Wednesday, November 11, 2009

"Pop" goes the Soba

Most of the homes in our village are heated by a soba, but it doesn't seem like any have popped like ours did!


I was in the kitchen, when I heard an explosion. Ash and smoke flowed through the living room. Mikayla ran to get Ron, and I walked around the stove to try and figure out what was going on.


In the back of the stove I saw a hole
which hadn't been there before. Flames from the firebox were dangerously close to our wall, but, thankfully, mud and plaster walls don't burn easily.

We opened some windows, and cleaned up while we let the fire burn down. The whole time Ron and I ignored the conversation that should follow. What would we do about our heating system?


God knew our dilemma. He knew we were here. He knew our finances. He knew it was cold, and He knew how to deal with the situation.


We went to bed that night with no heat, but Sunday dawned warm and clear. This was a huge change in the weather pattern, which was no coincidence.
Ron investigated the stove some more. There had been two 8 inch diameter plugs in the back of the stove which had blown out when things exploded. These cleaning plugs are not meant to pop out, but are relatively easy to fix.


Ron did the repair work that day, and after letting the clay dry for 24 hours we were, once again, with heat.

This is our soba, or wood stove. The extra items around it help to run the in-floor heating until we are able to install a boiler.



The soba tiles are made with open channels on the inside. The heat is stored in these tiles, and the stove radiates warmth for hours.


Water is pumped into the radiator where it collects the warmth of the soba . The water is then distributed through the floors.


Ron working on the valve system which controls which rooms get warm water for heat.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I just stumbled across this post as I was googling to find out more about sobas (we had one in our b&b in voroneti and I wanted to write about it on my blog). I'm a missionary in Iasi working with an english-language international church for the many foreign students (and others) in the city. Nice to "meet" others in missions here; I'll be sure to check in on your blog every now and then! If you're ever in Iasi would be great to meet you!