I'm aware of the many books that are out there, and have dabbled in hvac myself. Enough to have been told your not aloud to do that yourself by a professional who in my opinion didn't even fully understand the technical aspects of why he was doing it. Couldn't even discuss it for that matter. But that's besides the point I guess. My goal for writing this information, and having the thought of one day making some sort of manual, or hand book out of it. Is to save the average individual, one who doesn't have the means to spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on many manuals and books and documents, or One who doesn't have a technical background or degrees or schooling or anything of the sort, the hassle of having to invest so much in designing a wood burning boiler. Most people who take the DIY route do so for a number of reasons, but generally finances is the number one. The sense of satisfaction is the end result. For those of us who build and create our own projects, we can think back to a time when something went wrong, and we had to rely on ourselves alone to remedy it. For a special few, it is like a spark that leads to a life long process of building, wrenching, welding, whatever it may be. Nonetheless, it is the reson most people like to do things themselves without relying on somebody else. It allows you to he creative, saves money, and rewards with satisfaction of completion. Yes, there are many ppl with schooling and technical training. But my personal experience with them when you ask questions of them is almost always "you can't do that, you need to hire a professional" which is very frustrating to a person like myself. that along with almost a decade of building large equipment and installing it and the people of "trade" I have met I have come to the conclusion that nobody likes to share. They're all greedy with their knowledge. I, on the other hand believe just the opposite. Knowledge and experience are things that should be freely shared by all. The world would be a better place if everyone would share. The internet has done some good in this department, and makes all sorts of knowledge available to everybody.
But back to my original point.... if someone who feels that heAting there home with an OWB is a wise thing to do, for whatever the reason may be, and then decides to build their own, for whatever the reason may be. Then I hope I can share with them what I have spent much effort researching and experimenting, and testing, and allow them to make educated decisions while they plan and construct their OWB. While having it all in one place, and easily accessible. Also, because of years of uneducated builders and users, there are areas that are coming down on the use of OWB for polution reasons. So if more people have the information available to maximize efficiency then hopefully there are less ppl looking down upon us for how we heat our home.
Yes there are programs that can model and compute the function of a wood burner. I could open up solidworks and do it myself right now. But again, the average individual does not have access to such things on a regular basis. So if I can give them what they need because I have it to share, ill go to bed happy knowing I was able to help somebody help their self And know that they will pass it on to the next and do the same.
As my grandfather always told me: "do it right the first time and you won't have to do it again"