Questions from a newbie

I bought a drawing for the 6" stove and have a dvd on the way but was wanting to ask a few questions. Sorry for the super long post and a million questions. I'm building a 660 sq.ft. cabin that is on a hill side. Pole building with a crawl space that goes from 8' to about 2'. I've insulated the crawlspace walls with high density foam and the rest of the cabin with low density foam. I've installed a 15K propane wall heater in crawl space to heat the cabin. I'll cut vents in the floor once I figure how many I need. Now to my thoughts and questions. I'm considering a rocket stove in the crawlspace. If the burn tunnel length is flexible I would like to put the feed tube outside, so that's my first question.....is the length flexible and what else has to change to compensate? Can the feed tube be taller to allow more wood loaded at a time? I'll have to go outside and around the house to load it. Can the feed tube & burn tunnel be made of chimney tile or are the bricks a necessity? Can I build it on a grade of about 20%? Can concrete be used for the mass or is cob required? Doesn't the drum top burn through awfully fast? When I exhaust out the side of the house and considering the grade I'll be about 6' above the burn tunnel do I need to turn up to the roof or can I just exhaust out the side of the house. Again, sorry for the long post. I know the dvd might answer my questions but it's killing me not knowing. Mark

Mark Crain :Welcome to Permies.Com and to our sister site richsoil.com, and a Big welcome to our Rocket Stove And Wood Stove Forum/Threads, with `21,000
fellow members world wide, you should be able to come here 24 / 7 and talk to some one who wants to talk about what you want to talk about !

I have to believe that you did your purchasing of 6'' system plans and DVD off of the web and did not talk to anyone about the skill sets you are bringing to the job ! Please
understand that while quite low tech, the ratios of all the parts, but most especially the Feed Tube, Burn Tunnel and Heat Riser are very closely related ! Also the Cross Sec-
-tional areas were determined when you picked the 6'' system ! (which should work just fine for you !)

To allow you to catch-up with the other new members and allow you to better understand the answers you are going to get please go to rocketstoves.com to download
your PDF Copy $15. of' Rocket Mass Heaters', With over 100,000 Rocket Mass Heaters RMHs Built world wide, most were made following 'The Book', and 95% of all the
First Builds (that Worked) were built following "the Book''! I will also guarantee that the RMH Book will prove to also be a time and money saver ! (and I don't make a Dime !)

15,000 BTUs for your cabin is about right, but is small if you have to heat the crawl space too ! where does your air supply come from ?!

By this time you are aware that the RMH will be heavy and that you will need to protect your exposures from too much heat ! Building directly on the ground in your crawl space
will greatly reduce both of those problems, but require you to insulate under your RMH to keep you from turning the entire ground under your crawl space into Thermal Mass
Heat Storage !

Heating the crawl space in order to heat your cabin is kind like heating an attached garage, to heat your home ! Also going outside to feed the Fire will get old really fast ! I
suggest you put you plans for any specific type of Rocket stove on hold until you see your DVD, it will help you find a way to incorporate your Rocket into the heart of your home
where tending it is a joyful undertaking and not a drudges task to be avoided or skipped !

Everything else is semi negotiable except tile which will not take the heat or Thermal shock! and Concrete which brings with it its own set of problems and may be a more difficult
way to go depending on your site ! Cob can be reworked, Concrete especially in your crawl space will require a jack hammer if you ever need a change ! Big AL!

allen lumley wrote:Mark Crain :Welcome to Permies.Com and to our sister site richsoil.com, and a Big welcome to our Rocket Stove And Wood Stove Forum/Threads, with `21,000
fellow members world wide, you should be able to come here 24 / 7 and talk to some one who wants to talk about what you want to talk about !

I have to believe that you did your purchasing of 6'' system plans and DVD off of the web and did not talk to anyone about the skill sets you are bringing to the job ! Please
understand that while quite low tech, the ratios of all the parts, but most especially the Feed Tube, Burn Tunnel and Heat Riser are very closely related ! Also the Cross Sec-
-tional areas were determined when you picked the 6'' system ! (which should work just fine for you !)

To allow you to catch-up with the other new members and allow you to better understand the answers you are going to get please go to rocketstoves.com to download
your PDF Copy $15. of' Rocket Mass Heaters', With over 100,000 Rocket Mass Heaters RMHs Built world wide, most were made following 'The Book', and 95% of all the
First Builds (that Worked) were built following "the Book''! I will also guarantee that the RMH Book will prove to also be a time and money saver ! (and I don't make a Dime !)

15,000 BTUs for your cabin is about right, but is small if you have to heat the crawl space too ! where does your air supply come from ?!

By this time you are aware that the RMH will be heavy and that you will need to protect your exposures from too much heat ! Building directly on the ground in your crawl space
will greatly reduce both of those problems, but require you to insulate under your RMH to keep you from turning the entire ground under your crawl space into Thermal Mass
Heat Storage !

Heating the crawl space in order to heat your cabin is kind like heating an attached garage, to heat your home ! Also going outside to feed the Fire will get old really fast ! I
suggest you put you plans for any specific type of Rocket stove on hold until you see your DVD, it will help you find a way to incorporate your Rocket into the heart of your home
where tending it is a joyful undertaking and not a drudges task to be avoided or skipped !

Everything else is semi negotiable except tile which will not take the heat or Thermal shock! and Concrete which brings with it its own set of problems and may be a more difficult
way to go depending on your site ! Cob can be reworked, Concrete especially in your crawl space will require a jack hammer if you ever need a change ! Big AL!

You make a lot of good points. The reason I was putting it in the crawl space is I'm concerned about the weight of it. My cabin is a pole building and having it up it the air is just plain scary to me and who doesn't love a warm floor? My air supply for the propane comes from outside. It's a vented propane wall furnace. Also I believe I was mistaken on the angle.....its more like 10 degrees I think. One big concern is the additional draft created with the angle which had me wondering about not adding a "chimney" but just exiting the wall only. They seem to burn clean enough to not mess up the wood siding but I'm guessing on that as well. Looking forward to seeing the dvd. As for skill sets if you're meaning my skills I can build just about anything if its made of wood or metal.......cob on the other hand??? I'm sure I'll have more questions after seeing the dvd
Thanks,
Mark

I understand the load-bearing concern. You could build piers in the crawlspace to take the weight, and install most of the bench under the floor. There is an RMH in a yurt thread around here somewhere that did that successfully.

You also could use water as the mass if you built it in the crawlspace. An un/under-insulated water heater makes a surprisingly good space heater for a crawlspace.