Fred Lake

allen lumley wrote:Fred L :I really cant be much help to you if you want to go with a metal Wood stove !

Glass is not an insulator, why do you ask?

I just see it everywhere looks like a cheap way to recycle glass.

Hi Allen,

Probably forgot to remind that the thermal mass heater that I am making will be all steel. So that's a 8" pipe for the burn tunnel using the formula on page 35 and 36 with the heat riser welded on. I will then cover the heat riser with a sleeve and put insulation in it. I'm going to start with 2 to 3 inches of insulation around the heat riser. This should give me plenty of room on the bottom of the drum to cut the 8" exit.

I'm thinking I will bury the barrel a foot or so in the soil/sand and the exhaust can come out at the correct level to go straight into the trench.

I am working on the insulation now and tried to burn cat litter in the current wood burning heater we use in the house. Seems to be holding up fine. Also and I would like your opinion on crushed glass. I checked and glass melts and 1500 degrees F.

If you look at Iantos original design the insulation for the heat riser comes to within 2" or so from the side of the barrel. Thus there would be no room for a 8" hole at the bottom of the barrel.

I mostly want a good draft and heat going down the exhaust and heating my soil. I will put the heater on the end that has the exhaust fan and if it gets too hot in the green house, the fan and kick on and save my polycarbonate

I'm getting the 8" steel pipe this week and the project should kick off by week end. This is the closest thing I could find to what I want to do..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2nlPB_Kq0g Probably because it comes from the steel fabrication point of view.

Problem is its not that cold this year. I would normally be cold with snow on the ground.

Fred

I have a question.
The gap between the insulated heat riser and the heat riser barrel is dependent on the size of the riser and and barrel. I'm looking at a 8" system for a green house using a 55 gal drum. If i cut the exhaust hole at the bottom of the barrel would it not interfere with the riser insulation, as there is only a 2-3" gap? The 8" exhaust is going to be at least 8 inches in diameter which is a 4" radius.


Thanks

Hi Allen,
Thank you for wanting to put the green house people into their own area. I stumbled into the Rocket heaters a few weeks ago and have become fascinated. We had a green house free standing about 200 feet from the house 20 X 40 and it did well. We have a 120+ mph wind come through here and some folks lost their buildings, the green house survived but damaged. So I moved it to the side of the our house.
We have one long bed 60' X 6' or so we brought up soil from the valley and mixed it in with a load of sand. Our problem is not going to be moisture as we live at almost 9000 feet in Colorado. With the climate change we have intense sunshine and as soon as the sun goes down its cold to very cold maybe 2 percent humidity. I bought plastic conduit and made the hoops with heavy mill plastic and made a green house inside a green house. All working well.

Because of where we live spring comes late, and my wife is thinks we should use a propane heater to keep the green house warm...But really we need to heat the soil. I am refusing to pay the propane guy anymore than I have too ( we also have wood heat in the house with propane as a back up). So when I found the rocket stoves and thermal mass heaters you can bet I sat up straight. What I do know is the fire department has spotters and they will send someone to come check if they think I am burning in the open . The smoke is a problem when I first get up in the am as I stoke the fire and I know they can see it. Mind you I can see miles and miles around me and there are no more than 50 people living within 8 miles around me. No smoke to speak of with a good working rocket stove. That means to me I might get away from any extra carbon tax.

Anyway I am a expert welder and steel fabricator. My plan is to make the whole thing out of metal. When it burns out I will gut it and replace it. I have firewood as I am surrounded by pine trees as far as the eye can see. Because if the altitude was not able to split the wood by hand so we invested in a log splitter some years ago. There would be some room in the green house to stack wood. My concern is the heat coming off the top of the barrel, as we are using the polycarbonate as the covering in the green house, really don't want to come in to melting plastic.

My plan it to dig a trench down the middle of the growing bed and put the pipe in it and vent it out....My unknown right now is...with a 8" system how much pipe can I run? it would be straight no bends and out to the leeward side of the green house. I understand the clean outs and such. Not thinking Cob is going into this build. Most youtube videos show the outlet coming down out of the barrel, I asked because the original design show it coming out the side.

thank you so much Allen

Hi Joe

After thinking about your post yesterday my suggestion would be to get your hands on "Rocket Mass heaters Super efficient wood stoves you can build yourself". By Ianto Evans and Leslie Jackson. Look for the 2007 edition. Page 35 will be of some help to you. If you need help finding the publication let me know.

I got your reply and have spent some time around that site. I would like to build a few rocket cooking stoves as we live in a remote area and the ability to cook without anything but wood appeals to me. I'm wondering why I have never heard of this kind of fire before.

Fred

Hello Ian,

Don't know if you got any answers to you question. To be honest I am in the process of building my first rocket stove and oddly enough i too want to heat a green house. This is what i keep hearing over and over do a test run on your creation. I looked up Upvc and it says heat resistant, maybe you can find the specks on this material. I would have to run the stove and see what the output heat is at the barrel. It might be you need 10 or so feet of a non plastic material and then switch to the upvc. Do you plan on digging a trench in your green house and burying the pipe to heat the soil? I'm understanding that 40 feet might be the limit did you say what size rocket heater you are building 6" or 8" I'm going to think the longer the run the bigger the size.



Still new to this hope some of it helps.

Fred

Does this link help you http://www.rocketstove.org/index.php/design-tool-link-from-menu

Hello,
Not sure if this tread is still active. I worked in steel fabrication for years. You might find a sheet metal shop with a roller to do this job. Figure your diameter and what length Drum you want. The people at the shop will roll it for you and maybe weld the long seam and top for you. Ask them for a great job..meaning the drum will be round and the welding clean and polished. Have them weld handles on it so you can pull it off easy. Cook top?

Next go and buy some metal art..take that to the shop and they ask them to roll it to the diameter of the drum and have the welder tack the metal art on for you.....

Martha Stuart will be very proud of you...Remember you can go all out and use stainless steel for the drum, bring your extra check book.

Fred

Hi I'm new to this site and forum. I would like to build a 8" Thermal mass heater and have been looking on Youtube and any other place I can get information which has led me to you . My question is; The exhaust from the barrel, should it be at the bottom of the barrel facing down or at the bottom of the barrel at a 90 degree angle to the side? My idea is to install this in the green house and warm the soil.

thanks

FredinWeston