rocket stove to heat temporary greenhouse - best design.

Hi,

We are developing a property with an established house (can't the stove inside at all), and am wanting the following:

- A temporary tunnel greenhouse (4 ft long) heated warm enough to grow mushrooms, seedlings and mature tomatoes/ peppers / eggplant during winter. with average 5C minimum, but with several days of heavy frost. (We hope to get a larger walk-in one later).

- A semi-temporary rocket stove outdoor cooking / baking / fruit-drying facility. Maybe like this: http://rechoroket.com/Home.html This MAY be moved later into the permanent green-house. It could be backing on the back of the greenhouse now.

- to have containers of duckweed inside a greenhouse to grow and feed animals in winter, and to act as a heat sink (also water chestnut storage over winter).

These do not all have to be in the one unit,

I have been reading a few old threads here and elsewhere. Lots of ideas, but wondering what is best in this situation.

-IT seems it is best to have the firebox outside the greenhouse, even more so if I am growing mushrooms that need a good oxygen level. But what about the heat chamber? Is most of the heat in this or in the chimney? If I was to make this sort of stove/oven (http://rechoroket.com/Home.html) would there be much heat to run through the greenhouse? Would it be best to make the cooking stove and greenhouse oven totally separate? Anyone have a link to an easy design of a portable rocket stove attached to a greenhouse?

We are thinking of making a portable thermal mass of rubble, stones and sand etc. We are also thinking of putting our water containers/duckweed on top of this to act as an additional thermal mass. Would this be a really bad idea, and cause major evaporation/moisture, and having the tomatoes get major mildew? What about in the greenhouse but further away from the thermal mass? Would it be better to have a separate tunnel house (we have a couple of small portable ones) with the water as a thermal mass and have mildew resistant plants in them?

Thanks

Annie

Hi Annie,
I wonder if you've gone ahead with your project, and how it all turned out.

My only feedback on your questions would be that I think you would get useful heat from both the barrel side, for cooking, and that there would be enough residual heat to do a short bench in the greenhouse. Make a non-combustible wall between them ideally. I might build a little shack onto the greenhouse, with racks at least 18" away from the barrel on all sides, for drying; a little more overhead clearance for cookpots.

You might also take a look here: Rocket Mass Heater in Greenhouse

I don't know how similar the design would be, but the pictures seem pretty relevant.

Yours,
Erica W

If it's important for you to be able to move the stove, try here-

www.zaugstoves.com

If you do make a portable mass, it would be a piece of cake to move the rocket stove and mass.