Heated barn using mass heater??

I'm curious if anyone has built a heated barn area with some sort of mass heater? We are trying to move away from electric sources of heat in the winter months (-40 frequently) for water and baby animals and eventually so we can milk in the winter. I had an idea that using a wood stove, rocket stove or something along those lines placed in the center of a building with lots of insulation would allow us to keep everything from freezing without power
If anyone has any insight or ideas I would love to hear them!
Thank you
Er

Hi Er,
I don't know lots about rocket stoves, but having lots of insulation plus a heat source would definitely be the way to go :)

When you are trying to keep things warm you want to focus on two things. First, reduce the amount of space to heat, so you don't need as much. Second, reduce the amount of heat that escapes, so you don't need as much.

In a barn with living things, I would suggest focusing on insulation that is breathable so it won't trap moisture like the plastics and foams many people use today. Rockwool insulation, sheep wool insulation, and hempcrete (also hemp batt insulation) all come to mind. I don't know how big your barn is, but most have a lot of height compared to the height of the animals staying there. If you could somehow block off the top floor storage, or make shorter ceilings for the stalls, it would help keep the heat closer to the animals. If you got good enough insulation and depending on the size of barn and how many animals you have in there, you might not need much at all since each animals is giving off heat themselves.

I think the big thing in your situation would be to avoid trying to heat the air since fast air changes in a barn are pretty much essential as well as hard to avoid. Insulation and lowered ceilings in animal stalls would likely help.

I would go with an underfloor radiant heating system if you are building new, such as a rocket mass heater sunken into the floor with its heat exchange ducting/bells running below the floor in relevant areas.

Searching for sunken RMH.

This would just be a regular RMH built in a depression in the floor, or possibly even at floor level if draft is good or a bypass can be arranged, with the heat exchange channel run below the floor instead of in a bench.

what about the manure pile heater for floor heat?

Depending on the type of animal you are housing, one of the biggest problems is not warmth, but ventilation.  Large animals, equine and bovines producing milk,  give off a lot of moisture that must be eliminated.

 Fowls like chickens and duck, give off lots of ammonia, which also needs to be removed.   Aluminum sulfate can be used in the litter to reduce the ammonia.  

In hog barns ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2). These gases often have a negative impact on air quality, animal health and quality of life within these facilities.

Livestock can survive lots of cold, but the products they give off can cause illness and ultimately lowered production.  

Think high ceilings and for newborn calves coats in cold weather.  For over 30 years we raised calves in outdoor hutches in temperatures down to -35F.

The warm buildings were for our comfort, not the animals.