The videos below are from Dan Skilken and are hanging in the entry of their church.
Beth David in San Francisco
Dan Skilken plans, "CLICK HERE"
Dan Skilkin 1 from Edgar Jaunzemis on Vimeo.
Dan Skilkin 2 from Edgar Jaunzemis on Vimeo.
E mail request from Dan Skilken:
Hi Ed,
We would like to kick off development of an indoor installation of your vortex fire for our synagogue in Saratoga California.
As you suggested, Joel, our architect developed an initial specification for this. (Please see the attached design) The plan is to suspend a vortex fire flame about 15 feet off the floor in our main sanctuary. This will be about 3-4 feet down from the ceiling and will attach to a flue that goes out through the roof. We will mount a special chimney cap that prevents down draft in wind that could blow out the flame.
The gas line would come down from the back of the flue. Joel envisions that the back of the glass would be dark so that you can see the flame. Flame would be about 2 feet long.
We would need the typical safety features like electronic ignition and automatic gas shut off if it cannot light.
Is it possible to feature two heights of flame - one that is perhaps 6” high and then full height. This would give us the option to turn down the gas when we are not in the room, but still leave it burning. The fire department originally told us that a pilot light was OK, but they were not happy about leaving this flame burning all the time when we are not in the room. Religiously, this flame would theoretically burn non-stop in an area above where we store our Torahs. We can adjust the height of the flame if this is what it takes to get fire department approval. The light should be engineered and built assuming that it will burn non-stop for 50 years.
On your website, you seem to feature Vortex Fire in round tubes. However - you told us to avoid this because of the cost. Is a round tube still a cost issue? Joel designed it with 8 straight segments to avoid the round tube.
I assume that we will need two layers of glass so that the heat will never be exposed, or is this not an issue?
We would want a threaded bolt on the bottom of the unit so that we can have a copper artist design a decorative swirl up the glass to accentuate the flame. Is this something you guys do, or prefer to do as part of your design?
We need to get this approved by the fire department before we spin you up on design work, or get our building to estimate the installation costs. Can you help us pull together a package to explain this design to the fire department for their approval?
We plan to install this flame in late February.
What else do you need to get us a proposal.
Thank you very much for your help,
Dan Skilken
Exec VP / President
Congregation Beth David
Pictures of the project being built coming soon!