Newby heater ideas please

Hello everyone, we are newbies here and both have a great desire to use as many natural methods as possible. We live in the hilly area just above Paphos in Cyprus (Mediterranean) so have a variable climate, It can be warm and humid in the winter and cold and wet in the winter (summer temps are 30-40 degrees and winter are about 1-8 lowest). Our house is a standard built Cyprus style concrete house with steel reinforcements and a tiled floor.

We have a large open fireplace in the lounge which just makes the wood disappear and isnt really very effective. Especially as we like to keep windows open for the cats etc.

There is an area available of about 1.5 meters x 0.5 meters near to the fireplace. As this will be our first attempt we would like to build on top of a wood surface to protect the tiles initially. Can anyone recommend a design with simple building techniques that would fit into the area. We are happy to have pipes going into open areas also.

Many thanks in advance.

Doug Macintyre : for the short term Google Rumford fire place this radiates a great deal more heat out of the fireplace than anything that you are used to ! One open window I
can see . . . . but then again, I am not a cat person ! While you are totally correct to want to protect your tile floors, Wood is a so-so answer, take a moment and find the -

permies>> forums>> rocket stoves, you will click on the rocket stove to send you to the list of recent forum threads, find the forum thread 'length of exhaust pipe in mass'

Scroll down to George Brabants thread extension of November 9th and look at the picture, that could be your house filling full of smoke from a source you can't find !

I am afraid that you will need to give to get, you are not giving us enough floor area to allow us to build a big enough system to help you, ether double the width or double the
length,

I think that you are looking at the area where the rocket stove will set as space lost out of your house, Spend some time away from your house and then try and picture your
Rocket Mass Heater as a beautiful sculpted piece of built-in furniture,that warms you when you sit on it ! Whether the shape you come up with is a love set, or a day bed, or
couch or doubles back on its self to become a wall hugging bench, look for that just right piece of furniture that Could work anywhere but will work well next to your fireplace
which in part will soon be a little storage nook !

And while you are looking for that perfect built-in-furnature addition to your lounge, remember that Cob Will not Rot or spoil, Is fireproof, and insects won't eat it ! Think of the
cats, who will lounge there for hours, for the Good of the Craft ! BIG AL !

Thanks, its our first venture and we wanted to build a temporary one for use over the winter. The idea is to build a yurt at a date in the new year and to build one in there. Then to dismantle this one and restore the lounge to its normal former glory (or the landlord may not like us). From what I can see a heater on a wood or tiled plinth shouldnt create too much damage.

Doug Macintyre : You may want to look at the smallest Castle stacks at > Dragon Heaters.com , this is about as small a foot print as you can get, and survive transport to and use
in a Yurt ! Iam not suggesting purchase from them, because your shipping costs would likely double the costs but rather locally crafted flues or A 'castle' made out of multiple
55 gal drums ! For the good of the Crafts Big AL !