RMH in mobile home in New England?

Hey everyone,

New member here. I am very interested in putting a RMH into my mobile home for the main heat source. My wife and I bought this mobile home that was abandoned for 2 years this past April. We have done alot of fixing, and still have plenty more to do, but one of the major things was removing the propane furnace and tanks. My wife was not comfortable with such a volatile heating substance in her home that had not been maintained properly. We were originally going to do electric baseboard heaters(and might still as a backup) but I would love to put a RMH in so we can burn scrap and scavanged/donated wood rather than pay even more on the electric bill. We own the mobile home, and rent the lot it is on. The home sits on dirt, with a cement pad under parts of it, and has a vapor barrier in some places, or I could add one to the places that doesn't. I will probably be getting my mass material from off site, as it is a small lot and I don't think I am allowed to dig anyway. The trailer still has the axles and tires attached. I believe it would be best to run the mass under the house and attach it to the floors, as reinforcing the floors to hold the mass weight seems extensive and costly. I currently have Ianto Evans RMH book on the way from my local library and will be pouring over it thoroughly. I had looked at radiant floor heating before as the floors need to be redone anyway, but short ceiling heights and costly (retail) radiant heating systems have me looking at RMH instead.

My concerns are mostly about effectiveness of a RMH in a mobile home(which we are currently re-studding and insulating and doing drywall instead of paneling) in my climateclimate. I did see another post on this forum that was very similar, but it was in a different region. I live in Western Massachusetts, so we are talking humid summers in high 90s+ Fahrenheit to teens and single digits or lower and long periods of clouds and snow in winter. Would a RMH system be enough to keep us warm in my environment and type of home?


Ideally I would like to have this project finished before next winter, as we are currently using space heaters only and it is very expensive and LAUGHABLY ineffective. Finances are what they are. Anyone have any advice or ideas for me? I'm open to other options if a RMH wouldn't work in my situation.

Also, so glad to have found this forum! What an awesome place! Love all the support and free exchange of info!

It'll work great. Your challenge isn't insulation [RMH don't release hot air, they slowly release thermal radiation] it's supporting the weight of the mass.

Excellent! I figured the mass should go under the trailer and attach to the floors from beneath so that we don't have to spend a ton of money reinforcing floors. If I can do that, im still trying to make sure I could get to the feed tube from inside the house, whether the stove itself can be inside or beneath the house, etc.

Jake, if you put your mass under the MH, you will have to insulate it's bottom and sides. And realize that it's never gonna heat well. having only the top as heat exchange surface.

Oh right...fair enough. Anyone have any ideas on how much a RMH would way and how much reinforcement that would take to bring Mobile home floors up to snuff?

Usualy, we hear of about 5 or 6 metric tons for teh whole unit, in J tube and bench usual type of RMH.

I'm partial to bell and batch rocket. They can be made lighter, and store as much heat if not more.

Tho my latest is around 4 metric tons.

Two things to ask, what is the size of your MH, and what is the insulation like. Ah, and how's your weather?

Bell and batch Rocket?

Kyrt Ryder wrote:Bell and batch Rocket?

https://permies.com/forums/posts/list/52643#427013

Sorry for the delay in response, been a very busy week here. The home is approx the width of a double wide because of the additions, and approx 72 ft? I'm not positive on the length, havent had to measure it yet. Once all the walls have been redone with 2x3 studs, brown water heater fiber glass insulation(saved from trash, couldnt find an R rating for them,but it seems to be doing a good job where it has been installed so far), and 1/2" drywall. All the spaces will be open to each other, with sliding barn door style doors separating the bedroom and bathroom from the rest of the house. Weather conditions were described in OP.

Brown fiberglass usualy comes from Knauf here in France. Type knauf with ecose in your search engine. Mine gives only results in French today

Mind you, i've just found one in english.

http://www.knaufinsulation.com/sites/corporate.knaufinsulation.net/files/Mineral%20wool%20with%20ECOSE%20Techn_0.pdf

Called may be ecobatt in the US

Here at the bottom, you have R values in US form, not international SI

http://www.knaufinsulation.us/en/content/ecobatt-insulation


Your double wide, from what you say, must be in the 1300sqft. That's a fair bit to heat. I would say at least a six inch batch, with proper mass. If not 8. I'm having trouble heating the workshop of about 1200sqft, with a 9 incher, and 4 tons of mass, with 2 fires a day. Tho, i have may be a R6 (international SI system R1) in the bricks walls. And 6m 20FT high ceilings.