Rocket Stove in a school bus conversion?

Hello everyone! I'm new to this board and I'm highly interested in whether or not a rocket stove is feasible in a school bus. The bus is a full size that I'm in the process of converting into my permanent home. Is there a lighter weight media that can be used rather than cob that will still be efficient in holding and distributing heat? I'm worried the weight of a standard RMH may be too heavy, especially with the weight of the conversion itself. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

Is your school bus going to be fixed in one place? Or is it going to remain mobile with wheels & engine?

It will be mobile....I plan to travel as much as possible. Of course while driving the stove will not be fired up.

Wess ; Welcome, Check out Dragon heaters dragonheaters.com they have a 4'' Castable core Castle build that is the smallest and lightest Unit available !

Next we have to find you someone with Rocket Mass Heater RMH, Experience who is a Near Neighbor ! Look at Your name info/space, and then l@@k at mine!
You need to go to the Permies Toolbox near the top of the page select/clickon the button 'My Profile' and enter your general location, and climate zone #
if you know it ! I f you are lucky you will find 'Your' near neighbor !

At the very bottom of his page, is a computer generated listing of "Similar Threads'' just click on to view. Any Thread Extension you add to these threads will alert
everyone that has ever posted to that thread that a new member has posted to 'their' thread,- Instantly you are on your way to making new friends !

Also from the tool box You can enter Search and at the next page enter school bus , or School bus Conversions, select google Search and Permies only search,
this should give you hundreds of hits !

Come back often if there is a RMH in your future we will help you find it ! Big AL !

I hope your conversion plans include insulating the walls, floor & ceiling.

I am a partner in Dragon Heaters. If your bus is insulated, you could heat it quite comfortably with the 4" Allen mentioned. I would recommend that you check out the castle build. Some flue liners lined with fireclay brick are much lighter than the amount of cob it would take to store an equivalent amount of heat. Plus, it uses bells instead of flues; you can read about the advantages of bells on our blog site. http://blog.dragonheaters.com/

Converting the bus sounds like a fun project, good luck with it!

What about water mass? I have seen more than one RV with large water tanks specifically for holding heat--they used engine heat when driving or extra PV solar after the batteries were charged. They had built a basic in-floor radiant system w/ a 12v pump and one roll of PEX to distribute the heat when needed. No reason you couldn't use a rocket to heat the water.

allen lumley wrote:Wess ; Welcome, Check out Dragon heaters dragonheaters.com they have a 4'' Castable core Castle build that is the smallest and lightest Unit available !

Next we have to find you someone with Rocket Mass Heater RMH, Experience who is a Near Neighbor ! Look at Your name info/space, and then l@@k at mine!
You need to go to the Permies Toolbox near the top of the page select/clickon the button 'My Profile' and enter your general location, and climate zone #
if you know it ! I f you are lucky you will find 'Your' near neighbor !

At the very bottom of his page, is a computer generated listing of "Similar Threads'' just click on to view. Any Thread Extension you add to these threads will alert
everyone that has ever posted to that thread that a new member has posted to 'their' thread,- Instantly you are on your way to making new friends !

Also from the tool box You can enter Search and at the next page enter school bus , or School bus Conversions, select google Search and Permies only search,
this should give you hundreds of hits !

Come back often if there is a RMH in your future we will help you find it ! Big AL !

Al....Thank you for your response. I've updated my profile page a bit, it would be super cool to find someone in my area with a like mind. I think the dragon heater would be a very good option for the bus, although I believe it might it need a bit of extra engineering to hold it in place so it cant fall over while driving. I'm pretty crafty in that area think I have a plan together already that would allow it to work. I'm pretty sure I'll be back here often.....This is a very cool site. I truly enjoy everything I have read on other posts as well. Thanks again!

Cindy Mathieu wrote:I hope your conversion plans include insulating the walls, floor & ceiling.

I am a partner in Dragon Heaters. If your bus is insulated, you could heat it quite comfortably with the 4" Allen mentioned. I would recommend that you check out the castle build. Some flue liners lined with fireclay brick are much lighter than the amount of cob it would take to store an equivalent amount of heat. Plus, it uses bells instead of flues; you can read about the advantages of bells on our blog site. http://blog.dragonheaters.com/

Converting the bus sounds like a fun project, good luck with it!

Cindy.....I'm definitely insulating everything I can. I'm also painting the exterior with the addition of ceramic microspheres mixed in with the paint to hopefully aid in the insulating factor. I researched pretty extensively on your dragon heater site and blog, This is some cool stuff! I'm thinking the 6" portable rocket heater may be best because a 55 gallon drum will be more easily secured than a stack of bricks. I think I can secure the inner heat riser fairly easily with a small modification to the 55 gallon drum although it will require a second Gasket/Seal near the top. I have some major modifications I'm doing to the bus right now, but I'll definitely get in touch with you in the near future when I'm ready to purchase and put the heater in. I think that together we can come up with a system that will work great for my application......Thank you!

R Scott wrote:What about water mass? I have seen more than one RV with large water tanks specifically for holding heat--they used engine heat when driving or extra PV solar after the batteries were charged. They had built a basic in-floor radiant system w/ a 12v pump and one roll of PEX to distribute the heat when needed. No reason you couldn't use a rocket to heat the water.

R Scott......I'm thinking of a water heater system also. Mainly for showers though. I'm thinking the density/mass that it would require to cover the floor may be a bit too heavy for the bus. I'm interested in seeing what you're talking about though, it may bring new ideas!

Dragon heaters owners have been severely affected because of the flooding in Houston. Please help them rebuild their lives.
They were hit with over 60" of rain. They have no electricity and could only get out to post this campaign.Anything any of you can do to help would be appreciated.


www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=category&term=Greenlife%20aquaponics

I think you need the http:// in that link,
https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=category&term=Greenlife%20aquaponics

Thank you Brian! I am on a really bad cell tower and it took me forever just to post that. I panicked when i heard their situation. I wanted to try to get them help. She sounded so desperate but that's all I could do. If you know how to get her campaign more exposure I know she would be grateful. I am so limited in my ability to help in my present situation .
Thank you again for taking the time to help.

I think you can absolutely NOT do it.

Not because of the insulation nor weight, but by the forces applied on the RMH when the vehicle is in displacement. I can nearly hear the roadbumps crushing the bricks mortar. Even if the damage is not easily visible at first, it will be happening untill the inevitable destruction.

If you plan moving the RMH into the vehicile once its static and out before it moves, each time; or dismantling the whole RMH for travelling and mounting it once settled; i imagine both of those ideas are quite undesirable.

You will end damaging several different structures of the vehicle aswell.