Christine Schwabe

Jen Fulkerson wrote:I was just wondering if any of you have a good suggestion for a situation like this.  I know they think they have to spray ick, but if I could give them a better solution we would all be happy.

Have a look into JADAM. At least it is organic and doesn't give money to big corporations/the filthy rich ideologues. https://en.jadam.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=10986

For your own garden: I have learned just recently about the brix value of plant leaf sap (sorry if I use the wrong words, I'm not a native speaker).

The higher the value °Bx, the less pests eat from a plant. Aphids are an indicator of a *very* low Brix number. So: Keep on feeding the soil microbes, stop fertilizing (force feeding your plant) with water soluble fertilizer. Let the microbes bring the nutrients needed to the plants roots. All necessary minerals are there, in your soil. But they are often not plant-available. Only the soil life (bacteria, fungi, etc.) can make the nutrients available for your plants in order to push their Brix value.

Read more: https://www.soilscopes.co.za/post/why-do-we-measure-plant-brix-levels (this is just the first website I came across explaining about Brix, I'm not suggesting any products/services)

After reading all these "loving it!" messages, I feel somehow spooked. Maybe it is, because most of the Permies are American and they are leading completely different lives.

I received this mail for the first time today. The title is promising.

Then it reads: "Here are the top 12 threads from the last 12 days  of the forums you think are best!"

Wait a moment - someone is tracking the threads I have been reading? I think I must have misunderstood the sentence. (read again) They know, which 12 threads I think are best? (read again) I don't really understand the sentence, but this is too much "BIG BROTHER watching every click you make".

You might be living in the land of the free, but here in Germany, social media are censoring everything the government dislikes. You write or say something they dislike: Your tweet, blog post, youtube video, etc. will be blocked. Your paypal account might be closed, if you're a publisher of a news blog, relying on reader's donations. The more coverage you have, the more dangerous it gets (e.g. police raiding your home).

Just like GDR in the 1980s.

So this is why the mail was so spooky to me. Forgive me for being a spoil sport. I really do assume good faith! Just wanted to tell you about my impressions after reading this mail.

Thank you, Beau, for linking the topic I wasn't able to find myself!

Hey folks,

forgive me, if this topic has already been discussed, I did a quick search and could not find an answer to my question.

Originally, I had intended to gift the free heat movie from the kickstarter reward to a friend. I found out, this is not possible. So I tried to buy the movie as a gift.

My question: I wanted to pay via credit card (just like with kickstarter). But there is only processing via Paypal. Yes, I understand, I do not need an account with Paypal, they are processing the credit card payment, only. But Paypal is a bad guy out there (even trying to fine people for a "wrong opinion") and I would rather not give my data to them or support their business in any way.

Is there another possibility for credit card payments?

Thank you for your help!

Eric Hanson wrote:The OP specifically wanted an actual human to read the subtitles, but what you did is an excellent first step.

And then there is of course the issue of units—things like degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius.  And getting an American cord converted to something more universal—cubic feet would be a start, but cubic meters would be better.

Thank you, Eric.

Sadly, my fellow countrymen have little English knowledge, even though English has been mandatory in schools for all students since at least the 1970s. All movies on German TV are dubbed, original versions almost never broadcasted (to my regret).

But I would not go so far as to ask for a native speaker to read (dubbing) the subtitles, it would be okay to have the possibility in the settings to switch to high quality subtitles in the kickstarter movie. The subtitles could also get rid of the problem with imperial units.

T Blankinship wrote:Got German subtitles on Paul Wheaton's YouTube video.

This is how I did it.

Click on the right hand side the CC button.

Next to that button is the setting then click in the setting menu subtitles.

In the next menu click auto-translate and now pick the language you would like to read.

It has been a long time since my last German class and my German ist nicht so gut. I think the translation is of the auto-generated subtitles in English. From what I saw the translation is ok maybe a few issues around temperature and wood used. 69 F is nice 69 C not good (156.2F). Also how do people in other places measure wood? United States has the cord, there is the Norwegian cord and Canada has a cord. They are all different! So maybe not use cord but cubic meters or kilograms?

Hi T,
thank you for coming back to my post. I understand that you want to help, thanks.

This thread is about how to tell more people about the RMH and what keeps us from doing it. I just copy my claim from a few days ago:

"So: I need a good synopsis including building information for people who already have knowledge in conventional wood heating, and at least with German subtitles; forget about automatic captions. Even better an internet site with an introduction (more than https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwCz8Ris79g) and then information in detail. Heaven would be: some legal information for EU-residents. "

The automatic captions are truely dreadful. They would maybe help people who are early adopters and really WANT to get into this great idea. But I am talking about getting information out to people who do not wish to break their ankle in the rabbithole, searching here some bits and there some bobs and spending hours on collecing the information.

We want to have some compendium with a low threshold to catch interest of some professionals (or even authorities for legalization).

While it is not so easy to make a good excerpt of all those hours of material out there, it is quite easy to spend a few of the kickstarter dollars to truely translate the new RMH-movie with quality subtitles.

Just my 2 cents.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Only a few days ago I found out there is such a builder in my region! He doesn't use the English name Rocket Mass Heater, but I saw pictures and it's exactly the same (with a Dutch name).

Ah, I envy you! Lucky Netherlands ...

I might contact a society (Germany is famous for its "Vereine") I found on the internet who seem to engage themselves for the medieval (?) "Grundofen" (don't know the term in English). It sounds to me as if this type of masonry heater is in some aspects similar to a RMH.
For other readers: https://www.850grad.org/

But even to contact them, some compendium in German would help a lot.

Anne Miller wrote:

I was wondering if either of these would help explain to your friend even though they are not 2022:

Anne, thank you for your suggestions! Some of the videos I already knew. The problem is: They are all marketed/allowed for outdoor use only. The threads from the forum are 8 respective 9 years old, forgive me that I won't revive these.

I would really like to have an explanation of the basic principles of the J-tube and the barrel (all the physics to it), why does it burn so clean, why does the fire burn sideways, what happens to the heat when it hits the heat riser's top and so on ...
And also info about topics like
* cleaning
* material of the heat riser (I am aware that there is a video on it, but it is a quite lengthy discussion, was okay for me, but not for inspiring others)
* questions about wall insulation, how to prevent mold
* static concerns
* how high does the flue need to be etc.

I'll just describe my difficulties in promoting the RMH:

I myself have known about the RMH for two years now. Even before the catastrophic energy crisis in Germany, I had sought for a solution in my basement rental appartment without chimney (electrical storage heating). I can't do it myself (I am an economist and all thumbs).

I have seen a huge amount of youtube-videos, have read blog posts and forum articles. I have no problem with ALL of it being in English.

Now I have a friend who is a chimney sweep. In Germany, this is a professional who not only cleans and supervises all burning facilities in homes (oil, gas, wood, ...), but also has to check emissions and also does the legal acceptance (is that the right word?) for any fireplace in buildings. Like an electrician who has to confirm the installation before you are allowed to turn the switch, the chimney sweep has to come and check and approve your stove/chimney etc. before you put it into operation.

He would be someone who has knowledge and also is essentially necessary to convince, if I would want to install a RMH.

Now I tried to find information for him - he does not speak very much English. There is almost no material in German. Also, the copious videos from Paul Wheaton's RMH gang are showing lengthy discussions, experiments and variations, but what I need is one video with all the 2022 knowledge (not: how did we do it three years ago until we came up with a better solution) in a nutshell. This is why I contributed to the kickstarter. But I'm afraid it will again be all in English.

So: I need a good synopsis including building information for people who already have knowledge in conventional wood heating, and at least with German subtitles; forget about automatic captions. Even better an internet site with an introduction (more than https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwCz8Ris79g) and then information in detail. Heaven would be: some legal information for EU-residents.

Similar to people in the US, who can tell their authorities: Hey, in Portland, this already has a building code!

If I could get the message to my friend the chimney sweep and he would approve of the concept, I could persuade my landlord and find some builder to build it for me. But the legal "go" is mandatorily the first step.