User:Serpentine/Charcoal Guide

Making Charcoal

This process for some is perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of the game. Given the amount of processes to keep an eye on.

Basic Guidance

Simply put heat, or danger must not reach the end or the batch is ruined and if theres no oxygen the fire goes out.

Rules of the road

Heat / Danger

Must never exceed 75% this is usually achieved by adding 1 or 2 jugs of water. If that doesn't drop the level open the valve to full. Until they both down to around 50%.

Oxygen

Can be known to drop quite low (20-40%) if 4 or more pieces of wood are added at once. If this happens you may want to watch it if it continues dropping from 40-20% crank on the oxygen till its at least 50-60% Higher if possible. Unless the heat drops below 40% then stop.

Wood

Wood is a difficult one, sometimes its good just to add a bit othertimes you need a lot and is largely down to preference. A general guideline, never put in more wood than there is oxygen otherwise you risk snuffing your fire out. Also I try not to go further than 50% wood otherwise the fire eats through the oxygen like it were candy.

Water

Water can be especially useful if your fires running running to hot or needs a tiny boost in oxygen, as adding water seems to dull the heat/danger while increasing the oxygen if only by a 5-10%.

The main purpose of water though is to reduce the danger level and stop your oven exploding and ruining your batch. Usually a good number of Jugs of water is advised I usually eat through about 8-10 per fire but you may need more if your new to this.

Danger

Unsurprisingly, this relates to how stable your oven is and if the oven goes boom then no more wood and maybe even singed eyebrows :-)

Progress

This is the one that seems to go slower the more you watch it and relates to how much of your batch is done. In order to make the batch quicker there has to be heat at least 50%, 75% is possible with experience but best start with around 50 gives you more room to move if things go wrong.

When the Charcoals done the progress bar turns green, at which time I usually turn on the Fans and cool that charcoal down quick.