Let me introduce myself ...

Hello all! My name is Bob Brocious. I live outside of Campbellsburg, Kentucky on 134 acre Tenacity Farm. We named it after our only virtue. I work at UPS so I can afford to play in the dirt, as a Systems Engineer. I am a fan of Joel Salatin and have modeled a number of our farm enterprises after the work he has done.
I built a new house in 2005. It is an All American systems-built home. 6" exterior walls. 4" interior. Well insulated 2,000 sqft 1.5 story farm house with a 10' deep wrap around porch. The house sits on a full basement with 9' walls. I use a wood stove as my primary heating source and a heat pump as my secondary. We cut all our own firewood from our farm, ourselves. I want to convert to a Rocket Mass Heater and am hoping to find a lot of help for this newbie as I've never tackled a structure built with clay. I have attached a picture from a Sketchup model of our living room/dining/kitchen area. The wood stove is pretty much in the center of the main floor of the house. I am thinking that I would remove the woodstove and use that space, and some more, to build the rocket heater into a bench with seating on two sides. One towards the living room area and one towards the dining/kitchen area.
I am concerned about weight on this floor, sizing the heater for this house, and all the construction questions you would expect from someone who has never built a rocket stove or heater before. Debbie, (my bride) and I would like this heater to be a centerpiece for our living area. Not only very functional, but also beautiful. I am hoping to use it this winter!! If someone else has tackled a similar project with a similar kind of home, I would love to sit at your feet and feast on your wisdom!! So ... that's that. I am a sponge. Let the education begin!!

Bob Brocious : Welcome to Permies.com, and a big welcome to The Permies Rocket StoveMass Heater R.M.H., As a new member you will long remember your 1st few posts
here at Permies ! With over 17,000 members you will find a wide range of topics that you have interest in that other members are knowledgable in !

Do to the R.M.H.s unique heating and fueling characteristics it works best with well satisfied owners who are willing to give it the 'pride of place' that it deserves and needs, making
it the center of your home entertainment center is a good 1st step!

I can strongly recommend you go to cobcottage.com and pickup your PDF Copy $15.oo of Evans' and Jackson's Great Book Rocket Mass Heaters, there is STILL No
other book in any language with more Rocket Stove / Rocket Mass Heater family information. ( and I don't make a dime ! )

There are two other books that you will find helpful that you can get at Cob Cottage, Evans' et al The Hand-Sculpted House, and Michael Smiths The Cobbers Companion, they
can also be sourced thru Amazon books, or thru my favorite, Alibris books used !

I can also recommend a trip to ernieanderica.info,click on Consulting and Booking events, which will bring you to the opportunity to click on and go to Site planning, this is
their extremely well thought out guide to planning a D.I.Y. Rocket Mass Heater R.M.H.

My understanding is that you will have the experience of building your R.M.H., over a basement and a conventional wood floor, Ernie and Erica Wisner (I assisted at one of their
work shops, and consider them to be personal friends !) have a set of D.I.Y. Plans for just that situation and is worth a look, as is the rest of their site ! Nothing beats dealing with
professionals with good reputations ! They are also Moderators here at this Forum !

For the Craft! Think like Fire, flo like gas, Don't be the Marshmallow ! As always, your comments and questions are solicited and are welcome ! Big AL

Howdy Bob, welcome here. Be sure to look through all of the other threads too.
If you have time you might post more about the other things you are doing , so that we may learn at your feet also !

I know I'm late coming into this but I built one in my house. I live in Greensburg Kentucky. It doesn't look like much yet but we work on it every year. So far it's been a #1 heater of our house. I use a old round wood stove in my basement. But if I keep my rocket mass heater going for 2 days it heats my whole home. I'm going to convert my wood stove to a hybrid rocket mass heater. And see if it would be easier to heat my house. Hope  you love your heater as much as I do mine.