My mate has started using the oven without even a chimney. I can assure everyone that it smokes a great deal when there is no chimney and not even the most basic of doors to keep out those pesky afternoon sou'west winds.

He's working on it, like everything else he's searching out a "deal". He's got a nice cast iron plate that may end up being the door since it just happens to be the right size.
Still, the dome goes white regardless of the cold winds blowing in.
He has done the enclosure.
The oven is now enclosed completely in a giant Hebel cube.
6 inches thick all round. Underneath, the sides, and the roof. Cavity filled with loose perlite. He sealed across the heat break gap with perlcrete before he laid the Hebel across the front.
In my opinion, having used both now, perlite makes better insulating concrete than vermiculite. It will be my choice from now on.
He has some super-duper waterproofing render to put over the outside to seal the Hebel.
On Sunday night, he baked some baguettes at about 250C, then put some Hebel off-cuts across the door and left it.
Next day it was 180C according to the thermocouple he put through the dome on the weekend. So he made bacon and eggs for breakfast.
Can't wait to see how hot stays after actually running it white.
Edit: it just occurred to me that he is still cooking out the 2 1/2 inches / 68mm of rain we had as well.
Interesting thing about the thermocouple: the junction (tip) of the thermocouple protrudes into the oven, but it appears to be measuring brick temperature, not air temperature. The rate of rise, even with the flames licking it, suggests it is the bricks. This sort of fits with theory. In theory it is the difference between the hot junction to the cold junction ( the length of the dissimilar metals in the two wires) that develops the voltage differential in a thermocouple, so that six inch probe he has installed through the brick really should be measuring the brick, I guess.
I don't reckon this oven has actually been cold since his missus went back to the Philippines nearly two weeks ago.
Dunno how the little firecracker's gunna react when she gets home and finds out he hasn't actually finished it.

He reckons the best bit about being married to a Filipina is that they never nag.
The rest of us are terrified of her.

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