Multi chamber Pompeii

[Aawfo]

So I have been trying to talk my way out of a Pompeii design that has been rattling around in my head. We are going to be building a quite large oven for a community space on our farm. Primarily it will be for making pizzas but we are also planning to do some artisinal breads for our customers and possibly some smallish pig roasting. Also it could serve multiple uses at the same time like pizza on one end baking in the middle and warming in the furthest from the pizza fire.

To say the least we are attempting to build an oven that can scale relatively easily. My idea is to have an oblong Pompeii(proper proportions for draft) and re/moveable walls. Honestly the walls are what I am trying to figure out. I don't think the amount of thermal bleed/loss I would get from a dry fit double brick wall would negate the amount of functionality I would gain. Thinking of a 3 sided cradle that would hold the bricks on the bottom, front and back. The top bricks would stand proud and be shaped to fit the shape of the top of the oven. The vent would be as broad as necessary but would serve the full face of the oven.

What say you gents?

[david s]

Without seeing plans it is difficult to comment. My first thought is that internal walls will interfere with circulation.Bag walls are common in kilns, but almost always require some trial and error to get their size and location right.

Also an oven with double brick walls increases the thermal mass by more than double, increasing the time required to get to temperature as well as increasing fuel consumption. If you plan on firing every day and baking for the village when the oven doesn’t really cool down, then this is fine, but if the oven is used less frequently you won’t want to fire it to cook half a dozen pizzas. An alternative to increased thermal mass is better insulation. A lot depends on how you want to use the oven. It’s all compromise like boat design, flat bottom vs v, waterline length, beam etc. Impossible to suit all conditions ideally.