"Green" (unseasoned) wood releases a variety of toxic chemicals when burned, so this is not necessarily the best form of heating - even without considering solar and heat pump possibilities. If the twigs and trimmings were left somewhere to dry for months or years before being burned, then it would be quite clean and efficient.
okay... sorry.... found it as "permaculture forums"... didn't go there, because permaculture wasn't what i'm looking for... maybe you could just name it "forum" at your rocketstove-site...
So... someone finds this subject you've put out on youtube to make people aware of the idea, they find it interesting and want to know more, they take the time to ask you a few questions, perhaps not quite interested enough yet to hit the forums and digg up these specific questions..
You take the time to sit down and write a reply to them and this is what you managed to put into type?
@88Kamikaze69 You mean the place where we have a dedicated forum about this and dozens of people actively talking about this and none of them have looked at this video in the last year? A place where you can ask a question and get a discussion. A place where the discussion has probably happened.
YT allows only tiny answers with no links or embedded images.
The forum was created to answer questions on a mass scale.
@paulwheaton12 Thanks, I'm going to build the lowest cost house I can as a project to see what is possible and plan to incorporate a rocket mass heater in the design.
You know, those old masonry heaters always have a little vent at their top. This closes the funnel to heater's internals, but lets chimney to be used as ventilation shaft, as it's still warm after fire, it sucks air in well.
This is for ventilation. Not as efficient as mechanical aircon with heat exchanger would be, but much better than just an open hole in the ceiling. Replacement air is mainly sucked in from windows and other heat leaks old houses tend to have.
How is this superior to traditional "masonry"* heater, apart from turning the space hogged horizontal, thus allowing shoaler rooms and less space to heat. Assuming clean hot fire with no carbon monoxide, how does this secondary combustion help in any way?
*most units actually had just plain sheet iron exterior
@boxerfencer... I believe the man in the video said he went from using 4 cords of wood a year to 0.5 (1/2) cord... that's a 75% reduction. A rocket masss heater does not need secondary combustion, or a damper, as it sucks enough air in for complete combustion of the gasses created as it burns the wood, and the super hot heat riser creates turbulence that mixes that extra air with the hot gasses and allows primary combustion to be quite complete.
Then the long length of single walled exhaust pipe that travels through the thermal mass of the bench collects the heat that doesn't immediately go through the riser cover barrel into the room, and temps at the exterior exhaust vent are minimal, as all that heat is collected. I have an "80% efficient" modern stove with secondary burn... Alot more than 20% of the heat is lost out the chimney, instead of heating my space. I run through about 2 cords a winter here on the coast.
Lastly, so I can assume two things safely. The wood stove the person interviewed talks about is a regular old style (a non-secondary combustion unit), and the stove rocket simply takes advantage of secondary combustion.
@boxerfencer 1) consider that heat is required to get the smoke to go up the chimney on a conventional wood stove. 2) consider that most people run their conventional stoves in a very innefficient manner.
Sure, people need to be educated on wood stove use. But on your second point & just to be clear, are you saying it's impossible to burn an inefficient smoky fire in a rocket heater? I find this hard to believe as green/wet wood (regardless of stove/heater) expends its energy on drying before ever reaching secondary combustion.
And what about the humidity rusting out the pipes. Has this been solved? Are there fire & high temperature resistant replacements? Plastics? PVC?
Or rather "mass rocket heaters". The math doesn't lie, though. Secondary combustion wood stoves burn as much/little as do rocket heaters.
Re different design of rocket stoves & mass heaters, aside from cooking styles, a rocket heater is a rocket heater (afaik). Both have an open feed parallel to the flue, a base constructed from a variety of bricks, & a 2dary burner barrel. I think mass refers to cob furniture but this is no different from my wood stove bricks or my brick walls.
I find it really hard to believe that a rocket mass heater is going to burn less wood than a modern wood stove that makes use of secondary combustion of hydrogen and methane gases that are released as wood is gasified --considering that a rocket heater doesn't do this. Another disadvantage is that a rocket heater usually has the feed indoors and that pollutes your your air quality in your home (not to mention your lungs), and uses up in-home oxygen.
It's easy to just contradict people without resorting to a logical counter argument, or at least a reference.
So here's a reference with a quote.
"The book, "Capturing Heat II" ... suggests ... Rocket Stove [without a skirt] is only about as efficient as a well-run open fire. With the ... skirt ... efficiency ... is still less than the 40% that is sometimes cited."
Let's do the math. A secondary combustion stove burns 2-3 times hotter than ordinary woodstoves --saving 1/2 to 2/3 in wood, achieving the same heating capacity as a regular stove. Your rocket stove cuts usage from 4 quarts -1.5 which saves about the same as secondary combustion stoves. So my original stance is proven correct. Maybe it does achieve secondary combustion, but then it isn't any better, just cheaper & allows for cuttings as fuel. There is a problem with tubes rusting out in though.
I am curious as to what you use for the final exterior layer of your heater. Is it just concrete that is smoothed or what ? Or a heat resistant mortar maybe ? And is it also special paint on that ? So many questions, so little time : )
@muserwood It's an earthen plaster, floated and burnished smooth. Compatible with almost any breathable paints (earthen, milk, lime, whitewash, gypsum plasters). Concretes tend to have poor heat-resistance and poor moisture-trapping properties.
I heard there was some sort of hopper that will feed the stove automatically. ??
Has anyone thought to incorporate a wood gasification chamber into this for the option of wood gas production? Wood gas would run a generator to recharge a battery bank.
Saw one bright fellow using his rocket stove to heat a boiler for his steam engine.
@paulwheaton12 there are two main benefits to this. One is you have a much larger heat sink which is what holds the heat that would otherwise go out the chimney as hot smoke. Secondly, the hot smoke has been reduced to only hot air....Carbon dioxide an water vapor.
All usable combustion fuel has been burned in the chamber and not sent floating out the stack as unburned gases.
There's nothing wrong with what you describe infact I've seen EPA rated wood burning stoves with a soap stone monolith around it that are pretty nice looking.
The appeal of a rmh is one its a lot cheaper then even a high effecincy wood burning stove surrounded in mud. And two the "chimney" is inside house and surrounded in earth thermal mass so all that heat energy is being captured from the hot exhaust.
Ok, so besides cost, can someone explain why I couldn't build a "thermal mass" around a REALLY efficient wood stove and get better results? For example, I saw a catalytic type that claims a 40 hour burn on low. If you stored some amount of that heat for slower release while releasing some immediately, I'd think it would be MORE efficient and less of a hassle than feeding this contraption. Thoughts?
@kenfo0 Plus you get the rocket effect, that reburns the gases, the flat end of the barrel that redirects heats horizontally, that an EPA can do a bit but not as much as a cheap RMH
@assym2006 I've been planning this kind of application for a while. It should be possile to use a sterling engine in conjuntion with a heat exchanger to force air heat a building. Maybe with an outdoor rmh. Then the cold side of the engine is simply the ambient air, this would make it really efficient.
It seems to me that the beauty of of a 'RMH' is, in no 'first is best order', that it will give you useable heat from scrap and substandard firewood, also, if controlled carefully, longer lengths of wood can be burned and that the BTU's gained are returned over a longer time, much more efficient way than cast iron or steel can ever achieve. Using humble earth, to make your mornings oh so comfortable. BTW, ALWAYS build a way to clean your 'combustion flue' easily, a RMH needs it, to work well.
I had a neighbor growning up that took a catalytic converter from a large truck muffler and created a system where he could raise and lower the converter over the stovepipe outlet inside the pipe. He would stoke the fire and lower the converter over the opening and the converter would glow red burning all of the gases that normally left the chimney. He heated a 1800+sq. ft. house on about three logs a day.
Head out to the forums at permies - that's where the experts are hanging out. I don't think any of them are watching the comments sections for the videos.
I have tried to watch "all" videos on RMH and have seen the variation on vertical and horizontal inlet. I like the vertical inlet but the horizontal would provide easy ash cleaning. My question is how often and how is the vertical inlet RMH cleaned?
Does this stove burn pellets or primarily logs/limbs?
Am also wondering if the initial design is based on any pre-existing design s it reminds me on first glance of a stove set up that I saw in India (Kashmir) many years ago.
Thanks for all the attention. I'll have to get a bikini model to help next time. ;-)
I generally wear the same clothes indoors and out, unless the weather is extreme. One reason I like the RMH is it maintains comfortable, even temperatures in all seasons without creating a hot spot. When we are going in and out the door, the house doesn't lose much heat; it warms up again within minutes without starting another fire.
@mnagmobile1 Why? all my tools would be the wrong sizes. I would have to re-calibrate everything in my wardrobe and figure out what my new shoe size was.
what do you think i am; a rocket scientist or something?
i'd like to know this too. my RMH book arrived thurs. just before i left for woodlanders gathering (woodlanders. com) to demo a quick stacked brick RMH to my tribe, they Loved it (the book)
I can't help but noticing the amount of clothing the people are wearing inside the house. I'd really like a more quantitative analysis of how well this heats and what temperatures it keeps the house it. If he didn't insulate at all, I can't really see how there would be such a great difference. The house would still have the same thermodynamic properties and would assumedly cool at the same rate independent of the source. Anyone know the amount of energy release from burning a cord of wood?
@elcheat that is in the middle of winter, no fire and all the doors and windows open so we could hand buckets of plaster in and out. We let the plaster dry for a couple days then fired it up. plenty toasty since then. :)
@elcheat I agree. Every rocket mass heater video shows people all bundled up like they're outside in the snow. I could not wear all those clothes in front of my fireplace insert.
Maybe it uses less wood, because it doesn't put out any heat.
I don't really understand this. Im from Northern Ontario, and the idea of having that amount of clothing (which is not a lot) is not abnormal for us. Why spend more money on heating when you can wear a sweater? What Im curious about is, do you want to be able to go around your house in the summer in your boxers? Not an attack on you, Im just curious, is this your desire? Now, if it is, it doesn't seem to me that conservation of environmental and monetary resources are your cup of tea?
@elcheat Net energy release varies greatly depending on type of wood and combustion method.
Your arguement is that if he did not insulate, it does not matter how efficient the stove is.
Well insulation is not the only variable. He installed a large amount of thermal mass. That bench is made up of cob, which is very dense. That bench can store massive amounts of heat that would otherwise be lost either up the chimney or out the windows or through the walls, and re-radiates it for hours.
@elcheat I think the goal is to heat a smaller area via convection, conduction and radiation. If you notice, they often talk about a heated bench. the idea is NOT to heat the whole house to 72, but to make the place you spend most of your time comfortable. I am working on something that would be more of a convection model (i have a basement), where you would get some amt of heat immediately, but "store" a bunch of it for overnight release through channeled convection. Might not be doable?
@johnlvs2run I've seen them built for something like twenty bucks in a weekend. You can see a how to vided on youtube. You will want to buy the book before you begin - and the book is freaky cheap.
@pranachimana as it turns out, "cool" does fit - even though we are talking about heat. In the summer, all of that thermal mass stays cool. In fact, it kinda feels cold.
Not one of you mentioned direct gasification? a smokeless open fire has a near complete combustion, all you need to do is catch the heat.
carlube79 1 month ago
"Green" (unseasoned) wood releases a variety of toxic chemicals when burned, so this is not necessarily the best form of heating - even without considering solar and heat pump possibilities. If the twigs and trimmings were left somewhere to dry for months or years before being burned, then it would be quite clean and efficient.
asteroceras 1 month ago
I can't find a real forum at permies.com so I place my 3 questions here:
1. What about the condensed water in the mass heater piping?
2. How do you get the ashes out?
3. Doesnt the barrel or the heat riser oxidize on the interior, due to the high heat?
dispatcher7007 1 month ago 3
@dispatcher7007 please tell me more about how you cannot find the forum at permies.com.
paulwheaton12 1 month ago
okay... sorry.... found it as "permaculture forums"... didn't go there, because permaculture wasn't what i'm looking for... maybe you could just name it "forum" at your rocketstove-site...
going there now :) sorry again...
dispatcher7007 1 month ago
@paulwheaton12
So... someone finds this subject you've put out on youtube to make people aware of the idea, they find it interesting and want to know more, they take the time to ask you a few questions, perhaps not quite interested enough yet to hit the forums and digg up these specific questions..
You take the time to sit down and write a reply to them and this is what you managed to put into type?
none of by business and all but jeez dude..
88Kamikaze69 1 month ago 5
@88Kamikaze69 You mean the place where we have a dedicated forum about this and dozens of people actively talking about this and none of them have looked at this video in the last year? A place where you can ask a question and get a discussion. A place where the discussion has probably happened.
YT allows only tiny answers with no links or embedded images.
The forum was created to answer questions on a mass scale.
paulwheaton12 1 month ago
Comment removed
melonmonte 1 month ago
Does it get hot enough to cook on top of?
TheCatfishClayton 3 months ago
@TheCatfishClayton It depends on how you build it. We talk about this a fair bit at permies. One of the videos covers it a little.
paulwheaton12 3 months ago 3
@paulwheaton12 Thanks, I actually have Ianto Evans book. Probably covers it more in there too. I've just been being lazy and haven't read it yet.
TheCatfishClayton 3 months ago
@TheCatfishClayton yes
paulwheaton12 3 months ago
@paulwheaton12 Thanks, I'm going to build the lowest cost house I can as a project to see what is possible and plan to incorporate a rocket mass heater in the design.
TheCatfishClayton 3 months ago
@TheCatfishClayton can i buy a book or dvd on rocket stoves?
spiderstone 2 months ago
@spiderstone Yes, Rocket Mass Heaters by Ianto Evans, you can find it on Amazon for around $18.
TheCatfishClayton 2 months ago
Heheheh One of the ads shown is for a wood stove manufacturer.
DeadlyDad 4 months ago
the man elf
giorgosvenom 4 months ago 2
You know, those old masonry heaters always have a little vent at their top. This closes the funnel to heater's internals, but lets chimney to be used as ventilation shaft, as it's still warm after fire, it sucks air in well.
This is for ventilation. Not as efficient as mechanical aircon with heat exchanger would be, but much better than just an open hole in the ceiling. Replacement air is mainly sucked in from windows and other heat leaks old houses tend to have.
Tanooki100 4 months ago
How is this superior to traditional "masonry"* heater, apart from turning the space hogged horizontal, thus allowing shoaler rooms and less space to heat. Assuming clean hot fire with no carbon monoxide, how does this secondary combustion help in any way?
*most units actually had just plain sheet iron exterior
Tanooki100 4 months ago
@Tanooki100 have you looked at the book on these? Or read the forums at permies?
paulwheaton12 4 months ago
@paulwheaton12
Yes, looks good as long as the floor is earthen or slab, - that is - not on wooden beams.
I just still think the rocket effect has little importance compared to generous thermal mass applied.
Tanooki100 4 months ago
@boxerfencer... I believe the man in the video said he went from using 4 cords of wood a year to 0.5 (1/2) cord... that's a 75% reduction. A rocket masss heater does not need secondary combustion, or a damper, as it sucks enough air in for complete combustion of the gasses created as it burns the wood, and the super hot heat riser creates turbulence that mixes that extra air with the hot gasses and allows primary combustion to be quite complete.
orcoastgreenman 6 months ago
continued...
Then the long length of single walled exhaust pipe that travels through the thermal mass of the bench collects the heat that doesn't immediately go through the riser cover barrel into the room, and temps at the exterior exhaust vent are minimal, as all that heat is collected. I have an "80% efficient" modern stove with secondary burn... Alot more than 20% of the heat is lost out the chimney, instead of heating my space. I run through about 2 cords a winter here on the coast.
orcoastgreenman 6 months ago
If this heater would pass building codes here I would have built one by now! I'm stuck with my inefficient wood stove using 4X the wood!
99cachorro 6 months ago
Thumbs up
vention4wh 6 months ago
Lastly, so I can assume two things safely. The wood stove the person interviewed talks about is a regular old style (a non-secondary combustion unit), and the stove rocket simply takes advantage of secondary combustion.
boxerfencer 7 months ago
@boxerfencer 1) consider that heat is required to get the smoke to go up the chimney on a conventional wood stove. 2) consider that most people run their conventional stoves in a very innefficient manner.
paulwheaton12 7 months ago
@paulwheaton12
Sure, people need to be educated on wood stove use. But on your second point & just to be clear, are you saying it's impossible to burn an inefficient smoky fire in a rocket heater? I find this hard to believe as green/wet wood (regardless of stove/heater) expends its energy on drying before ever reaching secondary combustion.
And what about the humidity rusting out the pipes. Has this been solved? Are there fire & high temperature resistant replacements? Plastics? PVC?
boxerfencer 7 months ago
@boxerfencer you need to take this to the forums at permies.com where we've already hashed through all of these topics.
paulwheaton12 7 months ago
@boxerfencer
Or rather "mass rocket heaters". The math doesn't lie, though. Secondary combustion wood stoves burn as much/little as do rocket heaters.
Re different design of rocket stoves & mass heaters, aside from cooking styles, a rocket heater is a rocket heater (afaik). Both have an open feed parallel to the flue, a base constructed from a variety of bricks, & a 2dary burner barrel. I think mass refers to cob furniture but this is no different from my wood stove bricks or my brick walls.
boxerfencer 7 months ago
Sorry, I meant cords. D*mn automatic spell checker.
boxerfencer 7 months ago
Comment removed
boxerfencer 7 months ago
I find it really hard to believe that a rocket mass heater is going to burn less wood than a modern wood stove that makes use of secondary combustion of hydrogen and methane gases that are released as wood is gasified --considering that a rocket heater doesn't do this. Another disadvantage is that a rocket heater usually has the feed indoors and that pollutes your your air quality in your home (not to mention your lungs), and uses up in-home oxygen.
boxerfencer 7 months ago
@boxerfencer and you have now painted a perfect picture of how you don't know how a rocket mass heater works.
paulwheaton12 7 months ago
@paulwheaton12
It's easy to just contradict people without resorting to a logical counter argument, or at least a reference.
So here's a reference with a quote.
"The book, "Capturing Heat II" ... suggests ... Rocket Stove [without a skirt] is only about as efficient as a well-run open fire. With the ... skirt ... efficiency ... is still less than the 40% that is sometimes cited."
solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Stove
boxerfencer 7 months ago
@boxerfencer there is no rocket stove in this video. rocket mass heaters are very different from rocket stoves.
paulwheaton12 7 months ago
Comment removed
boxerfencer 7 months ago
Let's do the math. A secondary combustion stove burns 2-3 times hotter than ordinary woodstoves --saving 1/2 to 2/3 in wood, achieving the same heating capacity as a regular stove. Your rocket stove cuts usage from 4 quarts -1.5 which saves about the same as secondary combustion stoves. So my original stance is proven correct. Maybe it does achieve secondary combustion, but then it isn't any better, just cheaper & allows for cuttings as fuel. There is a problem with tubes rusting out in though.
boxerfencer 7 months ago
Firecrotch
VisvangFrikkie 8 months ago
I am curious as to what you use for the final exterior layer of your heater. Is it just concrete that is smoothed or what ? Or a heat resistant mortar maybe ? And is it also special paint on that ? So many questions, so little time : )
muserwood 8 months ago
@muserwood It's an earthen plaster, floated and burnished smooth. Compatible with almost any breathable paints (earthen, milk, lime, whitewash, gypsum plasters). Concretes tend to have poor heat-resistance and poor moisture-trapping properties.
EKWisner 8 months ago
@EKWisner So can I get this "earthen plaster" at a regular store, or do you mix it up ?
muserwood 8 months ago
can you cook on this?
dead4fun 8 months ago
how often do you have to load this style stove?
ray5220 11 months ago
I heard there was some sort of hopper that will feed the stove automatically. ??
Has anyone thought to incorporate a wood gasification chamber into this for the option of wood gas production? Wood gas would run a generator to recharge a battery bank.
Saw one bright fellow using his rocket stove to heat a boiler for his steam engine.
mangyscavenger 11 months ago
You mean you upgraded your wood heater efficiency to 800%? :OOOOOO
Rhinoch8 1 year ago
@Rhinoch8 I mean stop sending 90% of your heat up the chimney.
paulwheaton12 1 year ago
@paulwheaton12 Yah he says 4 quarts VS 0,5 wuart wood /winter. This means it needs 8 times less wood, therefore and efficiency progress of 800%
Rhinoch8 1 year ago
@Rhinoch8 Most people run their 75% efficient wood stoves at 5% efficiency.
paulwheaton12 1 year ago
@paulwheaton12 there are two main benefits to this. One is you have a much larger heat sink which is what holds the heat that would otherwise go out the chimney as hot smoke. Secondly, the hot smoke has been reduced to only hot air....Carbon dioxide an water vapor.
All usable combustion fuel has been burned in the chamber and not sent floating out the stack as unburned gases.
angryadrien 11 months ago
@paulwheaton12 I would be grateful if u could explain how to run a regular stove more efficienltly!
AOZXRAY 11 months ago
@kemfo
There's nothing wrong with what you describe infact I've seen EPA rated wood burning stoves with a soap stone monolith around it that are pretty nice looking.
The appeal of a rmh is one its a lot cheaper then even a high effecincy wood burning stove surrounded in mud. And two the "chimney" is inside house and surrounded in earth thermal mass so all that heat energy is being captured from the hot exhaust.
dehmlowm 1 year ago
Ok, so besides cost, can someone explain why I couldn't build a "thermal mass" around a REALLY efficient wood stove and get better results? For example, I saw a catalytic type that claims a 40 hour burn on low. If you stored some amount of that heat for slower release while releasing some immediately, I'd think it would be MORE efficient and less of a hassle than feeding this contraption. Thoughts?
kenfo0 1 year ago
@kenfo0 Plus you get the rocket effect, that reburns the gases, the flat end of the barrel that redirects heats horizontally, that an EPA can do a bit but not as much as a cheap RMH
Rhinoch8 1 year ago
@Rhinoch8 the stove I mentioned puts out practically no emissions and burns a very long time (no constant feeding like a rocket stove).
kenfo0 1 year ago
you ca put dead pets in it!
TechSmack 1 year ago
@assym2006 I've been planning this kind of application for a while. It should be possile to use a sterling engine in conjuntion with a heat exchanger to force air heat a building. Maybe with an outdoor rmh. Then the cold side of the engine is simply the ambient air, this would make it really efficient.
Mikdeelo 1 year ago
It seems to me that the beauty of of a 'RMH' is, in no 'first is best order', that it will give you useable heat from scrap and substandard firewood, also, if controlled carefully, longer lengths of wood can be burned and that the BTU's gained are returned over a longer time, much more efficient way than cast iron or steel can ever achieve. Using humble earth, to make your mornings oh so comfortable. BTW, ALWAYS build a way to clean your 'combustion flue' easily, a RMH needs it, to work well.
Mikdeelo 1 year ago
I had a neighbor growning up that took a catalytic converter from a large truck muffler and created a system where he could raise and lower the converter over the stovepipe outlet inside the pipe. He would stoke the fire and lower the converter over the opening and the converter would glow red burning all of the gases that normally left the chimney. He heated a 1800+sq. ft. house on about three logs a day.
want2rage 1 year ago 2
Head out to the forums at permies - that's where the experts are hanging out. I don't think any of them are watching the comments sections for the videos.
paulwheaton12 1 year ago
I have tried to watch "all" videos on RMH and have seen the variation on vertical and horizontal inlet. I like the vertical inlet but the horizontal would provide easy ash cleaning. My question is how often and how is the vertical inlet RMH cleaned?
maylaforcebewithu 1 year ago 2
Will this heater burn sawdust and wood shavings?
ffej112233 1 year ago
do you get more usable eat per amount of dry wood then a normal slow combustion wood stove ?
if so by how much ?
shodanxx 1 year ago
rocket mass heaters do wonders in colder climates
lifearoundhome 1 year ago
Does this stove burn pellets or primarily logs/limbs?
Am also wondering if the initial design is based on any pre-existing design s it reminds me on first glance of a stove set up that I saw in India (Kashmir) many years ago.
BTW, looks like a lovely set up. Well done.
Vulcanscienceacademy 1 year ago
Ernie How much square footage do you heat?
molittr 1 year ago
Thanks for all the attention. I'll have to get a bikini model to help next time. ;-)
I generally wear the same clothes indoors and out, unless the weather is extreme. One reason I like the RMH is it maintains comfortable, even temperatures in all seasons without creating a hot spot. When we are going in and out the door, the house doesn't lose much heat; it warms up again within minutes without starting another fire.
EKWisner 1 year ago
int that one of those pointy things look like a set of fish teeth, kinda head rake thing?
eawisner 1 year ago
metric please. lets get with the program!
mnagmobile1 1 year ago
@mnagmobile1 Why? all my tools would be the wrong sizes. I would have to re-calibrate everything in my wardrobe and figure out what my new shoe size was.
what do you think i am; a rocket scientist or something?
eawisner 1 year ago
@mnagmobile1 how many metric hours are there in a day? How many metric days are there in a year?
paulwheaton12 1 year ago 2
@paulwheaton12 six
kenfo0 1 year ago
Isn't Ernie working on a new edition of the RMH book? Do we have an idea when it will be available?
mockum 1 year ago
@mockum
i'd like to know this too. my RMH book arrived thurs. just before i left for woodlanders gathering (woodlanders. com) to demo a quick stacked brick RMH to my tribe, they Loved it (the book)
tribalwind 1 year ago
I can't help but noticing the amount of clothing the people are wearing inside the house. I'd really like a more quantitative analysis of how well this heats and what temperatures it keeps the house it. If he didn't insulate at all, I can't really see how there would be such a great difference. The house would still have the same thermodynamic properties and would assumedly cool at the same rate independent of the source. Anyone know the amount of energy release from burning a cord of wood?
elcheat 1 year ago 12
@elcheat I think the picture you are referring to was from when the rocket mass heater was first built. So it hadn't had a fire in it yet.
paulwheaton12 1 year ago
@elcheat that is in the middle of winter, no fire and all the doors and windows open so we could hand buckets of plaster in and out. We let the plaster dry for a couple days then fired it up. plenty toasty since then. :)
eawisner 1 year ago
@elcheat I agree. Every rocket mass heater video shows people all bundled up like they're outside in the snow. I could not wear all those clothes in front of my fireplace insert.
Maybe it uses less wood, because it doesn't put out any heat.
johnlvs2run 1 year ago
@elcheat
I don't really understand this. Im from Northern Ontario, and the idea of having that amount of clothing (which is not a lot) is not abnormal for us. Why spend more money on heating when you can wear a sweater? What Im curious about is, do you want to be able to go around your house in the summer in your boxers? Not an attack on you, Im just curious, is this your desire? Now, if it is, it doesn't seem to me that conservation of environmental and monetary resources are your cup of tea?
drewsuschrist 1 year ago
@elcheat Net energy release varies greatly depending on type of wood and combustion method.
Your arguement is that if he did not insulate, it does not matter how efficient the stove is.
Well insulation is not the only variable. He installed a large amount of thermal mass. That bench is made up of cob, which is very dense. That bench can store massive amounts of heat that would otherwise be lost either up the chimney or out the windows or through the walls, and re-radiates it for hours.
LGrey8 1 year ago 13
@elcheat I think the goal is to heat a smaller area via convection, conduction and radiation. If you notice, they often talk about a heated bench. the idea is NOT to heat the whole house to 72, but to make the place you spend most of your time comfortable. I am working on something that would be more of a convection model (i have a basement), where you would get some amt of heat immediately, but "store" a bunch of it for overnight release through channeled convection. Might not be doable?
kenfo0 1 year ago
@assym2006 Sure, why not?
paulwheaton12 1 year ago
How can I build one, and what is the cost?
johnlvs2run 1 year ago
@johnlvs2run I've seen them built for something like twenty bucks in a weekend. You can see a how to vided on youtube. You will want to buy the book before you begin - and the book is freaky cheap.
paulwheaton12 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
OMG man. Get a haircut if you're going to be on video. Presentation of yourself matters.
zavatone 1 year ago
@zavatone This guy is rock star in the rocket mass heater world. Rock stars SET the fashion! :)
paulwheaton12 1 year ago 6
@paulwheaton12 Heh. Well, at least it's not KISS makeup. Guess I should be thankful.
zavatone 1 year ago
@zavatone His hair looks fine, go fuck yourself.
vidz4funz 1 year ago
@vidz4funz Suure. It looks great if you don't know what a comb is.
zavatone 1 year ago
won't ernie be surprised when he gets back from his trip.
paulwheaton12 1 year ago
cool
pranachimana 1 year ago
@pranachimana You've missed the point completely. :)
Doppelfrog 1 year ago
@Doppelfrog How can you assume all that? All i said was "cool"
pranachimana 1 year ago
@pranachimana as it turns out, "cool" does fit - even though we are talking about heat. In the summer, all of that thermal mass stays cool. In fact, it kinda feels cold.
paulwheaton12 1 year ago