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Old 09-22-2017, 11:14 AM
Arty Arty is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: one Fort or another
Posts: 768
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It's a great idea if done right, like anything else really.

The thing to remember is wood needs a high-temp quick burn with lots of oxygen (air) for a clean burn to avoid smoldering smoke and creosote buildup. So you need a way to capture the heat and release it slowly.

Otherwise you need some sort of commercial catalyst system to oxidize all that smoke and tar into CO2 - which still needs air anyway, probably wastes fuel, and throws off too much heat all at once unless you make a lot of tiny short burns.

Heat capture usually means mass (weight) of brick/stone or even water. Like a Hawaiian pig-roast where they heat up rocks with a big fire, then cook the meat from the heat of the hot rocks overnight. Packing in that weight might be less of a problem with a trailer and weight-distributing hitch that an in-box camper, though. Or you could use river stones or gravel once you get to site and dump them back before leaving.

An outside air supply, outside ash rake-out and a sealed system like a heat exchanger is a very good idea too.
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