What’s the best furnace design?

[Hammer_Time]

I’ve been trying to find the answer to this question for a while and don’t really seem to be getting anywhere. I can’t find any really useful information on this. I visited and heard about many companies who seem to having problems designing a really efficient furnace. Personally I’m trying to improve the design for a furnace that heats up 3 vats in series (I know parallel is better) . But I think we should try and make a list of the things that need to be addressed when considering a furnace design and try and answer as much of the question as possible. I believe this will be very useful for people. So please if you have anything to add to the list or you can help by answering some of the points it would be greatly appreciated.
…What are the ideal gaps between and under vats when using a furnace to cook or boil water to allow enough space for the heat to flow but not too much so that you are not just heating dead space?
Should the floor of the furnace be inclined towards the chimney?
The use of dampers on the chimney had been suggested to me to keep the heat in but will this not restricted the smoke from exiting and clog up the fire?
What is the best material to use?
What is the ideal chimney size and should dampers to used?
P.S is this the right place for thread?

[knorth]

Every manufacturer has its ups and downs. However i can tell you that Amana has top of the line heat exchangers. Instead of a damper to keep smoke in you could use a high efficiency furnace, that is. It has a primary heat exchanger and a secondary heat exchanger, water condenses in the second heat exchanger and is drained out. The way you can tell one of these is that the exhaust pipe is made from a PVC material instead of metal. I wouldn't recommend dampers however. This could be dangerous.

Hope i could be of help

[Garthhh]

what size/scale operation?
how much power does the process consume?
what fuel type?

[9x01cuocsongtronniemvui]

Every manufacturer has its ups and downs. However i can tell you that Amana has top of the line heat exchangers. Instead of a damper to keep smoke in you could use a high efficiency furnace, that is. It has a primary heat exchanger and a secondary heat exchanger, water condenses in the second heat exchanger and is drained out. The way you can tell one of these is that the exhaust pipe is made from a PVC material instead of metal. I wouldn't recommend dampers however. This could be dangerous.

Hope i could be of help