Tight space. how to heat

My house has amain room 4 M x 6 M with a 16ft ceiling, yes it sounds double dutch does'nt it!
It has no external walls and a wood heater sitting alongside one wall which backs onto a edroom.
I want to improve the heating by not having to feed to unit every few hours at night ?
Any ideas please?

The obvious answer is a small rocket mass heater. How cold do winters get? Do you need to give any heat to the rooms around it, or just account for ceiling losses? You might be able to make a tall skinny bell that would be only around 2' square, and not require wood stove clearances on three sides so it could be more out of the way than a wood stove. What is the floor structure, and access below if relevant?

If you don't want to replace the wood stove, you could stack bricks around three sides with a bit of air circulation space; a double thick brick enclosure would be stable even without mortar.

Greetings John, I trust your injury last year has not slowed you down.  Godspeed sir.    I am in a similar situation, and trying to experiment more with using water heated by my archaic  woodstoves to provide that mass.  That is, mass in the form of water and spread throughout the room, and thus slowly emitting warmth.  

Using Pex in a circular coil inside a wall radiator.... 4 inches wide, 3 ft height  and 6 feet long... I am impressed  thus far  with the results.  These are against my north facing walls below the windows and have insulation on the outer side. I am experimenting with wood and wood/gypsum combo.  Early days yet, but I believe it could prove to be efficacious

Since I am not allowed to build a true RMH in my 1920 house at this point,  these efforts are aimed toward a compromise of sorts.  A friend has been using a system like this but directing the pex runs under the flooring.  Steady long term heat, without a central mass that requires reinforced framing, he reports

Is your great room built with flooring that could handle that idea? If not, you might consider retrofitting a few wall radiators and then gauge your hour by hour temps over a few days.  Admittedly my efforts are new and perhaps feeble, but it shows promise.  Our winters in Georgia are easy...18F four nights ago but today was 66F and windless.  Indeed, from my map I predict yours could be equally benign.   Best of luck,
Rico

Fellas, thanks for the responses.
Unfortunately the injury has slowed me down, I have reduced stamina at the moment and can lose interest sometimes because of mild pain or stiffness.
Travelling also slows me up.
BUT I am confident it will all improve.
Glenn and Rico, I can strengthen the floor as required, I have looked at Hydronic heating I have collected a lot of parts and have a 300 gallon insulated tank in the roof heated by the wood heater and sun.
I have had another look at the Dragon Technology Montana Masonry heaters from Thomas, but need a bit more knowledge.
The Shorty may work for me.
I was wondering about adding normal house bricks around the stove just to see how it goes,
winters here have no snow and can get down to minus 5 deg. C in winter for a few days and cool for weeks.
I often go with no heating but it is tough!

John C Daley wrote:Fellas, thanks for the responses.
Unfortunately the injury has slowed me down, I have reduced stamina at the moment and can lose interest sometimes because of mild pain or stiffness.
Travelling also slows me up.
BUT I am confident it will all improve.
Glenn and Rico, I can strengthen the floor as required, I have looked at Hydronic heating I have collected a lot of parts and have a 300 gallon insulated tank in the roof heated by the wood heater and sun.
I have had another look at the Dragon Technology Montana Masonry heaters from Thomas, but need a bit more knowledge.
The Shorty may work for me.
I was wondering about adding normal house bricks around the stove just to see how it goes,
winters here have no snow and can get down to minus 5 deg. C in winter for a few days and cool for weeks.
I often go with no heating but it is tough!

John, what is the state of the insulation in the house? Any way to increase that without tearing everything apart? Attics are responsible for 30 percent of heat loss any chance of beefing that up? Caulking windows and baseboards also offers some gains.  A second thought for me would be with that high ceiling; are you storing heat at the ceiling level? A ceiling fan would certainly help there as well as pushing heat at the wall and floor surfaces which would heat up and store some heat. The stacked bricks is a great way to add mass but don't forget the mass you already have. Often times woodstoves will draw in air through building cracks causing surfaces to cool all while the wall directly against the stove gets far too hot. Forcing air circulation is good to improve that condition.
Cheers,  David

David, my house is pretty airtight, I have been building it for about 45years.
And I have used it to experiment with energy  efficiency ideas, I have the ceiling fan, double glazed windows, draft stopped, a safari roof.
I just remembered, I suggest people install an independent air supply to the wood heater in the floor or wall nearby and dont have one myself.
I have been playing with bricks, but I got some pavers recently abouy 8 x4 x2 inch in dimensions and they may be easier to stack.

Healing powers sent via white light mooseage, or gamma rays, rest assured your character and spirit will complete the injury comeback.   Keep the faith.  

You cannot go wrong with Glenn's  idea:  three sided double stack of traditional red bricks, as he suggested.   After you judge the results, please note the benefits for the wood burning posse ......

I am reading https://permies.com/t/267527/Shorty-Core-bell
which Thomas drew to my attension, its fabulous I have a better idea of the task now.
As a new comer :Shorty ' looks perfect for me.
Thanks for the good thoughts also.
Its 9.44 am here!