I'm currently building a tiny house on wheels around 8'x18'. (With the "cathedral" ceiling, I figure the interior is around 1200 cubic feet.) After evaluating many woodstoves (such as the $3500 Kimberly Stove, the smaller stoves from Morsø, and the Hobbit Stove from Salamander Stoves) I am now exploring the (hopefully cheaper) option of building my own. (I move in April 15, but won't install a permanent heater until fall.)
Obviously being on a trailer introduces weight limitations, so a conventional RMH is out of the question. However, I think it's possible to make some sort of hybrid, usable also as a cook surface.
I'm imagining a steel 5 gallon bucket as the drum, with J-channel and internal riser. The top of the riser is very close to the top of the drum, giving a usable cooking surface. The drum is surrounded on the sides by a mesh cage creating a cavity (maybe 1-3 inches?), which is filled with rocks. The cooktop provides some "instant" heat, while the rocks give off gradual heat. (The rocks also decrease the chance of burning myself.) There is no lengthy exhaust pipe - it goes right to the chimney after traveling down the outer portion of the drum.
When not cooking, some additional thermal mass - a pot of water or some bricks - can be placed on the cooktop.
If necessary, the rocks could be removed prior to transporting the house, for an easier load on the axles.
The basic goals here are:
-Provide a cookstove
-Provide heat as efficiently as possible (the cleanest burn and the coolest exhaust) such that I can leave my house all day without it freezing over
-Avoid burning my (pretty flammable) house down
-Avoid burning myself (or worse, my guests)
Thoughts?
(One other idea: Perhaps I could integrate a non-mass bell - another 5 gallon drum perhaps - to heat more air before the exhaust leaves the house? Obviously heating air is less efficient than heating mass, but it's way better than losing the heat to exhaust.)
