practicality of installing a rocket mass heater in a home?

May 06, 2022 04:04:44

Hi Pals, I'm new here. I'm interested in wood for eating and cooking as well as a lot of other topics. I'm wondering how practical and technical it is to install a rocket mass heater in my home.

Firstly, where do you get the wood? I can get woodchips from a tree company, but the logs they have are too big I think...

Secondly, installing a rocket mass heater would be expensive and technical because you would have to do major alterations to the home .

Thirdly, are there any codes and does it benefit the value of the house, in case you have to sell? And are there contractors that will it?

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this before I get started. I definitely think this is on to something because I pay over $100 with gas and I know someone that pays over $500 for electricity in the winter.

May 06, 2022 06:33:46

Walter, welcome to the forum.

I am sure one of our RMH experts will answer your questions.

In the meantime here are some threads that you or others might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/41635/Top-Questions-Rocket-Mass-Heaters

https://permies.com/t/48515/permaculture-projects/pebble-style-rmh-fisher-price

https://permies.com/t/20754/RMH-house-insurance

https://permies.com/t/43627/testing-temperature-RMH

May 06, 2022 07:26:21

Hi Walter;
Welcome to Permies! and to the wonderful world of Rocket Mass Heaters!
I'll try to help answer at least some of your questions.
#1) Where to get wood?
Oh my gosh wood is available in many places once you start looking. Free pallets , construction waste , tree trimming company's, sawmills, and of course just buying split & delivered cordwood.
#2) Home modification's needed?
Your home needs an 8" class A roof jack & insulated chimney pipe to go thru your roof.
This is probably the most technical & costly part of a RMH build.
Depending on your floor you might need extra support for the weight.
#3) Codes, resale, contractors?
A good looking, properly working RMH would assist with resale.
Building codes vary wildly from state to state, calling your stove a masonry heater will help ease the way to compliance.
Contractors able to properly build a RMH are few and very far between.

Tell us more about your location, wintertime temps, the design of your home.

May 06, 2022 07:38:47

Welcome to Permies, Walter! In my experience, RMHs can be quite simple and practical to install. I have virtually no construction experience and was able to build one with some help from my partner. He did the chimney parts, since he does have building experience. The heater itself was easy and fun to build. We did have the advantage of plans to work from, as we built a variation on Matt Walker's tiny masonry cook stove. Still it was not very hard and the costs were fairly minimal. They've certainly already been offset by the savings on the energy required to heat our home and propane we no longer have to buy to cook.

I brought this back from the farm where they grow the tiny ads:

The new permaculture playing cards kickstarter is now live!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-cards