Roman Hypocaust!
- Thread starter EatenByLimestone
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Very cool! What a great experiment. The baseline temp outside was 48ºF which is pretty warm. It was a bit colder inside at first. Consumption was about 10# per hour to start, tapering to 6.5#/hr as things warmed up, a total of about 1,200# of wood for a week! That's a lot of fuel for such a small room when compared to heating with a modern stove.
The concept is old, predating the Romans. It was used in the Minoan palace at Knossos around 1900 BC. They also had basic flush plumbing there.
The concept is old, predating the Romans. It was used in the Minoan palace at Knossos around 1900 BC. They also had basic flush plumbing there.
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They were getting that room pretty warm too! I’m betting they could halve that amount of wood. Once that stone is radiating you would be quite comfortable with a lower temp.
Nice video.
Of course the thermal mass wasn't insulated (to the air or the earth), so a lot of the heat radiated out.
And the amount of airflow is large too, so a lot of btus would have come out the flues.
I wonder if they thought about how to clean said flues...
Interesting remark about oak wood,.if I understand correctly, they said it gave them less heat than the hazel. Suggests to me it wasn't dry enough. (And then point to the cleaning remark above...)
Of course the thermal mass wasn't insulated (to the air or the earth), so a lot of the heat radiated out.
And the amount of airflow is large too, so a lot of btus would have come out the flues.
I wonder if they thought about how to clean said flues...
Interesting remark about oak wood,.if I understand correctly, they said it gave them less heat than the hazel. Suggests to me it wasn't dry enough. (And then point to the cleaning remark above...)
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
You can still see the original pipes!! This was an amazing place to visit. Then realized we went back to dumping waste in the streets for a really long time!
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Yes! I was stunned by how together and nice Knossos was. That was in 1983. I imagine it's even better presented now. Loved Crete. We ended up staying in Chania at the opposite end for about 4 days which was great and very un-touristy.
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