RMH… hybrid?

Hi!

I’m new here and I live on board my 50” boat, previously serving as a commercial fishing vessel.

The vessel was stripped before I took over, so I have built it up internally from scratch for a year now.

To the point! Norway is cold in winter and rapid and radiant heating is needed for both actual heating and to just keep the environment dry.

So I am here to air some ideas because I can only Google so much and I don’t trust those AI responses.

So, thermal mass. Quite heavy and can be problematic for ballast. So I thought of masonry heaters with open space.

Could it be an idea to make the bench hollow, but having a false ceiling with a wired mesh/net (heat proof of course) with small enough squares to hold Leca/Scan/clay pebbles, or make a "water jacket ceiling" or any suitable mass really? This way the heat will rise and be absorbed by the mass, but allowing the colder smoke to pass freely through below. (Or so I theorise)

I have not made any measurements or the like, because I just need to able to map these things out first. I am also aware I am trading off a good chunk of radiant heat by not going full thermal mass.

Any thoughts from you more experienced folks in here? Am I onto something here? Why, why not?

(And no, I won’t get a diesel or electric heater because burning wood is nicer.)

Thanks in advance!

Have you heard of stratification chambers? They are essentially hollow benches.

Here's Matt Walker explaining them...



We are currently building one ourselves, based on one of Matt's designs. Currently waiting for the mortar to finish hardening before we put the granite slabs on top. Then I can test it!



Basically the hot air enters the hollow chamber, rises to the top (like a pond filling up, only upside-down), heat slowly moves up through the slab on top of the bench, then the cooler air sinks and escapes as more hot air enters from the RMH.

Here's a link to a thread about our whole build, in case it's of interest - Matt Walker tiny cookstove build in Portugal

Burra Maluca wrote:Have you heard of stratification chambers? They are essentially hollow benches.

Here's Matt Walker explaining them...

We are currently building one ourselves, based on one of Matt's designs. Currently waiting for the mortar to finish hardening before we put the granite slabs on top. Then I can test it!



Basically the hot air enters the hollow chamber, rises to the top (like a pond filling up, only upside-down), heat slowly moves up through the slab on top of the bench, then the cooler air sinks and escapes as more hot air enters from the RMH.

Here's a link to a thread about our whole build, in case it's of interest - Matt Walker tiny cookstove build in Portugal

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you so much for sharing!