Stalling the CAT?

Havent used one but I'd think the T-stat woul help keep from stalling out.

 

Myself, personally, like to set my lowest setting a little higher than some folks. It’s just not worth flirting with cat stall and the resulting very low flue temperatures which I think add extra unnecessary chimney accumulation. The thermostat definitely opens and closes during the lower burn to keep things up to temperature but you can still stall the cat by demanding the stove run too low.

It’s the way of the future. I think emissions regulations will force the issue to make future stoves take technology from the current wood furnaces where combustion temperatures are regulated by automatic intake damper control. Electric most likely. Just some crystal ball talk.

 

You dont think the need for unpowered heat will prevail?

 

Tieing a woodstove to power would kill the number one reason to have a stove... Safety! Living in the mountains of New Hampshire, it was 8° this morning. Not an unusual winter day. We also have strong wind storms throughout the winter, usually surpassing gale force. Electricity can't be taken for granted.

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I was without power, 20+ days in November a few years back. Glad I had heat, as it was snowy

 

Not when the computer can be run with a 9 volt battery. Also, the EPA doesn’t care about that. Just emissions during the huge majority of burns when power is on.

Other possibilities are generating the small amount of power needed for the computer using the heat from the stove or mechanical controls like the BK thermostat. The tech is there.

Just a guess. The low emissions from these wood furnaces with automation will prove too attractive to regulators.

Remember when fuel injection was new? All the carb guys freaking out about computers or an EMP.

The standing pilot light on ovens and even water heaters is almost extinct.

 

Nice avatar. Diana's Bath?

 

Yep, I remember both electronic fuel injection as well as electronic ignition being introduced on cars. And the hate, distrust and general belief that both were pure evil was common, to the point where one gentleman complained to me that he did not even know where to hit F.I. with a screwdriver handle like he did on carburetors (to refloat the float, which F.I. wonderfully does not have). Of course I helpfully pointed out a spot on the throttle body (before multi port F.I. with only one large injector) that <might> work. He was less cranky and I had a thought that still brings a smile decades later..... win / win. Reminds me of that rumor someone started around these parts about the converters needed when TV went digital that they <might> <could> <possibly> contain cameras to spy on 'We, the People'. That one brings a chuckle.... but I digress.

I do not believe the gov't will direct anything like a requirement to have regulated wood stoves. Typically what they do is set minimums regarding pollution, stove efficiency and safety and the manufacturers do what is required to fit into those parameters. Exactly like autos, the mechanics and electronics are not regulated but pollution, efficiency and fleet mileage are so all auto makers (other than that German one, for a while ) did what was needed to meet those requirements and R&D'd it until they did meet them. I think the same thing will continue with wood stoves just as it is now- the gov't does not care if manufacturers use catalytic combustors or not but more and more stove makers are doing so to meet emission standards.

I am a big fan of automation and think it would serve extremely well on a woodstove. Of course it would require some electricity but as long as a natural draft were used, it should not take much electric power to run an automated woodstove. An easy, reliable and perhaps long- lasting backup would be something such as a computer UPS. Modern electronics have been extremely successful in reducing the amount of power needed by processors, memory storage and so forth. Small stepper motors or brush- type DC motors would not draw much power because they are small as well as they would not have to move much and even then intermittently.

If such stoves <might> be built with a manual override in the event of power loss. But even if that were the case, I would personally use an alternate power source and continue to use the stove and the control system through a power failure.

 

My front "yard", LOL.
About 20 minutes from Diana's Bath.

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I like the idea of alternate power sources. A battery charged by a piezzoelectric device (like used on a stove fan) would not require a plug. Still makes stoves easily usable off grid or during power failures.

 

Despite being used reliably in flight propulsion(s), the early adoption automotive single point fuel injection basically sucked and was rife with failure. It wasn't until the sixties and early seventies when direct injection became economically feasible that it became both affordable, reliable and ecologically useful.

 

Yeah, people are running lights and cameras with miniature solar generators. Systems capable of keeping a pellet stove running aren't so terribly relatively expensive any more. Solar generators are becoming increasingly both affordable and usable in RV/camping environments, replacing or minimizing use of fossil fuel generators. Advancements in lithium and sodium batteries are trickling down to homeowner and personal use.

 

Early mechanical fuel injection on autos (mid- 1950's) was certainly a bit crude but it absolutely did eliminate the tremendous air/fuel ratio difference between individual cylinders that was always a large problem with carbureted cars. Digital fuel injection appeared in the late 1970's / early 1980's and was quite reliable as compared to carburetors.

Still, not really the point of my post: I was addressing some, actually far to many IMO, being so cranky about F.I. that they would actually invent things about it to focus that anger. The one I mentioned was in F.I. vehicles not having that obvious place (at least for the gentleman I was talking with about this) to 'bang on' if or when it did not run right. New technology is often met with huge amounts of resistance from what is often a surprisingly large part of the population. The Brits even assigned such people the name 'Luddites'.

But the entire thing worked very well for me- I got F.I. which is far better than carburation, going by any metric I can think of, and it added another tool for me to tweak my fellow human's nose and tickle my funny bone. F.I. is fantastic, and helping someone find a new place to strike his / her car when frustrated is priceless.....