want the detector to go off when it collects to two feet above the floor or hours after your death?
BTW fins up is a close second to fins vertical. Horizontal fins make me laugh since they are about useless.

I'll mount the CO detector lower then, Tnx.

I agree about the horizontal fins being NG, but the bottom base of those two sinks are filled with bumps, so will not seat flat. I need a milling machine.

Yo Steve - Cool on the Pentagon stove. The mid 70's sure was the time to produce them.

 I also thought that putting some large, flat slate slabs on the top and sides of the stove wud do the same thing. Just like those expensive Hearthstone stoves or even large stone fireplaces.    Yes, the coal stove heatsink idea continues to work well and probably the best working device in the whole house right now... :-)


Later -

T

[WBear2GCR]

Voo-doo...

I vote with Patrick's idea... that will move a ton of air across those fins...
The chimney effect will blast air I'd bet.

The other thing is - or the next step up - is a water jacket.

Oh, wait a minute... isn't that exactly what the old tyme home coal fired boilers were??

               _-_-bear

[N0WEK]

Re the CO detector...theoretically CO is heavier, but it tends to rise, mixed with the rising air near the stove. If you mount one detector low and the other higher on the wall, the higher one will always read higher; we've tested this in several locations. You shouldn't mount it within about a foot of the ceiling though, since the airflow is reduced in the corner and the detector tends to get bypassed. Too near the stove probably isn't good either, the smoke, if any, and the heat is hard on the detector.

I've got a combo smoke/CO model on all 4 floors, with the detectors wired together so if one goes off, they all go off.

[Opcom]

A water jacker might not be a bad idea in climates where humidifiers are necessary in the winter. Even here we sometimes run a humifier when the natural gas furnace is in high gear. To be sure having very dry warm air gives me a headache for some reason. It is not CO fortunately, That was the first thing suggested as a headache source.

[WA1GFZ]

Yea, me too on the head ache. I was visiting friends from first grade Saturday and the fireplace was cranking. Dried me out for a day.