Using Wall For Thermal Mass

I'm interested in hearing thoughts on the idea of using a wall as a thermal mass. Our living room doesn't really have room for a bench and I'd like to heat more than one room - like a bedroom which shares a wall with the living room - with one rocket heater. Any thoughts?

Brandon, i've been thinking about doing the same. But i'm renting my flat, i'm in france, and the wall between my lounge and my bedroom is 60cm thick. That would be ideal, exept for my landlord.

What is this wall? Massonry of wood for the moment.

Check this thread

https://permies.com/t/31382/rocket-stoves/Rocket-Stove-cast-riser

At the end, what i'm trying to help design with Kevin, will give you an idea of what is possible.

See this one too

http://donkey32.proboards.com/thread/848/18cm-inch-double-batch-system


Then this one for the pics, it could give you ideas.

http://technologieforum.forumatic.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27


And this one again, for the pics exept if you speak dutch.

http://batchrocket.hostoi.com/html/foto.html


A bell could be made just slightly larger than the heat riser, and you could have a batch box or J tube sticking out a smidge in the room.

For a 6 inch J tube, you need 43 square feet of internal surface area (ISA). For a 6 inch batch box, you need 64 square feet. Batch box burns more fuel, so it's heating more in a shorter period of time.

Hth.

Max.

Brandon Griffin : Rooms with good southern exposure can really benefit from any amount of Thermal Mass, if the room does not have a roof edge that partially
shades that space then in summer it can get beastly hot ! A good overhang / insulating curtains takes care of that. A high Thermal Mass wall built for this use is
called a Trombe wall.

At the top right of this page below the Permies banner and above the Permies Video of the week is the Permies Tool box, by Clickingon-> " Search " you will go
to a new page where you can type in Trombe Wall in the 'Search Engine block'! In the next block select All available and click on-> 'Search' again, there are over
100 Permies articles touching on this subject here at Permies ! Available to you 24 / 7, Membership has its privileges ! For the Good of The Craft ! Big Al

Brandon Griffin wrote:I'm interested in hearing thoughts on the idea of using a wall as a thermal mass. Our living room doesn't really have room for a bench and I'd like to heat more than one room - like a bedroom which shares a wall with the living room - with one rocket heater. Any thoughts?

There is a long tradition of heating more than one room with a mass heater that has parts of the mass in two or more rooms. Code people would want an air gap between the heater and any wall that is made of combustible material. However, RMH being accepted for code built homes is still in the infancy and so I would think you are not worried about that. A think wall of a brick and a half wide would allow the whole wall to be a good bell radiating on both sides. There would be a space inside half a brick wide. The actual width would be determined by brick length... North America has brick of 7.5inch long or 9inch for fire brick, but eastern Europe tends to 10inch for both clay and fire birck. Adobe brick can be whatever size your heart desires. It may also cool the flue gas low enough that it is not warm enough to rise up the flue and rather go down hill That could be a good thing too if designed that way. Adobe brick may be best for this not just cost wise, but also because it would radiate slower due to being more insulative. All of these brick types are twice as long as wide (when you add mortar).

Thanks for all the info!

I realize that this is a 7 year old post and that websites are sometimes short-lived.  As I am also considering the possibility of having a combination wall and bed platform for thermal mass, I'd hoped this thread would be more informative. But it seems that having a wall as the thermal mass isn't so popular. The link I've relisted below no longer exists. I am finding more of these within the permies forums than I'd like to see. But this is how the bough breaks! I will just have to keep looking. And since this thread already exists, I'm guessing that mucking up the place with an almost identical one would be frowned upon.  Or maybe I'm wrong!

Then this one for the pics, it could give you ideas.

http://technologieforum.forumatic.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27

So has anyone else tried to make their mass be a wall? I have seen the video of the family who have done something of a zig zag up a wall for the exhaust pipe. Maybe I need to rewatch and take notes?
I'm hoping to be able to create this combo (wall and bed platform) so that in summer, I can "shut off" the bed part if I don't need a prewarmed bed. Or would the mattress be too thick to gain the thermal benefits?

Perhaps some day soon, this could be a project of one of the RMH shindigs up on the property? Lots of pictures?

One side of the wall is the greenhouse.  The other side the bedroom.

Cindy Haskin wrote:I realize that this is a 7 year old post and that websites are sometimes short-lived.  As I am also considering the possibility of having a combination wall and bed platform for thermal mass, I'd hoped this thread would be more informative. But it seems that having a wall as the thermal mass isn't so popular. The link I've relisted below no longer exists. I am finding more of these within the permies forums than I'd like to see. But this is how the bough breaks! I will just have to keep looking. And since this thread already exists, I'm guessing that mucking up the place with an almost identical one would be frowned upon.  Or maybe I'm wrong!

Then this one for the pics, it could give you ideas.

http://technologieforum.forumatic.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27

So has anyone else tried to make their mass be a wall? I have seen the video of the family who have done something of a zig zag up a wall for the exhaust pipe. Maybe I need to rewatch and take notes?
I'm hoping to be able to create this combo (wall and bed platform) so that in summer, I can "shut off" the bed part if I don't need a prewarmed bed. Or would the mattress be too thick to gain the thermal benefits?

Perhaps some day soon, this could be a project of one of the RMH shindigs up on the property? Lots of pictures?

Cindy, check my build, the back wall is part of the mass.  https://permies.com/t/44806/Cobbling-workshop-heater-cooktop-oven

If you want more wall'ish http://www.heatkit.com/research/2009/lopez-rocket.htm

You could also insert something like this in a wall.



HTH.

Brandon,
if you are still on this site, how did you fair with your rocket heater idea?