I Wood Energy, Mary Twitchell, 1978, 170 pp., $7.95 from: Garden Way Publishing Co. Charlotte, VT 05445 This "easy to read" consumer oriented paperback is an attractive, well illustrated (Cathy Baker) sourcebook. Some of the material has been previously published in Garden Way Bulletins. Major areas of information concerning product selection and correct installation are well written. I would like to caution readers concerning po$sible 'safety problems concerning instructions for "Blocking" off the .Fireplace" (page 57). Exhausting a stove dire~tly into the fireplace •· cavity may produce large, potentially dangerous accumulations of creosote. (See·Jan. 1979 Rain for details concerning an improved procedure.) This problem can be avoided by extending the smoke-pipe beyond the smokeshelf or damper. My experience indicates that the use of fireplace tube-type (round or square) heat exchangers is dangerous enough that they should be avoided completely. One never knows when they might fail, the result is a shower of ashes and embers sprayed into your home. The chapter "Wood Stoves-Old & New" offers some good advice for the potential stove buyer. Some outstanding bits . of wisdom are offe_red concerning warpage in steel stoves, local .. availability, par.ts supplied by reliable manuf.acturers, opera- • tional safety, etc. - Bill Day ·• February-March 1979 RAIN Page 21 MORE ON MASONRY STOVES,& HREPLACES Page six of the January issue of Rain lists plans for. building your own Russian type masonry fireplace. It should be pointed out that the Tiinele~s Products Inc. plan, though it is offered in ten variations, has only been built in one of the variations, and that actual performance has not been fully tested, either by time or by complete efficiency calculations. The Timeless design makes extensive us½ of steel for bypass damp_ers _and for primary and secondary combustion passages. The lifetime of these parts, problems of differing rates of expansion between steel and the supporting masonry, and problems of fixing damage once the stove is built are sufficient reason to examine the design closely and proceed with caution. The only p~erson I knovy of trying to collate information regarding masonry stoves is Albie Barden of the Maine Wood Head Co:, RFD 1, Box 38, Norridgewock, ME 04957. Five dollars will get you four newsletters covering coll~tion efforts, names, and addresses of people having on-going projects, and evaluations of plans and finished products currently in use. Two newsletters have been published and two will be pu?l_ished in approximately the coming year. Albie is currently wntmg a book on the subject which will appear sometime. • after the fourth newsletter. For more information see: Feb. 1978 i'ssue of Country Journal and the Fall 1976 issue of Woodburning Quarterly (now Home Energy Digest), Vol. 1, No. 2, both containing articles by Albi~ Barden. The only metal (and that was cast iron) in traditional European tile stov_es, Kachelofen, and masonry stoves was the door and door frame. -Jim Lux ENERGY Energy Theater Some friends of Rain in Portland are exploring the possibilities of putting together an Energy'Theater here. Interested? Enthusiastic? A.T. and/or theater people, ·contact Timothy Ger9 at 228-2018 days or evenings. -LS and uncertainties add up to a picture of the Forest Service consistently allowing more timber to be cut than is being produced by current forest management practices. The technical details are, as usual, byzantine: sampling that indicates more timber in a forest • than exists, use of pulpwood timber measures inapproprjate to lumber production, assumptions that management practices that could (but aren't) be used are used, cre~iting "possible" future management to current cutting levels, assuming that replanting has or will occur more rapidly than actual practice. The USFS data, in reality, is merely a cover for political decisions made in D.C. in the Nixon era to increase wood exports to pay for our excessive imports and resultant trade deficit-in full knowledge that our forests can't support such practices. Time to turn the spotlight on bureaucratic timber thieves. - TB Energy House Catalog, $3 (refundable) from: E_nergy House P.O. Box 5288 Salem, OR 97304 For our friends in the Northwest-a new mail order supply center for alternative energy <l,nd energy conservation. 280 pages of solar collectors, wooa stoves, differential temperature thermostats, automatic ventilators, etc. It will be good when suppliers such as these get on their feet enough to offer experienced evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of various products and winnow the junk out from the good. That's the next and essential role of catalogs such as these-but for now, as a first step, they at least make various components more easily availa:ble. That's a big step. Thanks, folks. -TB Our friend and networker Jack Eyerly has shared some good things with us this· month: Loren Sears (see revi,.ew in this issue) and New Age Rhythms, an environmental/educational theater, music and dance group in Seattle.-Put together by Klarisse Emoke Szabados (who • worked with New Western Energy Show in 1976) with a grant from Washington Energy Extension Service, the group .is in process of re-forming and would like 'people interested in participating in the group or in having them perform contact them at 1906 10th Ave. W., Seattle, WA 98119, 206/284-1761. (They'll consider doing benefits if food, housing and transportation are provided!)
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