Heya all,
We've built ourselves a small rocket mass heater in our trailer.
You can see some pictures here:
bench (still needs toplayer of stone)
rocketmass heater above
rocketstove front
exhaust start and end
fire with helper plate
fire without helper plate == smoke
rocketstove behind
rocketstove side
close-up exhaust
full view with exhaust
inside barrel from above (note that heatriser insulation is vermiculite covered with ash)
inside barrel the connection to outside t-piece
ash outlet in t-piece directly after barrel
Now the problem is that even though the system works fairly well - and we do get enough warmth - it is not functioning really rockety.
It still gives smokeback often, which we mostly cancel out with a bar of pressed vermiculite which I use to control the air flow, which helps suck the smoke in.
It also still gives too much real smoke outside from the exhaust.
Therefore I think it is not burning hot enough.
Without the barrel it is actually burning much stronger.
The whole setup is small and the average pipe width throughout the system is 130mm (5.1 inch) The heat riser and wood feed are somewhat larger.
The barrels are 38cm diameter.
The bench is 2 meter long and the exhaust pipe goes through it on two sides (going 180 degrees at the end to come back)
It also seemed to be working slightly better when we hadn't finished the bench. The end of the exhaust pipe used to become 'warm' (still touchable), while now it's almost cold.
Also the bench itself is staying pretty cold - whilst before it did get warm.
I'd be happy with any ideas
Rein
