Why is a RMH an appropriate pemaculture design tool?

One of the permaculture principles is that a problem is a solution you have not applied yet.  
A little historical back ground: A portion of the Quistorff family known as house mechanics migrated from Wisconsin out here to Puget Sound because the lumber and fishing was still abundant.  Different family members would be the expert in certain areas. My grandfather was the mason. He built many grand field stone fireplaces but they were just for show on the end of the house where showed how rich you were. They only heated the outdoors so were only used for recreation and celebration.  The heating of the house was done with a wood cook stove on one side of an interior wall and a parlor stove on the other with a common chimney that came down half way in the common wall.  
The dreaded problem:  creosote would build up in the chimney  and eventually catch on fire and burn like a rocket with burning gobs dropping back onto the roof and setting the dwelling on fire.   At the beginning of the 19ty century the the principle of the problem being a solution had not ben coined yet.  The problem of wood heat getting too hot and then when the fire went out had been addressed by building large masonry heaters in the interior of the house but except in very cold climates who wanted that huge mass of masonry taking up living space in the middle of the house and it did not necessarily solve the dreaded chimney fire problem.
Finally some ingenious people began to  think that problem could be a solution.  If one could keep a chimney fire going all the time in the center of a wood burning device the danger would be eliminated and the full heat potential of the wood could be utilized.  It took some material science to accomplish. The extreme heat of a chimney fire is very destructive so it required ceramic materials that could withstand that.  It had to remain hot enough to keep the chimney fir going at all times so it required insulation that could withstand the high temperatures.   The material science has solved those problems and plans are available so that most people can build  a rocket style wood burning device that will work long term.  And innovators have continued to develop ideas of how a heated mass can be incorporated into the living space without detracting from it.

Would you like to hear the family history of incorporating wood heat int dwellings?  There are solutions which may be applicable to incorporating a RMH into your dwelling.