- Thread starter Wallace
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brightspark
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not seen it done but it will be expensive to run and a total waste of heat through a heat exchanger most heat will go up the chimney
Jim_gsxr1000
Mechanical Magician
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Never converted a wood burner but built pleanty of propane burners 
can suply drawings and pics if required
can suply drawings and pics if required 
Wallace
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The idea started while looking at my scrap pile, a fire extingusher, 13kg propane and two small butane cylinders plus a patio heater. I'm thinking stack the cylinders Saturn rocket style with a flue on top exiting the wall and the patio heater in the cutout bottom of the 13kg cylinder. 
(Awaits severe berating from the No!No!No! safety council!)
Show me your etchings please Jim!
(Awaits severe berating from the No!No!No! safety council!) Show me your etchings please Jim!
brightspark
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The idea started while looking at my scrap pile, a fire extingusher, 13kg propane and two small butane cylinders plus a patio heater. I'm thinking stack the cylinders Saturn rocket style with a flue on top exiting the wall and the patio heater in the cutout bottom of the 13kg cylinder.
Show me your etchings please Jim!
nowt to do with the health and safety police or the junta . my motto is if no one has made one before ask yourself why 
the snooper
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it hasn't been invented yet
brightspark
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lol get a long length of tube stick a propane burner in side of it and blow cold air over the outside of it , then measure how far along the heat travells and its temperature before it goes cold that will give u the answerit hasn't been invented yet
DrNik
Heath Robinsons long lost son
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i did similar, made a giant bunsen burner, but problem is the heat only came out of the top, the bunsen burner didnt get hot at all, its like the flame only burns when it gets outside the tube, think it needs extra oxygen or less momentum, or something
Jim_gsxr1000
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Iv built a few burners will need to post some pics
Wallace
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This is the patio heater I have, the head is a couple of inches narrower than a 13kg propane bottle. I was thinking of cutting the bottom off the bottle to accept the whole head assembly then opening the top and adding one or two 7kg butane cylinders then the fire extinguisher as they step down in size and finally a flue.
captain-destructo
all the gear no idea
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how about 3 oil drums stacked on there side connected together and fit baffel plates so the fumes have to snake around brfore going up the chimeny
Wallace
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Are you thinking 45 gallon drums? Space is something I have very little of and the workshop layout is also a problem. There are only two places I could site a fixed heater so the flue can exit through a brick wall and one of those would require the bottle to be 6m away.
normspanners
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The rocket heater idea might work but the way a rocket heater works is to have a heat riser then the resulting heat stays in the external heat exchanger the speed of the hot air through the heat riser forces the air over the top and down the inside of heat exchanger leaving the heat in that to give to your workshop and the flue comes out at the bottom which then can carry on horizontal and out of the wall, and should be cold as it exits
and denser than air that is why the flue is flat so that the exhaust gasses 'fall' out
and denser than air that is why the flue is flat so that the exhaust gasses 'fall' out
captain-destructo
all the gear no idea
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hi there
yes i was thinking 45g drums due to the large surface area but it doesnt have to be
it can be any thing you want!!! spiral ducting a stack of 13kg bottles or car exhaust pipe
zig zaging up the wall like a giant snake as big as you can afford the space
you could even fit fins to help with the heat transfer
yes i was thinking 45g drums due to the large surface area but it doesnt have to be
it can be any thing you want!!! spiral ducting a stack of 13kg bottles or car exhaust pipe
zig zaging up the wall like a giant snake as big as you can afford the space
you could even fit fins to help with the heat transfer
Wallace
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I'll have to take a closer look at the rocket heater principles. I was thinking of baffle plates and even tubes passing through each chamber to help grab the the heat. I have a Luxfer alloy cylinder that might be better in place of the fire extinguisher before the flue as a better conductor.
I found this a while back, a hazmat tent heater. Nothing in the spec about thermal efficiency though!
![5990-hazmat-tent-heater-pro-vent[1].jpg](https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/data/attachments/31/31694-6f62e1cdbf5eeaed7f0c874c9a8ad747.jpg?hash=b2Lhzb9e6u "5990-hazmat-tent-heater-pro-vent[1].jpg")
I found this a while back, a hazmat tent heater. Nothing in the spec about thermal efficiency though!
normspanners
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using the rocket heater style design I would have thought you should be able to get 95% of the heat out the system with the flue coming out of the bottom of the drum because it will have given up its heat into the room the air drawn in the inlet that is heated by the propane and up the heat riser should be enough to force the exhaust out through a horizontal flue/exhaust which will then give the rest of the heat into the room
