Come out for a weekend, join us in Guelph ON, Friday Sept 27th to Sunday Sept 29th, and learn all about building with earth: specifically how to use it to build an efficient
rocket mass heater. You will gain the skills to build your very own
rocket mass heater made from natural materials including clay, sand, bricks, stove pipe, a barrel and other recycled materials.
In partnership with Transition Guelph, Minga Skill Building Hub and
local Rocket Mass Heater builder Andrew Brunning, we are co-creating a
Rocket Mass Heater Workshop with natural builders Ernie and Erica Wisner! Yes thats correct, we are flying in the
Rocket Mass Heater Gurus to preach
permaculture every step of the turn, to delivery the most in-depth and uptodate Rocket Mass Heater wisdom, its
Permaculture Pandemonium!, Well known all over the world and across North America for installing over 700 RMH systems, teaching workshops and known for being moderators of the RMH forum on Permies.com (hey thats here!) See them in action on youtube:
http://youtu.be/t4kX6i4qGRw (Paul Wheatons KickStarter) and Erica and Ernies RMH Kickstarter:
http://youtu.be/itJaqB8ltu8
The heart of our personal research is the Rocket Mass Heater (Erica Wisner)
Ernie and Erica have released several sets Rocket Mass Heater building plans and Ernie has written a book detailing the fire sciences called: The
Art of Fire
Why a Rocket Mass Heater:
Good Questions! There are many heating options for your space,
wood stoves, furnaces, masonry stoves, boilers and every option in between. There are a few incredible reasons why it
should be a Rocket Mass Heater:
Rocket Mass
Heaters create an exceptional warm living environment, providing heat to the air, your body as you sit or lie on the heated bench or bed, and the top of the Bell (barrel) offers an efficient cooking surface
heat a living space with a fraction of the
firewood (1 Cord of wood per heating season)
wood burns so efficiently that there is virtually no smoke, simply steam and
CO2 (smoke is simply unburned fuel)
The stoves thermal mass stores and radiates heat for days after a single firing
the RMH can be built in a few days on the cheap ($100 - $500)
You can lie down on the heated bench or bed of the RMH without being burned - try that on a
wood stove or furnace!
The RMH heating appliance becomes an artistic value added feature to a home and quickly becomes the most sought after space to be vrs. the feeling of snuggling up next to your gas furnace in the basement not to mention the gas bills! (no thanks!)
A full-size RMH system can have thermal mass (
cob and stone) weighing in at 3 to 5 tonnes, this mass also serves the function of capturing and storing
solar radiation for winter heating and serves to keep your space cool in the summer.
Feel great about knowing you built your own heating system rather than relying on Coal, Gas, Nuclear and imported technologies.
Over the the course of the weekend we will all have an opportunity to learn and work in these areas:
• identify ideal place for your Rocket Mass Heater
• create a base for the RMH
• identify suitable soil for making cob
• lay firebricks for combustion chamber
• building the heat riser
• mix thermal cob & insulative cob and earthen mortar
• laying out stove pipe exhaust and chimney
• setting the Bell (barrel) into place
• how to light the fire and stoke to prevent blow back
• fire sciences
What hands-on skills will I learn
You will learn how to mix and apply COB and Earthen Mortars from sand, clay and
water (With your hands and feet!)
Laying and cutting bricks for the combustion chamber and manifold - using trowels and masonry tools
Making an earthen insulative mix of slip clay and perlite to insulate around the combustion chamber and heatriser.
Heat riser build (with brick or steel column) and Bell (Barrel) installation.
You will learn how to safely cut, crimp and securely connect stove pipe for the RMH exhaust/chimney
Installing and attaching stove pipe fittings( T's & Elbows) for system
ash clean outs
A List of Hand Tools we will be learning to use:
Level, Cold Chisels, Hammer, Mallet, Hack Saw, Tin Snips, Metal Cutters, Crimpers, Screw Drivers, Drills, Shovels, Wheel Barrels, Tarps , Masonry trowels
This course is for you if:
The thought of building with natural materials excites and/ or scares you - but you really want to dig in!
You want to heat your yourself, your home,
greenhouse or workshop without supporting the destruction of the boreal forest (using scrap wood, recycled
pallets, fallen branches and twigs)
You are looking for guidance and instruction from experienced RMH builders
The idea that you can build with material found under foot and from local dumps and scrap yards is invigorating
Details:
Register for our weekend workshop beginning Friday Sept 27th at 4:00pm and ending Sunday Sept 29th at 4:00pm.
Friday - Arrive on site at 4:00pm - we will meet and greet, have dinner and begin our Fire Sciences demo.
Saturday - Come for breakfast at 9:00pm - the day includes lunch and dinner and rocket mass heater learning and building
Saturday evening
permaculture pandemonium atmosphere and live entertainment!
Sunday - Come for breakfast at 9:00pm - the day includes lunch and dinner and rocket mass heater workshop - finish at 4:00pm
A tasty organic lunch, tea,
coffee and cold beverages will be provided sourced from Guelphs own local farms and markets.
Location: Guelph, Ontario, Canada - Final Address (TBA)
Date: Sept 27th - 29th
Cost: $400.00
Eventbrite - Rocket Mass Heater Workshop - With Ernie & Erica Wisner
In the spirit of the
permaculture transition town movement, we have created a few spaces open for folks who at this time cannot pay the full registration fee yet are suffering from extreme rocket-mass-heater-permaculture-pandemonium and would like to make alternative arrangements: please contact: andrew(dot)brunning@gmail(dot)com
Andrew Brunning is a local Rocket Mass Heater Builder, Yoga Teacher and Permaculture enthusiast. Recently, in partnership with Container House Ontario, a RMH was installed into a shipping container home during a weekend workshop at Guelphs own Diyode communtiy workshop. At the Guelph Outdoor school, a RMH workshop was held to replace a wood stove for cooking in the outdoor kitchen. Andrew's first RMH system was built into a low tunnel
greenhouse to provide heat for seedling germination.
http://www.rocketmassheater.ca
Minga Skill Building Hub is a social enterprise started by Ami Dehne. Her passion for skill building came after reading the Foxfire series and working on Healthy Homes Calgary – an award winning program she co-created. With a passion for skills, a fun loving and positive approach to life and a natural ability to bring people together, starting a skill building hub is a perfect alignment for Ami.
http://www.mingaskillbuilding.ca/
Transition Guelph is a group of concerned and active Guelph residents who have come together with the shared vision of building resilience and
sustainability into our community in response to the challenges of accelerating climate change, peak oil and depleting critical resources, and the global economic instability that these can cause.
http://www.transitionguelph.org
