We have a new page for the rocket mass heaters movies: woodheat.net

We put together a new page to feature both Better wood heat and Wood burning stoves 2.0 movies sets.

Please take a look and tell us how can we make it better:

https://woodheat.net/


Thank you!

Some of the instructor photos seem mis-aligned or cut off.

One issue is that the link on wood heat "buy the movies" takes me to worlddominationgardening page... not to a woodheat purchase page.  

I did many months ago send fifteen bucks for a woodheat movie...its been long enough I dont remember which one anymore, but I do know that I have never received it.   Was it not made yet? Or did I do aomething wrong...I dont even know how to contact anyone to find out whats up.   So in a way that is a second issue, easy to buy but no delivery and no clear way to contact someone...just throwing that out there.  People might buy more stuff if the process was less confusing.   I am not terribly computer adept so maybe I failed to do some mysterious magical thing... At least its an issue for me so maybe also for others.

Keralee Roberts wrote:I did many months ago send fifteen bucks for a woodheat movie...its been long enough I dont remember which one anymore, but I do know that I have never received it.   Was it not made yet? Or did I do aomething wrong...I dont even know how to contact anyone to find out whats up.   So in a way that is a second issue, easy to buy but no delivery and no clear way to contact someone...just throwing that out there.  People might buy more stuff if the process was less confusing.   I am not terribly computer adept so maybe I failed to do some mysterious magical thing... At least its an issue for me so maybe also for others.

I researched this.  Your account was in a state of comedy and it is all sorted out now.  Take a look at https://permies.com/fch and you can watch your movie!

Keralee Roberts wrote:One issue is that the link on wood heat "buy the movies" takes me to worlddominationgardening page... not to a woodheat purchase page.  

I tried to find that link and could not find it.  Can you give me any further directions?

I want to buy this as a gift for someone who has a homestead.  
https://permies.com/forums/pay/checkout/5j7s7za7dukt
I know how to hit the pay button, but is there a way to gift it to someone?

The boxes for movie titles simply list them as 1-4 twice. I think numbering them 1-8, disc 1 and disc 2 1-4, or listing each collection title above each box [edit: make that "in each box" as I noticed the titles are present, but the dynamic layout seems to place them in ambiguous spots] will make it clearer what is all offered to someone scrolling through for an overview.

Susan Mené wrote:I want to buy this as a gift for someone who has a homestead.  
https://permies.com/forums/pay/checkout/5j7s7za7dukt
I know how to hit the pay button, but is there a way to gift it to someone?

There is a way to give a gift ...   are you suggesting that the new page should mention that?

here is the link for the 8-movie set

https://permies.com/wiki/63837/Wood-Heat-Wood-Burning-Stoves

If you look at the part where you pay, there is a checkbox for buying it as a gift.

I'm concerned (and bet I'm not alone in this) that the "couch sized mass" I would need won't be supported by my old floor/infrastructure. Would you add the weight of the couch sized mass that would "warm me for days after"?  (I am sure that hugely depends on the size of the room it is in, and the ambient temperature, and ... ? but "couch sized mass" has been stated). As a person who's watched a lot of the rmh movies I don't remember that discussed, and/but want that info before I would (as a new purchaser) invest in the movies.

Another concern: I am remembering that the rmheaters I saw "built in a weekend" (in/from permies videos) were done by a team of people led by an expert or two. Can a novice who's watched some videos hope to build one in a weekend?

Thank you.

  Many times there has been a green button that says, "Buy this as a gift", which, I assume, gives me the right to buy and gift the access to stream to one person--I don't see that here.  I'm sure it's not a situation in which I can by "instant view" once and then distribute it freely.
Do I need to buy the physical CD's and send them myself in order to gift?  Is there an option after paying, because I'm not seeing it here.
Bracing for crankiness,

The first thing I notice is excessive spacing throughout. I"d tighten every place where there is more than a line or maybe two between blocks of type and or illustrations.

Next I would edit the words. Cutting down the length of sentences. Making text more concise makes it much more readable.

Came here to share no constructive criticism, but to say that this website works.

Until I looked at that webpage, my understanding of the pros and cons of rocket mass heaters was dubious at best. At one point I had tried to understand, but then decided I was happy with my heat needs being met by my gas furnace. I was not convinced by what I had already seen here on Permies.

After looking at these graphics, I now understand it enough to consider it seriously. Thanks for this valuable work!

THAT is good to hear!

After the word No you have one too many spaces.

Nice graphic!!

I like the page overall. The weight of a mass heater is a consideration, one which the movies should address (and probably some do). I would add something that says, "Most easily built where local zoning and permitting is not restrictive." This is key for way too many of us who live where building departments have tight controls over wood heating in homes.

A couple of whimsical suggestions on the graphics:
A silhouette of a short, moustachioed creature standing indignantly, hands on hips, on a stump behind the two manly lumberjacks could emphasize the point, UNLESS certain estates are overly protective of trademarks.

I think Gert's house should(!) include a full wood rack. Regardless of her direct need this year, I'd suspect she is the sort of person who would keep multiple years' worth of fuel supply seasoning there...

Nice! I suggest you move "A ROCKET MASS HEATER IS..." bullets up to below the two top graphics.
and put the "How does it work?" in a prettier format, maybe a box like everything else?

No more bleeding might be
No more wasting

My pedantic brain would rather read “One, small, efficient fire per day heats a couch-sized mass. Which warms you for days afterward” as one sentence, ie:

One, small, efficient fire per day heats a couch-sized mass which warms you for days afterward.

Not here to give advice, but....
I really like the new look. Much cleaner and easier to understand. Good Work!

I like this!  

To make it more visually appealing, a background such as faded out flames gaining in intensity toward the outside edges of the page, or stacked firewood, might be more interesting than plain white.  Nothing too busy, just some color, like these images, only more faded out.  You might need to adjust some text colors to stand out against it, but it would really make the page pop.  (Don't use these images specifically as some may be copyrighted.  These are just screenshots and copied images for example.)

Love the infographics!

"Often built in a weekend" does draw a weary sigh out of me though.
I'm building ours out of (new firebricks for the core but) salvaged old bricks from an old French breadoven.
They're thin and wonky and I'm building a masonry bell which seems to take forever.
The reason not to go for the oil drum for me is aesthetics - and the fact that we had to take down the said bread oven (huge!) so we have a pile of tiles for 1,5 rockets!
Apart for that it's taking forever I'm enjoying the process though. I'm rendering clay (&thus, cob) from our own soil and thanks to all the generous information here at Permies.com PLUS the Rocket Mass Heater Builders Guide feel fairly confident of getting things right.

Our take on the mass bench is to make a mass tablefoot (!) - the rocket mass heater will warm up our to-be-kitchen with a huge table, the idea being that sitting around the table will be very comfortable and cozy. The ducts, normally doing their somewhat horizontal U-turn are now fashioned in a way that they sit almost above eachother, with a slight tilt of the exit end of the second tube, bringing it along the side of the bell, hoping to warm it up by the mass of the bell later.

Still some masonry to do, (plus pulling an flexible exhaust tube through the old masonry chimney) and then we can test fire. Fingers crossed...

"we're gonna change the world with a fancy graphic"
"No more bleeding 600 degrees out of the chimney."
"set a heat pump to 65 degrees and"
I guess it's in Fahrenheit ?
Maybe an option to display in Celsius for the rest of the world ?
With an automatic default based on geoip ?
(some kind of "plugin" that automatically converts between Fahrenheit and Celsius based on user preferences across the entire permies.com website would be awesome)

Great graphics!  Really gets the point across.

One suggestion - the woman in lower right looks like she is carrying construction or furniture grade lumber. I would think most people would be using branches like the one behind?  Maybe add a limb or branch to her "deluvery"?

Beautiful work! I'm sure this took a lot of time to make!

One thought. The way it shows now with the loggers on one side and the girl on the other is a bit divisive. We live in a world of divisions right now and this pushes a bit of the 'good guy' 'bad guy' dialogue. If instead, you had the same character and showed her exhausted and frustrated having just chainsawed too much wood, I think it would read more as 'good idea, bad idea' rather than good people vs bad people. If you demonize lumberjacks or groups of people in general, you end up preaching to the choir and not getting as many converts because defenses go up and people don't look past that. Where I live, there are lots of the 'live-off-the-land' people with chainsaws and woodstoves who would consider something like a RMH, but human nature is that if someone feels demonized, then it's an immediate shut-off to being open to something. Subtle difference but powerful.

Otherwise, I think the graphics are really great, clear, and convincing.

Clément Rossignol wrote:"we're gonna change the world with a fancy graphic"
"No more bleeding 600 degrees out of the chimney."
"set a heat pump to 65 degrees and"
I guess it's in Fahrenheit ?
Maybe an option to display in Celsius for the rest of the world ?
With an automatic default based on geoip ?
(some kind of "plugin" that automatically converts between Fahrenheit and Celsius based on user preferences across the entire permies.com website would be awesome)

Good catch!

Susan Berry wrote:One suggestion - the woman in lower right looks like she is carrying construction or furniture grade lumber. I would think most people would be using branches like the one behind?  Maybe add a limb or branch to her "deluvery"?

I like that idea!

It looks great!  I'm glad you are getting lots of good input on how to improve as I am a lousy critic.  

I really like the cleanness of the graphics (and the figures remind me a bit of Studio Ghibli). This does clarify the benefits of the heater.

Where I got a bit lost was when we got to the names and descriptions of the 8 films. The first 3 are somewhat understandable as different styles of heaters but the other 5 are not. I realize you click on the downward-facing double arrows by the title and can get a complete description of each film, and that is good. I am wondering if some very brief descriptor could appear in small letters under the film title to clue the viewer in on what the film is about -- and then they can click the downward arrows if they are interested in a more detailed description of that particular film.

For example:
Sneaky Heat: How we built a shippable core
Hot Rocket: Tiny home and pocket rocket design
Fire Science: How rocket stoves and rocket mass heaters work
Boom Squish: Dangers and strategies of alternative hot water

There is a lot of white space around the movie reviews and Instructor bios that leads to much more scrolling before you get to the Buy invitation. This seems like a place you could lose people. Maybe condense the white space or move these two sections below the first Buy invitation?

I live in the area hit hardest by hurricane Helene and I have to say that you should be doing outreach to some of the radio/TV/podcasters in the area with your pitch. We only have one TV station that might run a clip of one of your films and do an interview (WLOS, an ABC affiliate), but if you adapted an audio pitch on why rocket mass heaters would be good for the area, you might get radio and podcast play. I think you may have a natural market here. As the weather turns (a couple weeks later than usual), people will start to think about backups and alternatives. They very much prefer what will give them independence and self-reliance.

[Hint: if hurricane Helene had hit one month later -- still well within hurricane season -- and we were sitting here without electricity, water, cell service or internet, one of these could have kept a family/home/pipes from freezing during storm recovery. In our more rural areas, it still could.]

Good luck with this project. I certainly understand more about the heaters after studying your new marketing piece.

I dislike how you are demonizing conventional wood stoves, by showing a massive clearcut.  It has been my observation that people like myself who heat with wood have the healthiest woodlots as they have a reason to cut the worst and leave the best.  They  clearout sick and dying trees whilst leaving room for young vigourous trees.  Where is the infographic on how easy it is to get insurance for a RMH?