I own a strawbale home that I bought in Quebec and have the same problems. Bought the home and land for very cheap because the seller could not sell the house because banks asked for 25% down deposit because of the strawwalls. The house has a lot of bugs and mice and feels drafty all the time it does not retain heat well you have to always have the woodstove going if its below -10Cof my neighbours have strawbale homes and have similar issues. Im curreny re'insulating fron the interior on the 2x4 walls with 1 1/2 inch rockwool comfortboard and 2x3 strapping
And re doing the whole interior. Next summer.im going to re-do the exterior walls one at a time and reinsulate, sheat and re-install the wood siding. My neighbours was one of the pioneers of strawbale in our region and even he is in the
Process pf re-insulating his home conventionally. Straw simply does not do well longterm it seems in our harsh climate with very cold winters and high humidity in the summer.
I dont have metal to do that but I have a sheet of cement board and some resilient channel metal strapping. Do you think that can do the trick ? So id have the double brick wall, about 3 inches air space then cement board off the wall about an inch
Thank you Gerry. I like it better that way too but what worries me is the clearance to the wall. Theirs no way I can make it 18 inches that puts the heater to much in the way. If i do the double brick wall with 3-4 inch air space behind do you think thats safe ?
Another critical point is making the heater not stick out to much to block the hallway as it get tight with the spiral staircase at head height if you do and i dont want a hot barrel against a narrow hallway where people might rub against it and burn themselves by accident
Moving the chimney is not an option because I dont have the funds right now but its already in the best spot going to the top of the roof and running indoors for a good 25 ft
With the barrel. The udea is leave 4 inch aur space and then build a double brick wall behind the barrel to protect the wall and radiate heat with the ducts running along the woodstove wall and connecting to chimney
Hey, im getting ready to build my RMH and ive laid it out a few times in my space. Its tricky because I have a tight space and im building it around an inside corner of an interior wall that goes to the front foor, and is hallways that seperates the main living/cooking area with the mechanical room, washroom and stairs that go up. I will posts pictures bellow to show the area as well as measurments and different layout ideas ive had. Just looking for second opinions maybe some of you will have ideas I havnt thought off.
White wall is 78 inches from outside corner to the front door
Wood stove wall is 50 inches and us a load bearing wall.
This is the space im working with. I dont really know if the house is "well insulated" its strawbale but it seems drafty and I do have the issue with the heat rising. I do have a ceiling fan but plan on installing a more powerful one. Ive been fixing up the house slowly and fixing some of the worst draft spots and thats help a lot already.
Yesterday it was -13F (-25C) and I was gone all day and only left a space heater on when I got home at night it was close to 50F or 10C in the house. It took a couple hours to warm it back up to the high 60s but again upstairs during the.peak heat must of got around 75. The wood stove can heat up the place nicely but it just feels so inneficient. I can be sitting in front of it with the door closed and barely feel any heat. The pipe radiates an ok amount but I feel like most of the heat just gets sucked up. Its got a super strong draft with that tall chimney. I was sorta worried the barrel would make the upstairs way to hot so a brick bell could be something to consider. Plus weve had a very mild winter compared to the norm and ive used 2.5 cords already but I only burn if its quite cold. Next winter my girlfriend will move in and I imagine ill have to keep the place a bit warmer lol
The house is 24 feet by 24 with slab and ive got two big 5x5 facing south. In the morning the heat from the sun on those two windows is awesome even on a cold day ( 0F or -6c). Im hoping a 6 inch system is powerful enough to heat the place. I already have the chimney in place and wouldnt have to buy new pipes plus out here 8' pipe is just hard to find. I found one store that could order some for me but it was ceszy expensive.
That is a really good idea with the plywood box ill make sure to go over your build thread again I must of missed that part !
Thanks for all the information Thomas and gerry much appreciated.
The 5 minute riser looks awesome.
So from what I understand, you can form your burn tunnel and feed chamber with ceramic board. Do you screw these together to hold them in plsce temporarily or stick them together with refractory mortar then build around that with red bricks to hold it and support it together ?
How did you connect your riser made with the pipe and morgan superwool plus (on their website i think they its superwool extra now ? )blanket together to the burn tunnel so its secure
Did you get your ceramic fibre board from morgan as well ? Wondering if theirs any type to avoid like the wool blanket
Also, doing rough math then I substract 23 (the difference betweeen 8 and 6 inch system ISA) to get my 4 inch isa for my 6inch j tube i could go with a bell of around 30' ISA. I think mine should have a pretty good draft as my chimney is nearly 25 foot tall and indoors
Ill keep reading, and found 55 gallons barrels near me to pick up. This will be my big summer project but im trying to.figure everything out now.
Thanks for the reply Thomas ! Ive heard a bit about bells but didnt know they could be used on J-tubes.
-Does the entire bell need to be firebricks ?
-wouldnt having less thermal mass give me less heat retention ? I want to be as efficient per square foot of RMHf space since my house is only 750 sq ft which is why i want yo go vertical. No room for bench but I have two open lofts upstairs on either side and the RMH would be between these.
Where can I find information on size, proportions to follow ? I dont really understand bells because from my understanding you really need the same cross sectional area everywhere in a RMH and bells font seem to follow that.
Just wondering if its possible to build my "Bench" vertically in a J tube style RMH. Basically the pipe would come out of the manifold and up, then hit two 90 bends, come back down then up again to the chimney. The pipe would follon an "N" pattern thru a vertical mass.I would respect the lenght/number of turns laid out in the RMH book the only difference is the bench.
My other option was again a vertical mass but the pipe for the "bench" part zig zags up the vertical mass in a series of 45 degree rises eventuslly reaching the chimney.
I want to do this because I want to keep the RMH where the old woodstove is a a vench would just not fit in the space.
Hi Steve, Thank you for the welcome. Im in Quebec Canada so our winters are pretty cold. The house is 24x24 feet with interior dimensions being 21 x 21 feet with two lofts above and cathedral style ceilings. Even tho it has a small square footage the house has quite a bit of space to it. I have in floor radiant heating and off a propane boiler and plug electric radiant heaters but im trying to move away from those.
My current wood stove has a 6 inch pipe running 18 feet up. I have heat sheild on to meet clearances required by code for being near the wall.
I want to build RMH to be the main heat source for my small 24x24 strawbale house.
With the CSA needing to be consistent I understand that a 6 inch system has to have a smaller feed box. Im a bit worried about this being to small and less practical then the bigger feed with an 8 inch system. Also, since this will eventually be primary heat forbthe house I need it to be able to warm up the house very well. I want the option of making the house too warm then needed.
Building an 8 inch rocket stove means changing all my pipes and insulated chimney and new heat shield which adds a lot of costs to the project.
From people with experience using RMH, is an 8 inch system worth it even with additional costs or would a 6 inch RMH using existing chimney be enough ?
ill make sure to go over your build thread again I must of missed that part !