So I've been sitting here thinking about
rocket stove thermal mass
heaters, and it seems to me like a wonderful idea. It cuts down on
wood consumption, it has long lasting residual heat, and it uses very simple components. This is all very cool to me, but I wonder if there's another option. I was watching a guy use his
wood stove to heat a copper coil with
water in it to heat his garage (ran the line to a radiator inside with a fan blowing on it) and thought "hmm, that seems interesting". And the only reason he did this is because he didn't want the fire to be in his house. Then I watched a
video about a guy using a fire stove to simply heat
hot water for his
shower in the same fashion. It made sense to me, people like hot showers. The final video I ran across (I know, youtube addict) had a farmer using the sun to heat his water with a series of tubes running through insulated boxes (I know I've seen the same thing referenced on this website). I was wondering if it might be possible to combine these ideas to use the sun to heat water and run it through a thermal mass "bench" in the house instead of using a fire. I know that water will only get so hot, but the thermal density of a liquid is much higher than that of a gas, so it
should transfer a good amount of thermal energy. Also, if it's really not getting hot
enough using water, the system could be filled with an oil or other liquid with a higher boiling point.
On the other hand, could this be combined with the standard
rocket stove thermal mass heater so that on days when the sun is hidden by clouds, either the fluid line in could be heated or the full vent system could be installed alongside the water line? I hope this make sense. If not, I'll try explaining a different way, but I'd love some input on the topic. I'd love to hear other people's ideas as well!