Manufacturing the RMH

I'm curious if anyone has an estimate of how many custom built Rocket Mass Heaters are in existence?  

I am considering taking steps to creating a manufactured version of the RMH.  Any rocket experts interested in contributing energy to this endeavor?  

Meni Menindorf wrote:I'm curious if anyone has an estimate of how many custom built Rocket Mass Heaters are in existence?  

I am considering taking steps to creating a manufactured version of the RMH.  Any rocket experts interested in contributing energy to this endeavor?  

in one of the podcasts, Erica and Eric mention this very thing: the issue standing in the way is the UL certification ...or rather the costs of UL certification.  

have you every taken an item through UL certification in the US?

Quick google search says UL certification costs about $5-$15k.  I am assuming the product development will cost much more than this.  Obviously this is an idea requiring investors (or grants) and a team of engineers, automation experts, computer systems, etc...  I am wanting to gather that team now, and will need a few people who are well versed in RMH technology.  

There are a few threads here that explore the idea of shippable RMH cores.  I haven't been following closely, so I don't know how that's been going.

Matt Walker at Walker stoves sells kits.  Dragon heater may be selling kits.
Any kit sold would need large amounts of local materials.
Your average home owner is not likely to have this skill level.
You would need certified builders and your cost would rise to the level of masonry heaters.

I think your estimated cost of UL certification,  is low.
When it comes to open flames , they get very serious.
Safety from flames / sparks and safety from CO  gasses indoors would be of paramount concern.

Masonry heaters are certified , but only if built by a certified mason.  
They must be built with a complete double skin to ensure they will not be hazardous to people or their homes.
Cost is well above what most folks are willing to pay.

After all why deal with wood burning (yuck, dirty) when that nifty wall thermostat goes up to 80 F ?

I think it's a neat idea to have shippable cores.  I would have trouble with the whole thing being shippable as mass costs money and fuel to ship - which kind of offsets the whole benefit of the RMH.

I'm curious if anyone has an estimate of how many custom built Rocket Mass Heaters are in existence?  

I heard that Erica and Eric have built at least 200 in their time.  I suspect there are a lot of RMH out there that might not be public as they are home built.  

I don't know where you're at with learning about RMH (and other cool stuff), but there's a really neat event at Wheaton Lab soon where you could learn more and interact with people who have built them.  http://wheaton-labs.com/permaculture-tech
(and the thread about the event https://permies.com/wiki/permaculture-tech-2020 )