john eden on wed 25 feb 04
At John Abbott College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue (Montreal Island) Quebec
where I used to teach Ceramics, there are chimneys on the outside of the
building for the kilns that are about 65 feet high. This is because local
regulations demanded that the chimneys go above the roof line of the building.
When we built kilns we designed them with what we called atmospheric
dampers in a branch of the flue as well as the regular type damper at the
rear of the kiln. The kilns worked very well, the later ones were MFT's.
I had pointed out to the Architects that IF we could get the kilns going in
the middle of Winter we would have flames shooting across the kiln room
before the chimney would begin to draw because of the down draft in such
big chimneys, which particularly in an educational institution was not a
good idea. So, when the building was first built the mechanical engineers
wanted to put a burner in the bottom of each chimney so that it would be
possible to start the kilns in the Winter particularly in January and
February when the temp is sometimes ridiculously low, their experience was
obviously with central heating systems. After much discussion (arguing)
involving safety, the economics of having a burner going all the time or
who was going to go outside at minus 30C to light it :-), it was decided
that a venturi fan should be installed about 15 feet up on the side of each
chimney. With that and the atmospheric (barometric) damper they worked.
I hope that we don't have the same problem when we get our new studios here
in Maine.
I really ought to go somewhere warm.
Cheers, John
P.S. I will be at NCECA hope to see you.
John Eden
University of Maine
Department of Art
5712 Carnegie Hall
Orono
ME 04469-5712
USA
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