Rethink Your Life! Finance, health, lifestyle, environment, philosophy |
The Work of Art and The Art of Work Kiko Denzer on Art |
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Cob: BambooSojourner sojournr at missouri.orgSat Jul 17 21:19:58 CDT 1999
H. Wayne said (see, I got the attribution correct first time, typed it in by hand and everything, aren'tcha proud of me? <VBG>) > Hey, have you guys thought about burning bamboo instead? > Or is that just an oriental thing? I know most bamboo > types will not grow all that far north, but then there > are a few that can tolerate temperatures down to -20 F. Yup, timber bamboo springs to mind. If you protect the bed with a thick layer of straw, I imagine you could grow bamboo pretty far north. It's a giant grass, its really pretty hard to kill. I don't know about its burning properties, I imagine the BTUs produced would be low for the mass involved. Again, its a grass, not as dense as wood and tends toward hollow stems once its dried. I imagine (but don't know) that it would go up in a quick, hot flash, rather than the long term burn you usually want from a wood fire. For burning, I think coppiced woods are a better, low-impact, high-return on investment solution. Coppiced woods would work best in a masonry stove type of heating situation - one where you want to heat up a huge mass (in this case of masonry) to have it slowly release heat back into the room over a long period of time. Many woodstoves are actually sheet metal and little more - burning coppiced wood in that type of stove would lead to early (earlier than usual) warpage of the sheet metal fittings and doors, and may also lead to increased creosote deposits in your chimney since you don't get an efficient burn out of these types of stoves. Obviously there are better stoves on the market, but most of them are equipped by law now with catalytic converters that, again, from what I have understood of their operation, would not function well burning the smaller, hotter burning coppiced woods as opposed to slow burning split logs. It may be a solution for quick heat in more southern regions, though, where heating requirements are overall less and a quick hot fire may be just the ticket to get you over the hump of a sudden temporary drop in temperature. A masonry stove is no good any further south than where I live (S. MO) because of the slow startup time and the long release of heat. Not good for rapid temperature changes. > By the way, I have two kinds of bamboo started in my back > yard now. Bamboo is more than just useful, it grows like > a weed . . . It is amazing what you can make with it, do > with it, and how fast it grows. One warning though, many > types of bamboo can grow themselves into a weed problem. And right there you have hit on the crux of the matter. Timber bamboo (and other types as well, but coming from Ohio, that's the bamboo with which I am most familiar since that's the one that will grow there) can send runners out up to 20' long. I LOVE bamboo, and will undoubtedly plant some up here eventually, but only along my road frontage, and ONLY after I have some animals (sheep, maybe goats - if I can contain them) to keep it et back out of the pasture. As with any transplanted plant, bamboo can become a major problem in an area where it has no natural predators. Hence my desire to provide some. Doesn't mean you shouldn't plant it, just means you should be careful when you do. Remember, kudzu was once an import that was at first seen as a godsend . . . I wonder what sort of insulation shredded dried bamboo might make? Anybody ever heard of this use for it? Or possibly used as straw sometimes is in cob mixtures. Holly ;-D
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