New to RMH Forum

Hello All!
I'm excited to finally get around to joining this group. I'm going to build a 8" Rocket Mass heater within the next month or so.
It'll be an experiment to see if a RMH can heat a 1300 Sq Ft MH. I've been heating my home with a Fisher grandpa wood heater
for five years. It burns a TON of wood (five cords per heating season at least). I want to be a lot more efficient with my energy use.

I'm going to build the feed/J tube/barrel as usual and place the stove pipe along the future cob bench location. See attached picture.
I'm NOT going to cover the stove pipe in cob for now. I want to see if my RMH will heat the house before I do all the cob work (in the spring).
Do y'all think this is doable? Will I need to cover the joints with a metal tape, like I've seen in some YouTube videos? I don't want
carbon monoxide leaking into the house. I'd also like to have a window so I can see the fire. I found an old Pyrex dish that I plan on using for this.
Is this a good idea? Have others been successful in building a window into their RMH?

The RMH is going to be built in a new clay/straw/slip insulated room I added onto my MH (south side). If anyone sees any flaws, or maybe a better layout design, in my stove pipe layout, please let me know.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of other questions soon.

I'm also having a few problems finding parts. I would've thought it would be hard to find 8" Tee's and Caps. No business's in my area of the
Southern USA have either of these. Are other's, on the forum, having problems finding stove pipe parts? Are you having to buy these on-line somewhere? Where is the best on-line store for 8" Tees and caps?

I'll post other pictures soon...

thanks in advance for any help,

If you can't find what you need from an HVAC supplier, you will have to go non-local. I am also in the south; Tractor Supply put all of their stove pipe away last March just as we were getting ready to start testing. So, I ordered from eFireplace store and Northline Express.

I am a partner in Dragon Heaters; we manufacture a shippable core in three sizes: 4", 6", and 8". One of our 6" cores would probably be big enough for 1300 sq. ft, The cores are cast refractory and the inside of the core is shaped to increase turbulence. It was designed by Peter van den Berg.

Thanks for the reply Cindy.

I'll check out the local HVAC companies and the two companies you mentioned.

I've seen the Dragon Heater Cores you talk about. I'd love to be able to afford one of those. As time goes by,
and I've had a chance to build my own, DIY style, we'll see what happens.
Great input, thanks

Welcome to the site.

Thanks Dale!

Here's some pictures from today's work: I love this already! Something about having my hands in mud.

It's done. Now all I need to do is test drive it for a few days to see how it works, find out if it'll heat the whole house, etc....
Tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTr9hbFdLeM&feature=youtu.be