Firespeaking http://www.firespeaking.com Natural Builders & Masonry Heating Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:47:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 New heaters in the world – a summer update! http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1127 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1127#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:47:05 +0000 admin http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1127 This summer has been an exciting time to deepen our craft in masonry heater building.

Here, Jerry Frisch of Lopez Quarries and I are standing in front of a heater that I assisted him on in a new house on the Puget Sound in the state of Washington.  It is a basic Finnish contraflow design which includes a bake oven and a heated bench on two sides.  Other masons from the Masonry Heater Association also came to help out on the heater as the whole effort was part of a  fundraising effort to raise funds for the MHA in order to be able to do lab testing on stoves to prove empirically to the EPA how clean-burning and efficient masonry heaters are as they draft new regulations for wood-burning appliances due out in a year or two.  A more in depth story will follow…

And here is an interesting project that Kiko Denzer and I just completed:

This was an interesting project that involved modifying an existing solidly-built woodstove into a masonry encasing in order to extend its flue path and create mass that would absorb more completely the heat from the wood burned.  It has a “bi-pass” damper, which acts as a valve, and allows one to heat up the flue directly.  When this damper is closed, the gases then follow a different route: back down, through the bench, and then up to where it re-unites with the original flue.  There is another damper called a shut-off damper which is used when the fire has burned out completely to shut the flue system completely and hold in all the amassed heat.

Construction shot showing flue liners in bench:

This project also represents a breakthrough for us in being able to do computer-aided design to conceive of and plan a project.

This is simply an update….  we will post much more thorough posts about each project when the dust from the summer has settled!  ‘Till then!…..

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]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=1127 0 Summer is a time of action! http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1095 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1095#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:45:43 +0000 admin http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1095

We are busily traveling to workshops and building projects as well as tending to our own productive spaces and garden at home.  We are excited to document the masonry heaters and wood-fired ovens that we will be building over the next couple of months.   Here are some updates we thought you might be interested in:

We have just received the first copies of the award-winning Natural Building video: “Mud, Hands, the House”.  This video, originally made in Spanish, features excellent instruction in many aspects of natural building and is now available for the first time with English subtitles.  Get yourself a copy, buy one as a gift, watch the trailer!…

Here is an oppotunity to learn practical skills with us….  We still have space in our August workshops!  We know of only one other wood-fired oven of this style built in North America and are excited to share how to build this extremely practical oven with others.  Find out more about this series of workshops which also includes hands-on educational opportunities in rustic-carpentry, earthen plasters and bread baking.

August 13-21 Natural Living Workshops – Woodinville, WA

Our new MEDIA section is a place for us to share updates, articles and videos.  Check out, for example, this fun video of Eva building an oven in Argentina… a video-summary of a natural building festival we were teachers at… or this announcement of the AWARDS WE WON! for our work at this year’s Masonry Heater Association Annual Gathering.

Explore the tabs above to find out more about what we do!

]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=1095 0 Mark Twain on European Masonry Stoves http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1067 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1067#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:41:17 +0000 admin http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1067 Mark Twain“Take the German stove, for instance – where can you find it outside of German countries? I am sure I have never seen it where German was not the language of the region. Yet it is by long odds the best stove and the most convenient and economical that has yet been invented.

To the uninstructed stranger it promises nothing; but he will soon find that it is a masterly performer, for all that. It has a little bit of a door which you couldn’t get your head in – a door which seems foolishly out of proportion to the rest of the edifice; yet the door is right, for it is not necessary that bulky fuel shall enter it. Small-sized fuel is used, and marvelously little of that. The door opens into a tiny cavern which would not hold more fuel than a baby could fetch in its arms. The process of firing is quick and simple. At half past seven on a cold morning the servant brings a small basketful of slender pine sticks – say a modified armful – and puts half of these in, lights them with a match, and closes the door. They burn out in ten or twelve minutes. He then puts in the rest and locks the door, and carries off the key. The work is done. He will not come again until next morning.

All day long and until past midnight all parts of the room will be delightfully warm and comfortable, and there will be no headaches and no sense of closeness or oppression. In an American room, whether heated by steam, hot water, or open fires, the neighborhood of the register or the fireplace is warmest – the heat is not equally diffused throughout the room; but in a German room one is comfortable in one part of it as in another. Nothing is gained or lost by being near the stove. Its surface is not hot; you can put your hand on it anywhere and not get burnt.

Consider these things. One firing is enough for the day; the cost is next to nothing; the heat produced is the same all day, instead of too hot and too cold by turns; one may absorb himself in his business in peace; he does not need to feel any anxieties of solicitudes about the fire; his whole day is a realized dream of bodily comfort.

America could adopt this stove, but does America do it? The American wood stove, of whatsoever breed, it is a terror. There can be no tranquility of mind where it is. It requires more attention than a baby. It has to be fed every little while, it has to be watched all the time; and for all reward you are roasted half your time and frozen the other half. It warms no part of the room but its own part; it breeds headaches and suffocation, and makes one’s skin feel dry and feverish; and when your wood bill comes in you think you have been supporting a volcano.

We have in America many and many a breed of coal stoves, also – fiendish things, everyone of them. The base burners are heady and require but little attention; but none of them, of whatsoever kind, distributes its heat uniformly through the room, or keeps it at an unvarying temperature, or fails to take the life out of the atmosphere and leave it stuffy and smothery and stupefying….”

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]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=1067 0 Bioconstruyendo: Argentinian Natural Building Festival http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1055 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1055#comments Sat, 29 May 2010 15:44:13 +0000 admin http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1055 We are really excited about this video.  It documents the events leading up to and during the natural building festival: Bioconstruyendo 2010 in El Bolson, Patagonia, Argentina.  Both Eva and Max were lead instructors for the event which was extremely successful.  So many great things were accomplished and so much fun was had!

Visit Bioconstruyendo’s website for updates and news of upcoming festivals!

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]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=1055 1 Our Vision: Towards a Craft School http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1053 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1053#comments Sat, 29 May 2010 15:17:22 +0000 admin http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1053 Download file, view and print it out to keep and share!

Vision of Craft School Document

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]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=1053 0 Firespeaking wins two awards at this year’s Masonry Heater Association annual gathering! http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1033 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1033#comments Sat, 29 May 2010 06:34:03 +0000 admin http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=1033 We won 1st place in the masonry heater design/build contest with the heater that we recently built in Patagonia, Argentina and 3rd place with the oven that we built in Berkeley, California.  We will link to the contest results on the Masonry Heater Association page when they have published them.

This is the second year that Max has attended the annual gathering and the second time he has led a project.  Every year,  each of the projects is very well documented….  Max led a building project/workshop called: Experimental Stove Design – Combining Elements of the Rocket Stove and Contraflow Heaters.

Regarding the event, Max says: “The Masonry Heater Association annual gathering reminds me of what I imagine guild meetings were like during the Rennaissance times.  Many skilled people who share in their commitment to a craft coming together to exchange experiences and have a good time together.  Besides all the good fun and the incredible amount of projects that were accomplished, there was quite a bit of focus on preparing us for stricter federal-level regulations on wood-burning appliances that the EPA is preparing.  Masonry heaters have the good fortune of being very clean burning so the MHA as a professional organization is rallying to make sure that masonry heaters are included in the acceptable appliances in the legislature.

Two special guests at this year meeting were Lars Helsbro from Denmark and Heikki Hyytiainen of Finland.  It was really gratifying to see how both of them showed that cutting-edge, beatiful and modern stoves in Europe are being faced with unfired clay brick and clay-based mortars.  This has great potential to reduce both real and environmental costs by using locally available materials.

Another very revealing part of the gathering was learning about different air systems in and around the firebox.  It became clear to me that how the air is supplied to the fire is one of the most important things in clean, strong combustion.  It is very interesting how the more one looks into these matters, the more similar one finds wood combustion to be to any other kind of combustion.  Essentially, there is a process in which the solids in the wood turn into gases which then, and only then burn.  Good efficient combustion has to do with how completely you can turn that wood into gases and then how completely you can burn those gases and thereby get heat.  Parts of the wood that do not completely gasify or do not receive sufficient oxygen to burn end up as creosote in chimneys or particulates in the air as smoke.  As several of my mentors have pointed out, the goal is to burn wood so that only wator vapor and small amounts of carbon dioxide are coming out of the chimney.  If you combine this with a low stack temperature by transferring all the produced heat into a heat exchanger like a series of masonry channels then you are really using this sacred resource efficiently and respectfully.”

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]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=1033 0 Adobe Oven in Golondrinas, Argentina http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=996 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=996#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 17:07:22 +0000 eva http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=996 This is a fun video of Eva building an adobe oven along with friend and collaborator Demian Iusso of Manos en El Barro Natural Building in Patagonia, Argentina.  Activate and enjoy!

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]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=996 1 Adobe Pump House http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=934 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=934#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 19:35:00 +0000 eva http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=934

This adobe pump house was built to reduce the sound coming from a generator at Spirit Pine Sanctuary.  Betty Seaman made the bricks and together with her apprentice, Natalie Spears, they built this structure in December of 2009.

Max led the construction of the roof which included milled lumber and cement- “ceramic” roof tiles.

]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=934 0 Five Oaks Farm Oven http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=835 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=835#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 16:13:02 +0000 eva http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=835

Five Oaks Farm is a small family farm located on the Henry Wilhelm Estate that was built in 1865 and is a historic landmark. The farm is located just off the Oregon Trail and was originally 160 acres with a house, chicken coop, sheep barn, stable, and black smith. The original outhouse is still hidden in the blackberries. The apple orchard, walnut tree and grape vines continue to fruit like gifts from the pioneers who settled here over 150 years ago.

Carol and Barry knew at first sight that the wonderful and historic Victorian house with a homestead apple orchard, original barns and five towering oak trees was where they wanted to live, grow their pesto business and raise their four boys.

They hired me to design and build this wood fired earth oven to establish and outdoor kitchen/gathering place near the vegetable garden.  The oven was created almost completely from on-site materials and by family and neighbors during a workshop I led in June 2009.   In addition to general baking and pizza parties,  they wanted this oven to bake fresh bread that they could serve along with their delicious pesto at weekly farmer’s markets: Dante’s Pesto.

Future plans for this gathering place include benches and counter tops that attach to the oven.

Thanks so much to all of the neighbors and friends that helped!  The roof structure was built by Mark Lakeman.

For more photos of this project, check out Eva’s blog post….

]]> http://www.firespeaking.com/?feed=rss2&p=835 0 Masonry Heater in the Rio Azul http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=840 http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=840#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:41:44 +0000 max http://www.firespeaking.com/?p=840

This is the masonry heater that we built in the central community building of the Rio Azul community outside of El Bolson, Patagonia, Argentina in March of 2010.  This heater can act as an open fireplace to provide the magic of fire and cut the chill in the late Spring or early Fall… but it really shines through the cold months when you close the first damper and send all the hot gases through a full round-trip in the day bed before they leave through the chimney.  When the fire has gone out, you close the second damper to keep all the accumulated heat in the stone and adobe inside the building which emanates until the next fire you make the following day.  There are pipes in the firebox that heat water in a hot water tank which is above the heater.

Most of the heater was built in our Naturally Building for Fire workshop that I led and then Eva and I did the finishing work afterward.  Here you can see a little more of the context in which the heater was built.  You can see the community kitchen in the background.  The heater helps to form the living room / hang-out area.  There is a sleeping loft in between.  The building currently acts as a barn as well which is why garlic and herbs are hanging and bins of seeds are all around.

This heater also represents a breakthrough for us is making our own hardware.  My old metalsmithing teacher let me build the firebox door, dampers and cleanouts in his shop.

More about masonry heaters….

I look forward to sharing more about the process on my personal blog so stay tuned….

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