In the UK it is far more common for houses to be made out of brick with large chimney breasts on internal walls. I'm convinced that if the RMH had been invented here the standard design would be to use the mass of the building as the thermal store for your RMH.
EPA is already trying to ban wood stoves. Won't be long before they try to ban those too. How many chords of well seasoned split wood does one need to store for say 6 months worth of use? How are you preventing those bricks from disintegrating sue to heat/cold cycles? Any thoughts on local permitting? IF you can even get it permitted? Thoughts on property/home/fire insurance?
You might kind of have an idea,.. if you line your metal stove with bricks it will not cause the chimney fire chimney fires come from low temperature combustion in metal fire boxes. It's not a 90% chance that would burn your house down most of the fires are electrical
Great video, useful for my current situation! I'm considering a build, hesitant to replace my current system due to hot water heating benefits. I will get clear on needs and variables before approaching a possible design. Warming tank fits needs/factors as close to my current coil thermosiphon holding tank system.
Hello...I need some help to get started with size of batchbox, exhaust etc. I'm in information overload and need to know if there are any books that show how to build a batch box system
Dude! Great video! I’ve been a professional mechanic and doing a fair amount of electrical work for years. Even having a snap on guy visiting our shop every week, I’m blown away with this sweet selection of tools you’re suggesting your top 5 I’ve never seen and look incredible!! Thank you!!
Have been a fan of rocket stoves for years now! Right now I am working on heat exchanger and mass heat storage experimental for geothermal unit instead of deep water wells. With that said I am trying to gather information about best materials for the mass that will work temperatures between 10 degrees and 160 degrees. Be water pouris as i am using water as transfer fluid. Some of the suggestions i have considered concrete, ceramic grog, marble to plumb size gravel, vermiculite, sand glass to make turbulence as water goes through the heat exchanger. In summer it needs to take heat from water in the winter warm up the water or antifreeze mix . In my reagen at 6 foot and deeper ground temp stays close to 55 degrees year round and the unit i am using has dropped temperatures 30 degrees in the winter and raised temperatures by 35 degrees in summer. I got the unit when it developed a hard to fix r-22 leak and homeowners had me put in another one. I know I got off topic sorry, am needing materials suggestions for thermal conductivity. If it works out the way I think it will mean people won't need large amounts of land or deep wells for geothermal and wil be able to supplement heat with rocket stove.
Hey Matt - my friend is a missionary in Africa. There is quickly dwindling wood supply in the village he supports. They have very little waste to use to create rocket a stove with, and obviously no Home Depot to run to. What would you do to help them build j-stoves for (low fuel need and low smoke) cooking? I appreciate anything you can offer! Thanks for all you do for natural building.
Yup, wood is a carbohydrate, burns to form carbon dioxide and .... water. My first bell style bench was a half barrel round side down with concrete slabs on top. The seat was nice and warm, the wood was dry but when I took the slabs off after the burn there was a puddle in the bottom. It was just a test setup and so it didn't run all that long, I am sure a longer run would have dried it out. I would make a bench with straight sides next time to not collect the water in the middle.
I think there is a very good reason pull combustion air out of the living space. The air in the living space is already exhaust air, full of contaminants and using the stove to pull that contaminated air out of the living space which brings fresh air in for a healthier living space. The idea of a mass heater is to heat people either directly by contact or by radiation but not by heating the air (though that will happen to some extent). It is interesting to me that most building codes require 1 air exchange per hour. This may seem like a lot but those who test various things on rats find that to keep those rats healthy, they need 8 times that. As such, I suspect that the building codes are lax in this case and that people are healthier with more than 1 air exchange per hour. So use an outside air intake, perhaps with heat exchanger if you want to get fancy, for your breathing air and use the stove to suck that used air full of breathed air, various smells, leaked smoke, radon (in some places), etc. out of the living space. Lack of oxygen is a known contributor to dementia. Sealed homes are good for efficient heating but not so much for life. I leave windows open at least a little all year round.
I have to run my chimney through a basement window. Can you do a video about that? I'm limited on where I can put my rmh and the basement room I chose has the shortest chimney run possible on my house. I already have some of menard's stove pipe and planned on just using their stuff.
I would love to see a complete build video. I'm looking for a good one to use to build one for our off grid cabin on our property this year. Please show me your complete build of this stove.
Looking how koreans have their rocket mass stoves built into the floor, and learning about how electricity really moves, IMHO the fact that the heat flow is different then the airflow can be beneficial, the air can flow past a dead end chamber, but the heat will flow like a wave, reverberating back and in the process that dead end doesn't have a cold spot: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WUvPGZzspP0.htmlsi=BR8nQkgRjpqCDSH1
Think koreans smarter than us, they build their rocket mass heaters using the floor for the mass: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lRMFyufJZQw.htmlsi=WooVI8OZlnD06yMl
Here's the result of homemade refractory using regular morter, clay, and pearlite, spoilers, it didn't work for long: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wFLrhgPxoXk.htmlsi=vFfTZg0ktxIBW6JO
Here's the one I built, I use water for my mass, couple of things I am doing now, (this weeks project actually),1: replacing the core because my homemade refractory fell apart, and 2: adding more coils in the heat riser for heating water faster: ru-vid.comWkhy5N7GV68?si=5UQfrOUBPc9A2kdZ
Hi Matt, after following you 8 or 9 years and dreaming of my own Walker Stove in a Off Grid Cabin it's finally going to happen. I just bought 82 Acres of Off Grid Paradise in Tennessee. I'm starting to plan my Cabin and am incorporating a space for my Walker starting from the Foundation up. Thanks for all the insight over the years and and am looking forward to the build and consulting with you to help make it fit my needs.
I made a rocket mass using water as the mass, check it out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ww7IqVTn7_k.htmlsi=HBd9IXZhFD066TCi I made a mistake on the morter, i used regular morter with clay(bentonite) and perlite mixed in, about equal amounts of each, and, after a month or so the first year, and about 2 months this year so far, its starting to crumble in the firebox, any modern materials suggestions for the rebuild? And, how long does it need to dry before i can shut off the wallet draining electric heat again?
I see secondary air intake pipe drawing from front into rear mid of burn box, but i am confused as to why a pipe is used, and not integrate this into the brick design (the air path is made of brick, not metal pipe)? Surely this is possible to design into the base of the structure.
"I spend a lot of time talking people out of rocket mass heaters..." This statement really goes to show both your honesty and your superior knowledge about the heaters. Much appreciation for your generosity in sharing your knowledge.
I had an 8 inch batch box rocket mass heater built using Peter's design. It works great. I have used it for 3 years. This year we added outside air. Should I have a damper inside that air inlet pipe. Is there an automatic damper that would work? Thankyou for your expertise.
Could make the removable pipe ( vertical )insert into horizontal pipe . Hits bottom. Cut bottom facing to match horizontal hole . Cut vertical slot facing riser to appropriate hight. No weld and stable due to pipe being inserted. Should allow for for wood banging against it without any issues and allow easy replacement when worn. Thoughts?
