[pct-l] Fallingwater's Stove

["Scott Elliott" <SCOTEL01@noa.nintendo.com>]

>>Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 22:29:02 -0800 
>>From: Ronald Moak <ronm@fallingwater.com>
>>Subject: [pct-l] The Incredible 2 Ounce Mult-Fuel Stove!
>><http://www.fallingwater.com/pct2000/two_ounce_stove.htm> 

Great work Ron!  I think what you have is the minimalist dream.  But the engineer in me can't leave well enough alone so let me give you a few thought on what might improving performance:

1)  RADIANT COOLING.  Adding a foil "ground cloth."  This will catch anything burning (epbit) as well as reflect radiant heat back up.  This could be as small as a 3" circle.  The best way to measure heat going down would be to put something that is black and has a larger thermal mass.  For that matter a COOKING thermometer (the mercury should absorb the radiated heat well)  placed on the ground above and below a foil sheet might prove interesting.  Also, keeping the inside of the stove clean will keep it from absorbing the radiant heat.

2)  CONVECTION I'm not an aeronautical engineer, but perhaps only having vents on one side might allow for less heat loss.  Ensuring good airflow up onto the pot is also important so testing is going to be important.  As an alternative I've found that a small piece of foil is very adaptive as a wind shield with my gas stove.

3)  MATERIALS.  A more ridged material than the alloy used in vent pipes could pull a fair bit of weight out.  Titanium would be a good choice, but it is expensive, hard to find and hard to cut (and I think that grinding produces toxic dust??).  Titanium would also make a good choice for the grid.

Scott





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