HOW TO DESIGN YOUR OWN HEAT RESISTING FURNACE

There already have been several tutorials on how to build an HT oven so I will not
elaborate on how to build a sheet metal box, line it with bricks and install the
elements in grooves. Most of these are fitted with premade commercial elements;
this will work fine if you choose the right oven size, element size, and power.
But premade elements may not always be available or fit the desired size of oven to
be built. So here I will concentrate solely on how to design your own elements from
scratch. This will work for all different sizes.
If you have any Questions please feel free to ask. I will try to answer as well as I
can.
Disclaimer: All the information on wire specs and the recommended application
come from the manufacturer. Only basic electric formulas are needed. With the
below stated method I have so far built two kilns and have met no problems. I am
not an expert and only want to show how I do things, your mileage may vary. I will
take no responsibility whatsoever if you follow these instructions. If you have no
knowledge of things electric please ask an electrician first. You are hopefully all old
enough to think by yourselves. Humans are prone to errors an so am I - If I did hit
the wrong button on the calculator or did get something messed up in the process
of writing it down please feel free to correct me. I have read this several times now
but often the most obvious errors are hard to catch. As I am not a native speaker
any of the spelling and grammatical errors are yours to take home and not to bother
me with.
I have split this into several separate sections which are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Size of the oven and required power.

Wire in general, How much wire of which diameter
Surface Load
Coil core diameter + Stretch factor
Combining multiple elements

1. SIZE OF THE OVEN AND REQUIRED POWER

Your first consideration should be:
1.1

Power:

What kind of voltage is available (230V, 110V, 380V etc) and how much amperes
are allowed in your household appliance system per single outlet?
Example: Where I live we have 230V and a single wall outlet permits a maximum of
16A.
U (Volt) x I (Amp) = P (Watt)
230 Volts x 16 Amp = 3680Watt
So the most powerful oven I can operate from a single outlet is rated 3680W. It is
advisable to stay about 10% below this to avoid too easy triggering of the safety
fuse when running the oven. This gives me about 3312W, so lets say 3300W is
good and safe to operate from a single outlet here.

1.2

Size:

What is the maximum chamber size one can operate from a given Wattage?
This depends on several factors, some being the insulation value of your kiln and
desired heating rate. It should be obvious that with a 1000W element you cannot
heat

an

oil

drum

sized

oven

up

to

heat

treat

temps.

If you are an engineer specialized in this field you can calculate the size and power
requirement precisely with Insulation value and heat loss rate, desired max.
Temperature and heating speed, convection, radiation and conduction, mass and
thermal

conductivity

of

the

objects

to

heat.

As I am not able to do this I had to rely on information I could get from books on
pottery kilns and commercially available kilns.

The Olson Kiln book states a value of 0.92 W/cm - 1.3W/cm of heated wall surface.
If one looks at commercial kilns, chamber size and watts are usually given. If you
correlate these you will see that most of these operate in the range of 0.6 W/cm - 1
W/cm
Some examples below:
Even heat kilns:
Kf18 = 0.668 W/cm
KF22.5 = 0.639 W/cm

Paragon kilns:
PMT10 = 0.676 W/cm
KM24D = 1.08 W/cm

I do not know the insulation value of these commercial kilns but I think if one uses
soft ceramic firebricks the insulation value should be on par. To ease calculation and
also to be on the safe side I think calculating with a value of 1 Watt per cm of
chamber surface is feasible.
Example:
My oven to be built will have a chamber size of 12.4cm x 12cm x 50cm. This is a
convenient size for me to build because my bricks are 25cm x 6.4cm x 12.4cm. With
no cutting of the bricks required I can easily get the above mentioned chamber size.
Only the grooves for the elements will have to be made. Well, I am a lazy guy
Total surface area of chamber = 2737.6cm equals 2737 Watts.
When elements age over time their diameter is shrinking due to oxidation, the
resistance goes up and the power of the oven is dropping. To compensate for this
and to speed up the heating rate I tend to slightly overbuild. So for this size oven I
will raise to 3000Watts which is still within safe power range of the outlet and also
eases calculation further on.

2. WIRE IN GENERAL, HOW MUCH WIRE OF WHICH DIAMETER

2.1 Wire
What kind of resistance wire to use? Two of the most useful informational sources I have
been able to find and most HIGHLY RECOMMENDED come from the manufacturer itself: the
Kanthal appliance handbook
http://www2.kanthal.com/sandvik/0971/internet/s003237.nsf/F6421C7808255963C12572
BB001C8704/$file/1-A-2-3%20appliance%20handbook%20US.pdf
or the Kanthal furnace mini Handbook
http://hitempproducts.thomasnet.com/...c-version-.pdf
These are freely downloadable from the web and contain numerous valuable Data and
Graphs which are needed by the aspiring element designer later on. I will refer mostly to
the furnace mini handbook because I am a metric guy, sorry folks. :-)
In short, I recommend you use Kanthal A1 resistance wire because this is widely available in
different gauges from pottery suppliers etc. and gives a long lasting element which is not
operating at its limits with the temperatures we desire.
I have used Nicrothal80 in the past ,who`s main advantage is that it`s much cheaper, but
compared to kanthal A1 wire the life expectancy at our desired temperatures is more than
300% higher for the kanthal a1 wire. (Furnace mini handbook p.8 Fig5 graph). This should
make paying the higher price for kanthal easier.
You can use all the other different grades of wire mentioned like APM, D, AF, Ncr80/20
whatever you can easily and cheaply get. Some are Better like APM some are worse like
nicrothal. Your elements will maybe not last as long with the lower grades but work they will
- if properly designed.
You will need to have the required wire specs for calculation. These are all given in the
aforementioned pdfs.

2.2 Wire length

How much wire of a given diameter do I need to get an element with specific Wattage?
There are two methods you can employ to calculate the needed wire length, a cruder but
little simpler one which is mostly sufficient and a more refined one which gives an exacter
calculation.

Method A
Resistance is mostly given in Ohms/m, as I am a metric guy I will calculate metric only. You
can convert all the calculations to inches/feet and use different Voltages, this will not change
anything.
So now you have figured out how much Watts your oven will need, next step is to tie this to
wire length. Every resistance wire has a given resistance per diameter (these are not called
resistance wire for nothing what we now know is:
-3000 Watts needed
-230V volts supplied
What we want to know is:
-How much Ohms?
If you still can remember your school days maybe some basic electric formulas will pop up
in your mind, if not the picture may help:

U/P=R is the right one now

230/3000 = 17.633 Ohms
Example:
Let`s say we have a 1mm diameter kanthal A1 wire. This is NOT the right diameter and the
element will have a very short life. Why so, I will explain in the next section. Nevertheless
let`s get on with this one.
If you look up the data for 1mm A1 wire in the kanthal handbook (page 19) a resistance of
1.85 Ohms per meter is given.
So

now

just

calculate

how

much

meters

you

need

to

17.633/1.85 = 9.53 meters

To get an element which has 3000 Watts you need 9.53m to do so.
Easy so far, wasnt it.

Method B

get

to

17.633

Ohms

The second method takes into consideration that the wire actually changes its resistance
gradually when coming up to a specific temperature and calculates with resistivity. This
gives a more accurate calculation. When you had looked at the data for A1 wire (page 19 in
the kanthal mini handbook) you may have seen that above the data a smaller table with
resistivity and correction values for different temperatures is given. You may have wondered
what these are for well, now you need those!
Kanthal A1 has a resistivity of 1.45 Ohms/mm. Correction factor is 1.04 because max
desired temperature would be 1100C so total Resistivity is: 1.45 x 1.04 = 1.508
Ohms/mm.
The other two values you need are:
- Resistance, (see2.1) = 17.633 Ohms
- Cross section area of the wire diameter. In mm please. With 1 mm diameter wire we get
= 0.785mm

Length of wire = (Ohms x wire cross section area) / Resistivity

(17.633 x 0.785)/ 1.508 = 9.18m
You see now that there is a difference of 35cm between the two methods of calculation. This
equals a difference of 114.8 Watts. Because I have selected the power with a bit leeway in
both directions it would be no big deal to use the first method but I prefer the second.

3. SURFACE LOAD

One of the most important things influencing the life expectancy of elements and I think a
really crucial factor is the surface load.
This means nothing more than how the total watts spread over the surface area of the
element. If you put too much force in too thin a wire, the wire will overheat and oxidize fast
and if grossly overheated will just melt. Element destroyed, oven kaput.

To avoid this we must stay within a safe region of surface load. Surface load is measured in
Watts/cm. The cm being the surface area of the whole wire used. You have to keep in
mind that almost all of the graphs and data given in the kanthal Handbook are based on a
wire thickness of 3 mm. So this does not always directly translate to thinner wire gauges
which are mostly used in small ovens like knife making ovens. Expect thinner wires to last
not as long as 3mm wires. It would be good if we could use just 3 mm wire everywhere but
this is mostly not possible.
The kanthal furnace handbook tells us on page 7 that at a temperature of 1100C the
surface load should not exceed 3 W/cm for spiral elements in grooves, which is the
common employment mode we use. Freely radiating rod over bend elements (zigzagging
w/o sharp corners) can be used with more surface load (5W/cm) but have the
disadvantage of taking more space and being much more complicated to install.
Please note the small script at the bottom of the graph, this is important because it tells us
that when used with an on/off control (which is what a PID does) about 20% less of the
given value is to be used : spiral elements = 2.4W/cm . If you use thyristor control you can
go with 3W/cm. If you remember the underlined section a few sentences before one should
best be using an even lower value if using wire of less than 3mm thickness. This is what the
manufacturer recommends, but you can get away with a little more. For how long? well, I
dont know
So you can imagine now why the so far designed element is not a long lived one. We will
calculate the surface load now and you will see.
At first we will need the surface area of the used wire. A wire is nothing more than a very
long very thin cylinder so with 9,18m and 1mm thickness we get : 2 x pi x radius x
length=288,4cm surface area . Then the Watts are divided by surface. For our 3000W
1mm element we get:
3000W/288,4cm = 10,4 W/cm
So far our designed element is getting almost five times the surface load that is
recommended. Expect it to have a short life or maybe even fail the instant you turn the
oven on the first time.
So far all our calculations have been correct but the element is not durable/usable because
we selected a too small diameter wire.

The often used budget casting supply premade elements have been proven to work. If I
have calculated correctly they have a wire diameter of 1,45mm (15AWG) at 115v and
1550watt and so give a surface load of ca. 3,7W/cm. I would expect them to have a
shorter life expectancy than a homemade one with lower surface load. If you connect two of
those in series is not the best solution. If you connect them in parallel it would be much
better. Why? See section 5. There is not a dramatically big difference to the kanthal
recommended value so I do not know how much shorter the life will be. Obviously a good
choice for people who do not want to go through the trouble of making their own ones if you
have an oven that they will fit into.
How

do

we

get

to

know

what

size

of

wire

diameter

wire

we

need?

Unfortunately not being a mathematical genius I have not come up with an easy to use
formula which you can input all your wanted specs and it puts out a wire size and length.
If we have someone here who can do this please chime in I still do this the hard way by
calculating elements with different wire diameters until I arrive at a wire size which gives
me the desired surface load. Then I check if the coiled and stetched element fits will my
oven. I aim for the thickest wire that can be fitted into my oven without problems of coil
size.
Well, I can`t do all the work for you so please calculate a little for yourselves. All the
Methods are given above. For my oven to build I have selected a wire diameter of 1,8mm.
this gives me a surface load of 1,79W/cm. Way below requirements, should give me a long
lasting element.
An 1,6mm Wire could also have been used this gives me a surface load slightly above the
required 2,4 but I was able to get a length of 1,8mm Wire for a very good price

4. COIL CORE DIAMETER + STRETCH FACTOR

Finally lets get to the physical outlay of the Element. This is also an important factor but not
as crucial as surface load. Again the now familiar kanthal Handbook does help here too. See
page 7 and 10. The spiral element has to have at least a coil core diameter of 5-7 times the
wire thickness. Larger is no problem other than oven fit. Also the element has to be
stretched to a minimum length between the single windings. The distance between the
single windings should be 2-3 times wire diameter. This prevents the element from mostly

a) Overheating,
b) Shorting between single windings and so provides a longer service life.
Especially when fitting the coiled element to curves are careful that the windings do not
connect at the inside of the curve. Mostly the element will have to be stretched a little more
in curves to avoid this. Also spiral elements tend to move in the grooves bunching up in one
section and stretching in others because of the cycling so its advisable not to select a too
small stretch factor otherwise the windings can shorten each other out and overheat in
some sections over time.
If you have found out what wire diameter to use please take the time to calculate what
length the element will have in coiled and properly stretched condition. You will find that the
thicker the wire gets the better the surface load but this amount to a longer and thicker
element. You will soon come to a point where the element is of a size that you will have not
enough space in your oven to fit the element in. Usually elements are only in the sides of
the chamber so check for enough space before you make one. It would be great if we could
use the really thick wire in small ovens but this does seldom work due to the space
limitation.
Essentially nothing but a series of rings with a given diameter and wire thicknessI am
getting a little weary now of calculating and think you are all able to figure out how to
calculate the length of a coil

5. COMBINING MULTIPLE ELEMENTS

It may or may not be obvious but you are not restricted to use only one element, you can
connect several elements either in serial or in parallel configuration. There are advantages
and disadvantages to both methods. These do not have to be of the same Length. To avoid
more confusion, in the example two equal elements are connected. I have to use two other
formulas in this section but they are still basic ones.

To calculate we need three values

-Volts: We know we put 230v in the system

- Resistance: Calculate this for each element separate. We use here two of the exact
same length so resistance is the same.
To calculate surface load you need surface area. Here: 288.4cm per element used.

5.1 Serial connection:

What happens if we take our previously calculated element of 1mm Wire and connect two of
those in series? Fixed values are:
Input Voltage U = 230v.
Resistance = 17.63 Ohms per element
Surface of a single element: 288.4 cm
What will change is current and Power.
If resistors are connected in series the rules are:
Rx = R1 + R2 + R3..
Rx = 17.63 + 17.63 = 35.26 Ohms
Volts are: 230V.
From these two values we calculate the Current: I= U/Rx = 6.53 Amperes
What happens to the power? : P=U x I = 1500Watts
Because we have doubled the length of the wire we have doubled the surface area so
Surface load is now also lower: 1500/576.8 = 2.6W/cm instead of 10.4W/cm.
So by connecting two of the same elements in series we have brought the surface load
down into a Safe to use region but we have also halved the total Power. We could now use
this new element but the oven would have only half the power.
5.2 Parallel connection
If resistors are connected in parallel the following applies:
1/Rx = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3

Two elements in parallel we get: 1/Rx = 1/17.63 + 1/17.63 = 1/0.113, so: Rx=8.84 Ohms
The voltage stays the same: U = 230Volts
Current: I = U/Rx = 26 Amps
Power P = U x I = 5980Watt
Surface load: 5980/576.8 =10.37 W/cm
So connecting elements in parallel maintains the surface load but heightens the Power.
If you would use three parallel elements you would further raise the power but still maintain
the same surface load.

How can we employ this now to make use of the 1mm wire?
Best way is to make a less powerful single element which has the correct surface load and
then connecting several of those in parallel until the desired Power is achieved.
Lets look at a 1500W element from 1mm wire:
230V/1500W= 35.26
Ohms 35.26/ 1.85 = 19m
At 31.4cm per m of 1mm wire: 596.6cm
1500/596.6= 2.5 W/cm surface load
That we can live with.

So if you connect two 1500W elements in parallel you get approx 6000W with an acceptable
surface load. As this is still too high use lower wattage elements /different wire diameter till
the desired power is at your needs - or build a bigger oven! If you select 10mm as coil core
diameter, outstretched coil is approx. 50cm long. The chamber walls are also 50cm long so
if you make 4 passes (grooves) per side the elements are stretched enough and will fit the
oven.

I hope this was helpful to some of you, please enjoy.

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