ABC acres: Heating Efficiently: Rocket Mass Heater - episode
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Join ABC acres, a Permaculture Farmstead in Hamilton, MT as we show our rocket mass heater that keeps the workshop nice and warm through the cold months of the year, while using far less wood and creating next to NO SMOKE!
Brilliant work! Living in mediterranean climate I don't really need such installations but one can only imagine how cosy the feeling is in the middle of the winter, just amazing workshop place to keep everyone productive.
Yes, we in the cold temperate climate must have strategies for keeping warm, while we dream of a vacation to a warm destination:)
great job and presentation!
Thank you
Super!
some kind of visual for whats built inside the drum and the cob body would complete the show.
👍 Thank You much sir!
Beautiful! I have had a few rocket stoves and love them! Nice explanation! and man... what a nice shop!
Thanks for watching, and glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome way to heat. And I'd have never imagined you walking out of that nicely finished garage to see the cool old barn on the outside.
It's pretty slick every which way you look at it!
Well made and presented too. No flannel, just clear facts. Loved it.
Thanks JS... time is money, and we don't want to add fluff as you have vids to watch and tasks to execute. good luck!
Looked at some Rocket Mass Heaters and some looked real sketchy in their build. Yours looks first rate. Very inspiring. Would love to see the build process.
That is super awesome...now to find info in your videos about the bench!
That's fabulous. I'm excited to utilize this concept.
Great explanation, detailed and informative. Also, well done on the build. Looks great. Keep up the good work and great vids.
Thanks!
Love this unit and good quality video. Thanks bud. Well done great job !
A ceiling fan would help with your high ceiling unused heat problem...
Is that a fan in the corner?
I stacked up four barrels in my shop and piped into the bottom one on the floor. I cut an 8 inch hole between barrels which created a baffle. I took the upper pipe out of the side to prevent water from dripping down into the barrels. The paper labels on the top barrel never browned.
It only took a couple of cardboard boxes to take the chill off in the morning.
Very nice vid! I was appreciating how nice the bench looks and wondered whereabouts you were located. Turns out you're 9 miles away! Hello neighbor! We will definitely be pouring over your vids and website, as this year we purchased 10 mostly wooded acres in Hamilton with the intention of homesteading.
Michael, that is great! Small world:) Hope we get a chance to meet...maybe you can stop by some time and take the RMH bench for a test drive on a cold winter's day!
Inspired! Very well done, folks - great introduction. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to fully educate myself on the building techniques.
Thanks Travis... good luck!
Nice job! If "tuned" correctly the burn efficiency is so high that cleaning is not necessary, yours looks great! Aesthetic screen can be added around the barrel to dress it up too if it is in living spaces.
Thanks Jim! It is simple and quick to clean, with us only having to remove the clean-out caps and clear a small amount of ash about once a year.
NIIIIIICE...love your seating area, very unique..love it alll
Thanks for watching Margie, and I am glad you liked it!
Looks great! And I can only assume Facebook is secretly sharing info with Google because I mentioned wanting to build a workshop heated by a rocket mass heater earlier today on FB, and your video just popped up in my recommendations here on YT. Good thing they were spying this time. Hah
Scott, yes, it is a little creepy just how quickly their software programs respond! Haha! Glad it pointed you in our direction, though! Thanks for watching!
Are they following us?
Love your design and the bench. :)
Thanks for watching!
Looks like a fancy shop inside & an animal barn on the outside!
VestaLouise, it is kinda fancy pants huh? ;)
wow!!! thats a big ass woodburner!!! bad ass my friend!!! thumbs up from this guy!!! i make novelty miniture wood burners as a hobby... totally the other end of the spectrum.... lol..
B.C.,
We all have our hobbies, so kudos to you for your pursuits. Do share a pic or link to see some of your work.
Yours is very good looking. And it looks like it works wonderful
Thank you Kathy!
Great video! That looks like a beast of a heat you've built there. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for watching!
Liked, subscribed and shared on FB. This is the way people should be going, taking small steps to improve the world rather than having Govt riding rough shod over peoples way of life, with punitive regulations and banning fires altogether.
Thanks for subscribing and sharing! Clean fire heat technologies like this, and others, paired with regenerative fuelwood agroforestry, is a much more viable option for many in the cool-to- cold temperate environments, so let's keep keeping on!
TRES BON TIRAGE GOOD JOB (french) THANK YOU
In that case, merci beaucoup!
Did you ever measure the temperature of the cob bench as hours pass? That would be interesting. Make for a nice base for a bed in winter, too! Cheers.
Wow ...that's awesome ..no smoke at the exhaust pipe..Nice!!!.
This is really interesting. I am going to research this more.
Welcome to the world of rocket mass heaters, there's a lot of good info at www.richsoil.com
I built a masonry fireplace in my house in '83. Fantastic heat from nothing but kindling wood.
Nice work, that is great!
awsome job that looks really good.
Thanks for watching!
ABC acres can u please give the plans in every detail? Thank you..
Neo Cadwising Tim is checking to see what we have in terms of plans. We'll let you know if we find anything...Thanks for watching!
Really good your rocket stove! Thank you!
Attilio, You're welcome!
I was totally expecting snow outside when you walked. Great work sir in any case.
Yes, this was filmed awhile ago, and the snow was dragging its feet in arriving this winter. Shortly after this video was filmed, however, we started getting snow and it did not stop for quite some time! Thanks for watching!
Great practical use of ingenuity and cheap materials...
Thanks, hopefully you can do the same.
i love it how you can see the fire
Me too
Beavis said "fire is cool! heh, heh, heh."
Very pretty! That is also some very clean exhaust you have there.
Yep, Paul! Sneaky heat!
If the firebox is over-gassed, meaning there is a smoldering event dumping smoke into the heat riser, how does heat alone take away the smoke?
Think of it as a heat pump. Rising heat drawls the exhaust through the system. Heat from barrel dissipates and starts the heat rise flow.
Can heat pipes be add to the pipes with Clean smoke little creosote
Clean as in no visible smoke is coming out of chimney, in reality you don't know what gases are produced. Composition of wood is not as simple as propane's that breaks down to water and carbon dioxide
great upload, respect!
We appreciate the encouragement, and thanks for watching, Branimir!
Branimir Marold Cool. sun glasses!
.. they are from old movie called "They live"! ;)
Great movie!
Clean looking install.
She's a beauty
Thank YOU ABC Acres! The best rocket mass heater and video I've seen so far, so much explained! I'm sure these may also incorporate water heaters also, for maximum efficiency! :-)
Well done video!
Thanks for watching!
Super video ... nice bench ..and the oven, class
Thanks for watching!
Bitte gerne ... hat mir sehr gefallen .
I give you all thumbs up. Can't believe somebody would give this a thumbs down. Must be oil or energy execs!!
neil petersen
I've heard some thumbs down so they know they've watched it already. pretty rude but they save likes for other reasons I guess.
thanks. I'm heating a very small area and I love what you are doing but I'm old school. maybe some day.
see the above comments. Rocket mass heaters, or the variation known as Masonry heaters, have been used for thousands of years in Europe. So I think these would be considered "old school," no? Time to relearn, implement and refine ancient technology, and bring it into the mainstream.
Another thing to add for spaces you want warm is an air intake duct that leads straight outside, because the stove needs air and if it draws it from the room cold air will get pulled in from outside through the doors and windows.
Yes, that is a good idea, and thanks for sharing it!
MsSomeonenew There are many who say it's not wise, as well. Many of them rocket innovators and researchers.
The secondary burn needs fresh air, I use a 2" pipe from the basement that feeds air into the "turbo" burn area.
The stove’s efficiency is decreased by using cold air. The occupied space needs fresh air for you to breathe, so it’s actually maybe counterintuitive to some people but using the older stale warm room air for combustion is better in every way.
Nice video. Hoping to buy a house in Scotland soon and if I get a garage I'll be putting something like this in it. (Smaller)
Nice. Got married in Fort William, and we now raise scottish highland cattle. good luck!
How does the suction get started when you start the fire? what stops smoke from billowing back out?
There's a flu/damper that functions similar to any other wood stove out there, when we ignite a burn we have it all the way open so the smoke goes straight up the chimney. As the fire reaches optimal burn temps, we slowly close the flu and adjust the damper as needed, so the "smoke" actually heated gasses vent through the exhaust in the bench then out the chimney. I hope that makes sense.
Thank you! This makes perfect sense! You're creating a warmed chimney, which starts a vacuum pull by rising hot air. Once the chimney is warm, you can redirect the hot air through the thermal mass, and back out to the warmed chimney. Again, thank you. This was something I had not been able to figure out. But that flu/damper makes sense.
The grass was still green! Can't be to cold out! Thanks for the info!
Johnny,
Funny, we are experiencing melt off now, and there is bright green grass underneath. I think our early snows acted as a protective insulator once the -19 to -25+ settled in for a spell. Regardless, nice to be warm knowing spring is not far off. Take care!
ABC acres Yeah we have had some really nice days here in Manitoba too this winter, we enjoy it when we can!
Looks great as well :) you should put a hose from outside leading into the air intake of the system as well. That way you are not creating a negative pressure inside your workshop which draws the cold air negating a lot of the heating that your doing. :)
Sounds like an interesting idea, thanks for sharing. :)
RayBs, Iv tried drawling in fresh air many different ways. for some reason (I have yet to find) Is dose not seem to work very well. And can even start running rocket in the wrong Direction. Even ran a u pipe heater system from out side to inside. Not good. Power drafting was needed.....?
Well I actually have theorized it, but not proven. Issues stem from the Drawling pressures from the velocity of expanding gasses'.
Dan, thanks for sharing your experiences!
from all the talk i've heard on this issue, the tremendous heat from the barrel and thermal mass cancels out or overpowers any loss of heat from drawing cold air in through leaks in the house structure, therefore running a seperate feed from outside is an unnecessary step?
Very nice.
Thanks!
Great intro. Thanks!
Nice job !
Thanks!
Great explanation. Thx for doing this
You are welcome, and thanks for watching!
I think this is wonderful! I can imagine a mud bench in substitute of yours great though! 👍👍👍
Cool idea... send us pics when you get that far!
Stayed overnight in Vietnamese farmhouse when we got
lost on patrol. He had a bench chimney in the general living area of his house. First I ever saw something like that.
I would put a 2x2 foot box on top, and start selling wood-fired pizza's outta my place!
Your new business!
Smoke from fireplaces traditionally would be injected into the atmosphere, which provides micro particles for moisture to create new weather patterns. Think of during a field battle where there might be a good amount of smoke that's expanding upward, and during that battle it rains.
Simplest way to increase heat retention is to punch a hole in the wall to the outside and channel it to the air intake of the stove. No more sucking warm room air to feed the fire! I did this with my Surdiac coal stove and it got so hot I needed a fan to distribute the hot air to the rest of the house...
If your barrel gets too hot, strap on some 'fins' to radiate the heat...
the batch box style ,is at the top of my list and I use something simular
They are very nice to use, and we are enjoying our's!
ABC Acres I like this design! Would you do a follow up video of the start up?
NJ, check out our video this week, we did just that! ruclips.net/video/Ls_eqNB6d0Y/видео.html
Can you use something besides an old oil drum? For instance, could you make the secondary chamber out of fire brick with tile?
As long as I'm asking, could you use an automotive style oxygen sensor in the chimney to control a secondary air source for the burn barrel (ducted through the fire box)?
Its a large scale Vortex tube, so cool!
Glad you like it, and thanks for watching!
so cool stove great video
thanks, deputy dog!
Thats pretty slick!
We agree, thanks of checking us out
Most local codes do not allow a rocket stove for primary heating of a residence. Some outright make them illegal. However, for a storage or garage area, I have not heard of any significant legal or code restriction. Something to keep in mind when discussing rocket stoves.
One loop hole is if you place appropriate space heaters, baseboard heaters or other heater system in each room, then you could theoretically put a rocket stove in a living area and just not use the other heaters unless needed or one feels too lazy to start a fire.
@Jose Can you tell us the reasons for such legal restrictions ?
Scandinavian people's and Russians have been doing this for a while now but the design is a little different than this one . Instead of cob and pipes to heat the mass they use channels through lots of bricks and a massive chimney. Both are considered mass heaters but this one is a little different and more efficient for sure,plus can be made quickly .
I've made a few prototypes using the rocket design and also gasifiers . Both have their plus side .The good thing about gassification is you can use the left over mass which is essentially almost inert charcoal to be used for other things such as water purification or it can be ground up and put into compost or to rejuvenate soils or used for BBQ coals .
By accident I made something that's a combination of both and the ash content was almost nothing but fine powder .I was absolutely amazed at how little there was left . Essentially what I did was put metal screening in place that was meant to be exposed to high temps and put it where the hottest point would be . It acted as a catalytic screen which burned off anything else the primary heat source didn't which further reduced the mass left over . It acted much the same as an incinerator .I hadn't set out to do this . I was playing around with the idea of getting more heat or utilizing the heat better and this happened . With a gasifier the volatile organic compounds are used to provide fuel for the flames and only the mass is left over because the fuel is drawn out of the mass. With this design the flame is at the bottom and top with the mass in between. I start by burning the bottom using a torch but also have a container within another one and have holes drilled at the bottom and top of the cylinder within the first one . As the fire is trying to burn up air is drawn in from the top but then the VOC's are venting out the sides and trying to rise up within the second cylinder which is then lit and looks very similar to a propane gas flame which is the secondary burn . Once most the VOC's burn off or die down the mass continues burning at the bottom like how a rocket stove works but with a second burn and then the mass is reduced to almost nothing .Its hard to explain but all I know is that it works and the end result was a fine powder similar to baby powder . I'm sure this has already been invented and that I haven't discovered anything new but it was fun playing with the design and seeing how I could use up all the potential heat and reduce the mass to almost nothing. The key issue being it has to have a steady constant air supply and must be put inside another container .
I put this design in a small free standing baby bear wood stove I have and it got the steel relatively hot . I lined the inside with bricks and put more bricks on top of the flat surface on the stove which got fairly warm and lasted awhile . The pipe went directly from the stove to the outside of the building . I also had a flap inline to equalize temps before opening it up fully . Initial temps were fairly warm but the emissions after start up were almost nill with mainly a very small amount water vapor and slightly warm air coming out of the chimney . The twin cylinder was glowing red hot at the bottom which was kinda cool to see . Essentially I think what I did was use almost all the potential energy and matter that was available which really surprised me that it did that . It was a little tricky to get going but if I refine it more,it might be a good reliable heat source .
In the meantime I'll stick to a rocket stove design and perhaps refine that idea a little bit . Heating up a 80X40 foot shop with 10 foot ceilings and a concrete slab using propane heat gets expensive especially at over $2 a gallon . I'm going through 4 gallons of LP in less than a week . So it's definitely time for utilizing what's all around me ..lots of dead fall wood everywhere .
I see my neighbors using piles of wood and it kills me that there's such waste .Also they're using alder which stinks but it's cheap and easy to get. Not to mention my son has asthma and every morning and evening there's lots of wood smoke filling the air from all the wood being burnt and especially on days when we have no real wind movement . Yes fire places are cool to watch and very relaxing but it is possible to have both as this video demonstrates . I really hope that rocket stoves catch on everywhere so we can reduce air pollution and use less wood . If all the potential energy is used not only can you heat your home but also heat water or do passive floor heating , cooking, or turn that heat into direct energy again for power usage . There's energy potential literally all around us but we don't use it properly or know how to tap into correctly .
With the current geopolitical situation happening with oil being center stage in current and future conflicts it's extremely important now more than ever to learn to reduce our dependency for oil and be more self reliant . There's great potential for energy production using incinerator technologies that use garbage as fuel . There's an energy plant on the east coast that uses garbage as an energy source for all their operations from the machines that sort through the garbage to pick out precious metals ,to the conveyor belt machines etc and all their electricity needs . Their emissions are mainly water vapor which can be reclaimed and used for other things, and very little co2 . Considering the fact that we have a huge pollution problem all over the world we need to get busy making these types of innovative ideas a reality to change our world and make our children's future a better place . And so ends my coffee fueled rant !!
😰 😸
Royal, I love the rant and the info you provide. It takes passionate people to change the world for the better, and you are doing your part!
royalspin I took the time to read. Your a good man that cares for his son , keep experimenting and be the man that makes rocket mass heaters popular in your area. Your right ! God bless
royalspin: It seems that you have quite the take on the whole situation, but I'm having a hard time envisioning it. I would love to see a diagram or get further explanation, if you please... KOIROY@OUTLOOK.COM
Very informative! Thank you very much :)
You're welcome, and thanks for watching!
awesome sauce! u got a new subscriber!
Thanks!
Holy mother of Jayzuzz on a pogo stick, that thing would heat the entire western hemisphere.
Haha! It does a good job of keeping our shop warm!
Love Montana, from bitterroot valley.
nice set up thank you.
Thanks for watching!
great video. thank you.
Thanks for watching!
Have you thought of adding ceiling fans in your shop to bring the warm air back down to mix in with the cold? It would interesting to see what difference there is in the temperature readings near the floor and the ceiling when your mass heater is fully fired. Maybe you can do a video on that sometime.
The ceiling fans would work well, but if we make the place too comfy and cozy, then we'll never want to leave and get all the work we have done:) Good suggestion on the temperature readings for a video. I will keep that one in mind!
This is awesome! love it!
Thanks for watching!
Love the design but would like to how you built this particular
Excellent presentation. Do you have any details on the construction of your batch box?
Thanks, and Tim is looking in his office to see what we have that may be of use.
Excellent ! you've just won a new subscriber
Yes ABC, a design source would be much appreciated. These things are trial and error, design is important. This is the first I'm seeing batchbox design, and a closer look would be great too.
Scratch my request, You guys did another vid yesterday lol. ruclips.net/video/Ls_eqNB6d0Y/видео.html
Thanks!!
You're welcome!
Do you ever have to clean out the exhaust pipes inside the cob bench or is there risk of exhaust pipe catching on fire due to inability to clean it inside the bench?
We clean them out when needed, there's cleanup ports at each corner of the bench.
How do you clean out your bench pipes? They must collect a lot of residue as your exhaust is cooling?
Nice work that looks like a great way to heat your home !
**
Oh I see your answer to this question already:
ABC acres
ABC acres
2 years ago
The pipes stay clean, as the wood gases, etc are burned up inside the heat riser/burn chamber in the barrel before going through the manifold and into the exhaust pipe run. We only need to clean a bit of ash out of our pipes via our clean out caps once a year, which is only about 5 minutes of work!
..
Very useful info. Had a hard time understanding the whole concept with other videos but this one is a real eye opener. Would it be possible to build a smaller version of the Rocket Mass Stove? For a 400 sq ft space? Thanks again, Good job
Glad you found this helpful and yes you can scale down, if need be.
like this? ruclips.net/video/U7kqu1XvsXY/видео.html
Is it necessary to have such a tall riser? I have seen videos where they cut them down dramatically & they say the draw was better and the riser drum was an accessible height used to put on a pot of water for tea, cooking and to provide moisture in the air.
I love that you can see the fire. 👍
Put a strong ceiling fan near the fire so it blows the heat down onto the concrete slab so it acts as a mass heater also!
Ari,
Great idea and completely agree with you. Our tall shop ceilings can take up a lot of that heat, so creating movement through the space would distribute the temps more evenly throughout the shop. Eccellent, thanks!
How does the rocket stove fit into the IRC and NFPA code, coupled with no UL listing? Can it achieve legitimate building code compliance and home insurance coverage?
each municipality is different. Portland, OR has already made some headway to bring these to code. Here is Montana, not so much, and hence it is in our work shop.
Well done great video dude
Looks very cool and very dangerous for a fire to get loose on you.
Well you definitely don't make one in the living room with mom's new carpet.
These have not been found to be any more dangerous than a standard wood stove or fireplace when designed and built properly.
I just subscribed. Put out more of these videos please especially about stoves and efficiency and Cobb storage batteries
I've seen some pretty serious hearths and mantles but Wow look at that thing!
She's a beauty, isn't she?
Nice! I've built quite a few standard wood stoves in my day. Going to look into how to build one of these. 👍 from....... Montana lol
You will have a lot of fun building one, and thanks for watching! I hope you have a good heat source, it looks like winter is coming to Montana now!
If you cob the big tank ( not sure of the name, chamber maybe) , would it 1) make it safer to be closer to? 2) not loose as much heat?
Qloved the clean heat .👻👻🎄
Thanks for watching!
What a fantastic stove, I would build one like this.
Incredible.
Hello sir I have a question if you dont mind. THE SET UP..As far as I know BTU requirements can be found by taking area of walls and ceilings divided by the R value of each as applicable and then multiplied by the Delta "T" or temp difference of your worst day = BTU needs. Now that being said a small average modest 1000 to 1200 square foot house would needs about 50,000 BTU's Now with that said hardwoods at less than 10% Moisture only have between 8k to 8.5k BTU max available per pound. and that would mean in the modest house you would need to burn a little over 6 pounds of dry hard wood burned at 100% efficiency to deliver the needed 50k BTU's... heavy woods have more BTU due to density than lighter ones less dense. NOW ....IF... all that is true and modern wood stoves that are put in a calorie room and actually messured with out catalytics can approach 80%... THE QUESTION... How is it mathamaticly possible to use 1/4 to 1/10th of the wood ? it would demand a 400% to 1000% more efficient burn in the rocket stove than in thewood stove and the FACT is , it is only 20% at max possibly more efficient.. THAT sire is my question.. can you please explain that to me... I will not go into why sticks and paper thing, yet..
Van, don't know why, but your comment was in the spam file of comments. The one big difference between the new high efficiency wood stoves and a well-functioning RMH is the large amount of thermal mass. The fire can be extremely efficient in the stove, but the fact remains that much of the heat goes up and out flue pipe. The RMH's superiority in efficiency comes from its ability to catch and store the heat energy in the substantial thermal mass of the bench, daybed, or whatever other iteration of mass one wishes to employ for their unique context of space and utility, as long as it fits within the design constraints for proper and effective operation of the RMH. It is not in the burn chamber itself, but rather what happens to the exhausted air after, that gives the RMH an advantage in reduced fuel consumption. Thanks for joining the conversation.
I only notice people using relatively small timber in rocket heaters. Does thick lumber work well once the fire is roaring?
Well done
thanks John!
Any info on the (GASP) permitting or code compliance for these here in Western Montana? Nice set up, clear information...thanks for sharing!
Brendan, Tim might be able to speak to this better, but it's my understanding that you can use them if you want, but the problem is most insurance companies won't insure your house with one...
-Matt
Great presentation.I just wish that HOA that oversees my Townhome would let us have this.
too bad you didnt explain or diagram the internal pipe. does the outlet pie stop at the top and then the gases have to flow downward to escape out the chimney , like a car muffler. Or does the can have no piping in it? looks like a good idea and easy to build.
Douglas, thanks for seeking clarity. Best I can explain is that as the fire burns in the batch box, the gasses and fire exit the rear of the box into the vertical burn chamber. Most carbon is burned up at this stage, where at the top of the vertical chamber, the gasses run over and back down the outer wall of the drum, then horizontally along the bench in hidden pipe, then back along the bench in more pipe, and up the chimney to the outside. Thanks for taking interest!
Super sweet!
Glad you liked it, and thanks for watching!
This is an excellent introductory video. I'm so glad to see someone talk about efficiencies and not treat RMH like some kind of free energy device. The idea is to have the most efficient burn possible to extract every btu out of the fuel and to also have a heat storage unit in the form of a stone thermal mass. What you have to be careful to avoid are the people out there saying you can heat your house with almost no wood. Well you can't get around the laws of physics. If your house takes X amount of btu to heat then you have to produce that amount of heat somehow. The RMH should be much more efficient than the typical wood stove but the fuel only holds so much heat. So when you hear someone saying they now heat their house for 1/4 the amount of wood it means they likely had some really inefficient wood stove that they are comparing to. If you already have an efficient wood stove the difference will not be that much. Its also important to note that an RMH is not a forced air heat system so you need to get that heat to where it needs to be. You will need to have air movement to do so, especially if you have rooms at any distance from the heater and if mold is an issue in your area. Dead air is bad air so you not only want fresh air in your home, you want it moving for at least some periods of the day.
Nick, great observations, and you do need some way to move heat through the house.
People switching from a conventional wood stove to a rocket mass heater typically experience heating the same space with one tenth the wood. Most of this comes from people running a "75% efficient" wood stove at 10% efficiency (or less!) combined with sending a LOT of heat out the chimney (350 to 600 degrees F). Most rocket mass heaters operate at 93% efficiency and their exhaust temps are typically just a little over room temperature.
Agreed. I have stood on a roof and put my hand out to feel the heat coming out of a classic wood stove chimney. I nearly burned myself it was so hot. I became interested in better designs when I discovered masonry heaters and other designs like those from Garn. My boys and I are looking at an entirely new take on RMH designs that if we can work out the kinks should be pretty cool. The main thing I have to get people to understand is heating their home is pretty simple math. It takes a certain amount of heat to maintain the temperature of the home based on the degree of heat loss, the delta between their desired temperature and the outdoor temperature, etc. Fuel wise, all you need is a fuel that contains enough btus to meet that need then extract that heat as efficiently as possible, get that heat to where it needs to be and keep it there. Its pretty simple. But some people take their massively inefficient wood stove, replace it with an efficient RMH then become some sort of snake oil salesman talking about how little fuel they use when the math says that much fuel, even when burned super efficiently does not contain the btus to heat their home. I'm all for being excited and all but people shouldn't lose their minds in the process:-)
Most designs include a bench. If you actually sit on the bench, then you are using conductive heat, and it is possible to feel like it is 75 degrees when the air temp is actually 50 degrees. This, alone, throws off all the "BTUs required" stuff. But most people sit on the bench all day - and yet, there is a rich buffet of other ways - in the end, the "BTUs required" is sent out the window. I suggest building one and spending a month with it and going from there.
it is very important video and discussion
can I use intake air manifold which feeds the stove with oxygen from outside to conserve the amount of oxygen inside the room?
It is important. You most likely could, although I'm not sure that's necessary unless you're in a very tiny air tight house, although you should check with the rocket experts at www.richsoils.com
Could I extend the chimney as a form of underfloor heating or right around the walls or for heating water for radiators or other uses?
Chris, that's a possibility, although the mass does absorb the majority of the heat. That said I'm aware of people who use h2o as their mass, so you should be able to do the radiator thing for sure.
Chris, that's an excellent idea to try as an experiment!
Maybe a "warm spot" for cold feet, or for a pet to sleep.
I love the way you built the fire box and bench you shold try coal in the rocket stove and make a video about it
We appreciate the suggestion, and will keep it in mind! We mostly burn our scrap wood from woodworking and building projects at this point, but it would be fun and interesting to experiment a bit. Thanks for watching!
How do you deal with creosote build up in the bench and burn barrel? Would seem to create more creosote and more surface area to attach to. Cool (LOL) idea, like the efficiency.
In the UK the Government is seriously considering banning wood stoves due to smoke pollution (shock horror). This could be a real solution. Best of both worlds. Great idea.
great idea