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Jim,
We get a lot of questions about how brick ovens perform in the cold and snow. I've seen photos of ovens in deep snow, and have cooked outside in light snow and reasonable freeze, but I wanted to ask how your works in serious cold.
Would you mind giving us the background on how your oven works, and what to expect?
James
We get a lot of questions about how brick ovens perform in the cold and snow. I've seen photos of ovens in deep snow, and have cooked outside in light snow and reasonable freeze, but I wanted to ask how your works in serious cold.
Would you mind giving us the background on how your oven works, and what to expect?
James
, I've learned several things about oven performance in cold weather. All the following is oriented to bread baking. First off, it's really, really important to orient the oven door directly opposite the prevailing wind (here, from the northwest and quite strong and steady in January). Second, cold, dry draft air has a drastic effect on firing times, unlike, say, the more humid warm draft air going into an inside wood stove or summer temp air, because it's cooling both the fire and the brick; working against you, in fact. This also has an effect on the initial fire, and it's important to make sure that you get a bright burn going right away. A draft door is key, almost from the very beginning. Overall, you have to tend the fire more in cold weather. My oven is high mass (9 inches, refractory cement), so in winter I need two full burns and about 8 hours to bring it up to baking heat if it's dead cold at the start, but I'm after multiple bakes from one firing. The hearth will reach about 850-900 F, but the dome and cladding will be at about 550-600 before resting, but in winter the rest time is pretty short. I'm still experimenting with that timing. It's vital in winter to get the cladding about as hot as the dome. Otherwise, there's just too much wrong way heat transfer. Although I went a bit nuts with insulation (11 bags vermiculite and batts over that, around 7-8 inches total), the ability to hold the heat is drastically lessened in winter when overnight temps might drop to 20 below Celsius or lower, but, still, the hearth will be at about 350 F the next morning (the hearth bricks are set on a 6 inch refractory slab). I plan to add more insulation in the spring, and I'd like to know some details about the batt insulation the store has, or maybe blue foam board would be better over the vermiculite? So you'll understand the structure, the dome is surrounded by 4 inch block walls set on an 8 inch block foundation, an inch of air space, and brick all round for the facade. The ceiling is made from metal studs, with cement board laid over them. I vented the small space between the top of the insulation and the cement boards. The roof (vented) is made from wooden trusses (34 degree pitch) with cedar shingles.
. Of course, I've been baking on a fairly small scale this winter, about 50 loaves a week, and I suspect that when I start baking on an almost daily basis, winter heating times will lessen because the cladding will remain at a higher heat from day to day.
They are calling for snow tonight on the hill. Had to cover the project up tonight with tarps.
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