I saw this post on another forum, and thought, wow, what a combination of techniques!
Rocket mass heaters and biochar. This could be huge!
John S
PDX OR
It's that time of year when I make my 1 to 2 m³ of biochar from ~5 m³ of
firewood. I pack the firebox of my thermal mass Pönttöuuni Finnish
wood stove 2 or 3 times a day up here near the arctic circle. Once rapidly burning I do not add
wood, that is not how you use a
RMH.
When the load of wood burns down to a bed of coals and the flame is gone the intake air is shut off and the chimney damper closed 98%. This only takes 1 to 2 hours.
From there the kWh of heat from the burnt biomass charge slowly radiates from this wood stoves core out into the house overnight and over many hours with no burning fire.
The surface temperature of the Pönttöuuni over time climbs and falls glowing in FAR infrared like a light tower of warmth and coziness in the heart of the home.
When the stone core temperature drops, the stove is opened, char and ash removed into a safe sealed stainless bucket, and another charge of firewood stuffed in and ignited; repeating the process of intensely heat soaking and cooling the thermal mass.
From there the char and ash are separated, the char goes into the basement rotary composter worm bin with all the kitchen scraps.
The ash is saved and used for my pottery, and in the spring as the thick snow begins to melt I take my leaf vacuum to the bucket and dust the snow's white surface blowing the ash across the yard. This changes the snows albedo forcing it to absorb the spring sun rapidly melting it away from my raised garden beds.
Then in the spring when the first garlic sprouts peek through the layer of wood chip mulch, I empty the worm bin Biochar compost into a small barrel and mix it with a large variety of mature seeds grown and saved from the garden in the fall. This mix of char and seed is then coarsely spread onto the raised beds where the birds flock scratching and tilling everything in for me automagically.....
With each year this process repeats building the
carbon and seed bank in my soil. I can just scratch up the surface and the weeds that sprout forth are lettuce, coriander, onion, Chard, dill, carrots, ect....
So the cycle repeats with the days of my life...
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