Thanks! This was a great build! I have an old air compressor tank I want to try to build something like this to heat my shop.
Can you go over the water jacket setup, blow-off/pressure valve(s), barometric draft regulator, and anything else you are utilizing as far as temperature and water regulation.
What about filters to prevent rust clogging the pumps? I've seen blackpipe and galvanized also flake and can cause pump damage.
Your picture labeled "holes for the stack"... Do you think that double walling this would provide any benefit to the draft, and preventing the smoke from cooling, even if it only cools a slight amount or is the water "hot" enough to prevent a significant temperature drop?
How many gallons of water do you think you are utilizing, and have you thought of adding a secondary / storage tank to increase capacity and lengthen burn time? (I was thinking a well insulated underground 250-500g tank, maybe modular so you could expand and test different capacities based on how long the system takes to heat vs. burn-time).
I wanted to heat the walk-way between my house and shop to keep snow from accumulating... do you think this would require a much much larger water capacity? Faster pump?
We burn 1-2 cords a year in our stove (only source of heat) for 2000sq/ft house, get about 18" max snow fall from each storm, and temps have nvr dropped below +15* in the last 5 years... normal night temps in the 20s-30s, day-time 30s, and more often 40s.. so we aren't dealing with the extreme low temps you guys deal with so I`m hoping it wouldn't require so much wood or water to keep it burning and "warm" to prevent freezing.
Any other technical feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks!