Rocket Stove Mass heaters

[Machias]

Anyone here build a Rocket Stove Mass Heater or a Rocket Stove Heater?  Not to be confused with an outdoor Rocket Stove.  Looks like a fantastic way to heat a house or cabin.  Anyone aware of any counties, WA or ID authorizing it as far as the code goes?  I know a family in Oregon got it approved for their county.  Looks like a fantastic way to heat a shop or home.  1/10th the amount of wood as a conventional wood stove, heat your house for a day or two on one firing.  No pollution, very little if any risk for a chimmeny fire.  Seems like the only draw back is the weight if you have a wood floor and the asthetics of the barrel, although I have seen some that are pretty decent looking.  Just curious if anyone has done one.

[Machias]

Here's a few examples

[Bofire]

How do you clean them out?
Carl

[Machias]

They have a couple of clean out ports, but most have extremely small amount of material to cleanout.

[highside74]

Noise?

[Machias]

None

[Special T]

Does it need to meet code if it is just for the guest house?

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[quadrafire]

Why the metal barrel? Would look better without it for sure. Is it needed for some reason?

[Machias]

Yes, it's an essential part.  Most have a J shaped burn chamber.  You put sticks in standing straight up.  The fire only burns the bottom part of the wood.  The fire burns sides says due to a draft created by the heat core. The fire and smoke rises up the heat chamber, which is inside of the barrel. The smoke and creosote burn inside the barrel.  In a conventional stove a lot of the heat is lost up the chimney.   In the rocket stove mass heater almost all of the heat is stored in the mass.  Slowly released over several hours and even a couple of days.  It gets its name from the sound of the fire burning sideways.  You have to bend down to hear the rockety sound.  There is some great videos on YouTube that show how they work and how to build them.  Very cheap to build.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Where does the smoke go?

[Special T]

Where does the smoke go?

Not much smoke the barrel is a burn chamber and the "chimney" runs through the bench which absorbs most of the heat as it travels  out. They are a really cool setup.

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[Special T]

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[Machias]

Almost no smoke, only steam and CO2. 

[Machias]

Thanks for the video Special T

[Cylvertip]

I have been looking at these too.  There was an outfit out of Rainie r that was making certified burn/heat chambers.  Would need certified for
insurance purposes in a house.  Or don't ask, don't tell....   They use very little fuel and can effectively heat using relatively small diameter material.

 Saw a video from winter in The Okanogan where they heated the house for a long time by just burning a medium sized arm load of wood the night before.  The outside temps were well below freezing and the house was still above 70 the next morning without a fire through the night. 

[KFhunter]

A few things jumped out at me


Cons:

1) have to tend to the fire feeding it small sticks for hours.   

2) splitting fire wood much smaller  (although less total amount)

3) 1/10th the wood seems like a pretty generous estimate in WA where we have to have the newer more efficient reburning wood stoves. 

4) big foot print of the rocket mass, people are making benches they won't sit on, it takes up floor space. 

5) barrel, ugly.

6) no visible flames to sit in front of and go in a trance while holding your favorite alcoholic drink

7) trickey to get started, although a boost fan would mitigate that

Pro's

1) no chimney fires

2) holds heat longer

3) less wood to stack

4) could be cool if you're an artist (I'm not)



I love the greenhouse idea, you're going to be in there pretty much every day anyways. 


For my greenhouse idea I want to put in a boiler and keep thermal mass under the greenhouse in a big insulated tank.  Then I can scavenge the heat off that and heat the main house with forced air.  In the summer I can do the reverse to keep things cool.  A modified rocket mass would be cool to heat the water with.

[spin05]

the only major con i see is if or when the barrell or chimney rot out or whatever. Breaking all that up to put in new material would suck

[KFhunter]

use a stainless steel barrel

[Special T]

the only major con i see is if or when the barrell or chimney rot out or whatever. Breaking all that up to put in new material would suck

Dont think you have to break it up. Besides adobe/cob is fairly easy to touch up, and repair.

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[Machias]

the only major con i see is if or when the barrell or chimney rot out or whatever. Breaking all that up to put in new material would suck

Watched a couple of videos on changing the barrel, wasn't much of a problem and they used resealed with fresh cob.  Pretty much a half an hour job.

[Machias]

A few things jumped out at me


Cons:

1) have to tend to the fire feeding it small sticks for hours.   It does take more time than a traditional stove, but generally you have a 2 to 3 hours of a burn and you are done.

2) splitting fire wood much smaller  (although less total amount)

3) 1/10th the wood seems like a pretty generous estimate in WA where we have to have the newer more efficient reburning wood stoves.  The 1/10th firewood comes from folks here in WA.  Several folks went from using 8 cords to less than a cord of wood for an entire winter

4) big foot print of the rocket mass, people are making benches they won't sit on, it takes up floor space.  Most of the ones I see do in fact use the bench as a seat with cushions

5) barrel, ugly. No argument here, but I did see a couple that did things like wrapping in copper or other designs which helped some

6) no visible flames to sit in front of and go in a trance while holding your favorite alcoholic drink 

7) trickey to get started, although a boost fan would mitigate that  Only trickey if you try and start from a dead cold system.  If the mass is still warm the draft is pretty good and easy to get started.  They do have a couple of ways to get the system drafting properly with a cold system

Pro's

1) no chimney fires

2) holds heat longer  MUCH longer, this is a huge Pro for me.  No getting up in the middle of the night to stoke a fire.  Also no need to have a fire going when you are not at home.  I can do a burn for 2 or 3 hours in the evening and then have a warm cabin the following day while I'm at work.  Come home to a warm cabin and fire it up for a couple of hours again.  I'm totally off grid, so the alternative is coming home everyday to a cold cabin and firing up a conventional stove.

3) less wood to stack

4) could be cool if you're an artist (I'm not)



I love the greenhouse idea, you're going to be in there pretty much every day anyways. 


For my greenhouse idea I want to put in a boiler and keep thermal mass under the greenhouse in a big insulated tank.  Then I can scavenge the heat off that and heat the main house with forced air.  In the summer I can do the reverse to keep things cool.  A modified rocket mass would be cool to heat the water with.