portable rocket mass heater / free cycles missoula

http://www.permies.com

This design starts off with three big missions:

1) rocket mass heaters for apartment dwellers. the idea is that this can be taken apart, put on a truck, moved, and put back together. I was hoping that the time it would take to get it loaded onto a truck would be less than an hour. We did demonstrate that. I was hoping that the time it would take to rebuild it would be less than an hour - in the end we missed that by ten minutes. I think under an hour can be done.

2) A different aesthetic. This rocket mass heater has a wood frame. To my knowledge, this is the first time this has been done.

3) A lighter design for places that have wood floors that don't hold a lot of weight. The fact that there is a LOT of duct in this design does make it much lighter.

I think we had success in all three of these.

Along the way, we also came up with some other improvements.

A) Rather than a brick core with a heat riser that sits on top, we have the heat riser go all the way to the ground. This eliminates a bottleneck when the burn tunnel (square) and the heat riser (round) meet.

B) Must use a square burn tunnel. So the walls of the burn tunnel are defined by bricks, and a brick bottom is defined by a single brick who's height can be changed based on the amount of sand under the brick.

C) Sand as the mass turned out to be a bad idea. Better to have pea gravel and rocks. Air is allowed to move through the mass - so there is better transfer of heat before the exhaust exits. This is also lighter.

Geoff Badenoch talks about brick quality and has a good idea on where the brick came from which reflects on the quality. The Brickyard hill Brick works in Missoula.

Version 1.0 was okay. We then did A and B to get a better burn. Which worked. Thanks to Anne Binninger for helping with the construction of 1.0.

Oh - and we learned that when you store sand in buckets, you should always keep your sand sealed, or cats will find it and ... uh ... enhance the sand.

Version 1.1 was a better burn. When we started making version 1.2 the heat riser where we extended looked pretty bad. Like it might restrict flow. So I got the idea that it would be good to make one solid heat riser that was a little taller. Thanks to Geoff badenoch and Greg Guscio for helping with version 1.1.

version 1.2 gave us the best burn. Thanks to Caleb Larson for bringing in rocks and helping with the build. Thanks to Joel, Mike Doerner, Guido and Suzy Bean for helping with construction. Thanks to Tim Skufca for providing some of the materials, helping with the build and arranging a spot for us at the Missoula earth day event.

Five guys from free cycles of missoula loaded up the rocket mass heater on bicycles with nutty home made bicycle trailers. Success! The rocket mass heater was successfully moved about two miles on bicycle trailers! I would like to thank Bob Giordano of Missoula Free Cycles for arranging the transportation and jumping in on the build!

We then built the portable rocket mass heater at the missoula earth day festival in caras park.

Version 1.3 didn't have as good of a burn. I think it was because of leaks and because the heat riser wasn't warmed up at first. And thanks to Derek Kanwischer, Guido, Jeffrey and Rick for hauling and building version 1.3.

Relevant threads:
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums/2558_0/alternative-energy/portable...
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums/3274_0/missoula-eco-forum/rocket-m...
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums/1078_0/alternative-energy/rocket-s...

music by Jimmy Pardo

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• rocket mass heater
• wood
• heat
• fire
• eco
• green
• permaculture
• organic
• sustainability

[ZeroFossilFuel]

Someone suggested to me over at my channel that I take a look at making a RMH for my garage, and later my workshop. I must say, most interesting. Does this exhaust to the inside or outside?

[paulwheaton12]

@ZeroFossilFuel outside

[spystyle]

I'd like to know of a simple RMH with detailed instructions that I could build

[paulwheaton12]

@spystyle do you have the book? have you seen the article at richsoil? have you seen the stuff people are doing in the alternative energy forum at permies?

[packymck]

hey paul....I enjoy your videos a lot. Keep up the great work.

I live in Ga and can't find any perlite. where do you get your?

[paulwheaton12]

@packymck c'mon out to the the forums at permies.com where we talk about perlite, rocket mass heaters and alternative energy stuff all the time. :)

[elpablonicolas]

WELL WELL DONE!

[MrPhreeradical]

Thanks for the informative video, I know where I have been going wrong now (bottleneck). Hi from Scotland UK

[m081779]

4:01 cracked me up. I wish you guys lived closer, I would be totally into doing stuff like this with you.

[ZeroFossilFuel]

@paulwheaton12 Been doing some reading over at permies and I think I understand the basics. Good group you have there. I honestly think I might give this a try, right away! I'm tired of being cold or paying through the nose to be warm. Thanks a bunch for these videos!

[DrGaryGreen]

You guys are way cool.

[Ohsage1111]

Men! lol. Too funny :P Love what you all are up to! Keep inspiring us!

[busterpiggle]

Props for quoting Burns!