Thanks for taking the time to share your expertise and experience. Im onto finishing the inside of my new home (500sqft) and put this idea off to the side but after this last cold snap im now convinced this concept is the way to go vs a tradional woodstove which I had planned on using. Just keeping my
Wow really nice setup. How many pounds of wood do you go through in a day? Ever weigh it? You must have a super low heat load in your home. Please tell us about your home. You mentioned 2000+ sq feet. What area do you live? Average climate? Insulation? Year built? Thanks and really nice work
Do keep in mind that "mass" means just that. An average rocket mass heater will contain in a relatively small area around 2 TONS of material. It is fine on a slab foundation, but do think about that much weight on a floor over a basement (hollow area) or pier and beam (again, hollow) foundation. I love them, but they may not be appropriate for a current situation without some shoring up to ensure your floor doesn't cave under the weight.
I only have a small shop i am looking to heat and wondered if you had plans you were willing to share on your smaller unit, seems to me that it would be more in line with the size i would need for my 18'X24", single store(8' ceiling height) shop, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
I am planning on building a rocket mass heater in my large garage, building a shop expansion around it, later on. It is on a slab, so it should be fine, structurally.
Well done. You look to have done a fabulous job. I'm considering using an old copper cylinder instead of the metal drum - wonder if that'll be difficult when it comes to cleaning.
How insulated is your house 🤔 windows and is it air tight. And if a 3 thousand soft home was nearly air tight with extra insulation how do you think a setup like this would fair. The mass looks professional 👌
Actually the temp just on the barrel can reach 700 degrees. The mass can heat up to 150 degrees. If it is assembled correctly. Check out the Fouch FAMILY on you tube. Also you will burn approximately 1 to 2 cords of wood. Also if this system is done right you won't have to burn all day either. Because the mass will provide radiant heat for another day without starting another fire. Also you only have to clean out 2 times a season.
I have a wood stove but really would like to have a rocket mass heater. We have about 1500 sq ft to heat and the back is harder to heat from the front room unless it's 99 degrees up here (which happens at times.) I can't use pine other than to start the fire. The resin in the pine builds up and can start chimney (pipe) fires. How does this method keep that from happening? Is it due to the efficiency of the burn?
@@Claythargic I think it also has to do with the design, when the smoke is drawn down to the exhaust pipe at the bottom of the drum, it cools/condenses the smoke enough to allow the remaining combustibles to burn off. it's a bit of a secondary pyrolysis effect.
Woods stoves are really smokey, 50% of the heat goes straight up the chimney and the black smoke is unburned combustibles. With rocket stoves being up to 90% efficient from burning more combustibles per "log" and scrubbing all the heat into the concrete on the way out, they save a lot of wood. I hear up to 75% less. I've been researching this stuff for 10 years. Good to have this kind of knowledge, especially these days.
Get a modern EPA wood stove. They burn up the smoke and vapors to achieve higher efficiencies and significantly less creosote. Creosote builds up significantly more when exhaust gases are below 250 degrees. Modern wood stoves can also burn pine. Actually most of the northwestern US and Canada burns pine and fur as their main firewood. Just make sure it's seasoned properly, 20% moisture or less. Pine is fine to burn you just won't get the same heat output as a hardwood. The place I got my insert from heats their shop with a fireplace. It was installed in 2019 and they havent needed to clean the chimney yet. Seriously, get a modern quadrafire stove or fireplace if you're gonna burn wood.
It depends how you design your mass heater. There are designs that you only need to have a burn for 4 hours a day to the one in this video that seems to need more burn time. The factors are your climate, the heat bank mass, and your burn capacity. I have a 4 inch external air source that I use at night and can choke it down to 1 inch. I used adobe for mass. You dont want to have air running through if there is no fire because it will rob the heat from your heat bank. I can burn acorns, hickory nuts, pine cones and twigs on low air flow and still heat the home.
They only need to burn during the day for a few hours, then the heat is stored in the mass of the bench. The mass releases the heat all night long. Get the house to 72 before bed, in the morning it's around 68 or 69, even if it's below freezing outside.
Every month cleaning? Nah man common...i tried few rocket stoves and i tell you its not worth it. Not all wood is small..also cleaning is way too often and most important this stove takes away too much air up the chimney...the best option is masonry heater....they are even more economical then any rocket stove
