civil engineering a salami drying chamber

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lathrop

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Jun 12, 2011
102
16
Port Townsend, Washington
I have a situation which is sometimes available in old houses. I Have an old currently unused chimney with 2 flues. One was originally for the kitchen stove the other for the furnace. I no longer have a wood fired kitchen stove or a furnace. In the old furnace room I would like to set up a drying chamber for sausage. Does anyone know of a mod. I can use to set up a recirculating air flow useing the chimney effect. how much elevation differential from flue #1 to flue #2. My current temp in the room is 64*F. I would ideally like to see 54*F. Come winter I expect it will be ball park. but I am aware that the air temps 30 or 40 ft from ground level are a lot lower than ground level. { used to climb telephone poles for a job} does anyone have any ideas or information.
 
I have a situation which is sometimes available in old houses. I Have an old currently unused chimney with 2 flues. One was originally for the kitchen stove the other for the furnace. I no longer have a wood fired kitchen stove or a furnace. In the old furnace room I would like to set up a drying chamber for sausage. Does anyone know of a mod. I can use to set up a recirculating air flow useing the chimney effect. how much elevation differential from flue #1 to flue #2. My current temp in the room is 64*F. I would ideally like to see 54*F. Come winter I expect it will be ball park. but I am aware that the air temps 30 or 40 ft from ground level are a lot lower than ground level. { used to climb telephone poles for a job} does anyone have any ideas or information.
Hi, my thoughts on it would be to just open both flues up right into to the room/box/cabinet etc., maybe put some screen over the holes to keep the bugs and critters out.
I don't believe a height differential would really help you out though because you really wouldn't have enough heat differential between the ceiling and floor in the curing room to drive it and you would inadvertently suck in unwanted air that is warmer the your basement if it was warmer outside.
Since it is in the (colder) basement I would suspect that the natural thermo siphon effect would always be in your favor without a height differential and always keep the air as cool as the basement or colder. If outside is cooler then your basement that air will move in cooling it further. The colder air outside will naturally drop right down the chimney cooling the room, and if it is warmer outside it will just stall (provided the curing chamber is fairly air tight to the rest of the house) because warm air will not drop down a chimney into a cool room.
The curing room should be sealed to the rest of the house though because if it is warmer outside then in the curing room and you run any type of exhaust out of the house, clothes dryer, range hood, bathroom exhaust etc. It will pull the warm air down the chimney right into your curing room.
I will think about it more though..it sounds like fun !
 
Thanks for the insights. My latest fantasy is to put a turbine chimney topper on 1 flue which would create an updraft whenever the wind was blowing.
For the down draft on the other flue the room would have to be sealed as you pointed out. muffin fans would be worth a try as well.
 
Thanks for the insights. My latest fantasy is to put a turbine chimney topper on 1 flue which would create an updraft whenever the wind was blowing.
For the down draft on the other flue the room would have to be sealed as you pointed out. muffin fans would be worth a try as well.
I just don't know how you will keep the room cooler then the basement if it is warmer outside, you could use a thermostatic damper in some fashion to avoid intake of air that is warmer then the curing room.
 
I just don't know how you will keep the room cooler then the basement if it is warmer outside, you could use a thermostatic damper in some fashion to avoid intake of air that is warmer then the curing room.
Or timed damper so it only opens at night when it is naturally cooler could be a option
 
A chimney will create draft without any other influences... It's pressure differential that creates the draft... Pressure at ground level and pressure at the top of the stack.. That's all that's needed...

2) Flow capacity or rate - getting enough draft.
The pressure differential is only part of the question. Notice that flue size doesn't matter at all. How much air flows into the bottom of the chimney is estimated by the formula below.

draftflow.gif

where:

  • Q = flue gas flow rate, m³/s
    A = cross-sectional area of chimney, m²
    C = discharge coefficient (usually from 0.65 to 0.70)
    g = gravitational acceleration at sea level, 9.807 m/s²
    H = height of chimney, m
    Ti = absolute average temperature of the flue gas in the stack, K
    To = absolute outside air temperature, K
Again, without getting too concerned about the math or the units, the important thing for us is to note that the flow is directly proportional to the cross-sectional area of chimney and to the square root of the height of the chimney and the temperature differential multiplied by a big number. In other words the height of the chimney and the temperature of the flue gasses, while directly proportional to the pressure differential in the static case above are a little less important due to friction or drag and energy it takes to accelerate the gasses.
 
The temperature in the 'basement' will be greatly affected by the thermal mass of concrete or whatever is there...
 
You also need to control humidity otherwise you would have case hardening issues where the outside of the sausage get so dry that it prevents the middle from drying. Plenty of people just go on CL for an old refrigerator, cut a hole in the side for wiring, add a humidifier and fan inside to keep 55 degrees and 70% humidity.

Good luck.
 
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A fridge was my fist plan. But the door to this room is 24.5" wide. Which limits my options. I am aware of the possible excessive drying rate with too much airflow. However When I was in college in the late 1960's I briefly took a job that involved climbing telephone poles for a cable company in Seattle. I found that the air temps go down dramatically with elevation and the wind speed goes up. A serious issue in winter when hanging on a telephone pole and wiring cable boxes. I have not climbed onto the roof to measure air temps I have measured the flue temps and floor temps in the basement. thier is about a 4*F difference.
 
My solution was to build a plenum and install an A/C. using 1 flue for incoming cooling air and the other for the outgoing hot air. The window A/C normally has those functions out side the window. The plenum serves to separate the inside functions from the outside functions. After a few tweaks it is functioning well. Maintaining about 56*F. but it dehydrates the air so I will need a humidifier or a salt slurry to boost the humidity.
 
An electric humidifier along with an electric humidity controller should do nicely...

 
Thanks. Dave I have the Inkbird version. I have had some other project issues to deal with and am hoping to make some salami soon. My current plan is to make a smoked Salami. Then go to dry cured. And cold smoked. I do have access to local hi quality pork. I did a farm slaughter and helped butcher a pig 3 years ago. and a class in farm slaughter a year earlier. That makes me only ignorant. I did participate in the kill and processing of pigs when I was a child. My contribution was only to pick the meat from a boiled pigs head for "head cheese" . It is a cross between a confiete and a pate.
 
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