Heating a small cabin

Hello,

I'm looking for recommendations for heating a 'tiny' 80 square feet, 9 square metre cabin, insulated reasonably well..

I'm into DIY ideas, or recommendations of stoves...  

It's too small for a normal size rocket mass heater, atleast the ones I have seen.. I would be interested though if anyone knows of a way to make a mini self made brick/metal wood burner or such and could direct me to some resources, or something involving a stove in a DIY way..

im really just looking as small and simple as possible! but still safe, obviously and not filling the cabin with smoke..

Any help would be much appreciated    thanks!

hey matthew,

welcome to the forums.

i started a discussion on a similar topic: Rocket heater

A rocket heater with masonry bell (as mass) would make sense. maybe it s possible to build a mass-bench as a bed to save space.

there are rocket space heaters built from metal. they have some issues, but i assume that you ll not be living in that structure all the time, so these issues should be mitigated.

i wonder if you could use the space ABOVE the heater. maybe build and enclosure above and around the heater from bricks and maybe reinforced concrete slabs. like having solid shelves above and around the bell (with air gap).

Welcome, Matthew! The thread Tobias pointed to has some good information. I'm going to be offline for a couple of days, but next week I will be happy to answer any more questions you have.

hey matthew,

this video is about a metal rocket heater:



the model has issues but gives you an overview. so please discuss your plans here.

good luck and enjoy

Hi Tobias,

thanks very much for the response, the link for your thread and the video..  (and thanks Glenn too, hi )

It's all incredibly interesting.. I think what Ive realized that right now in the situation I am in (wanting to get some heating going pretty quickly for the winter without causing too much trouble/keeping it simple.. we are already sleeping in there sometimes and its getting pretty cold) that I might go for a regular wood burner as a short term solution and then try out a rocket heater at a more suitable point in a more suitable building...  maybe trying an outdoor one first

The cabin is very small, so I also feel it might be some engineering job to make sure it doesn't overheat, (i have read they can burn very hot) or just causes more harm than good..      its probably sensible to wait till ive got a bigger space/do some outdoor trials..    and then plan it into the building from the outset..

now it feels best to take my time on this one, especially as i have various other things on the go..

Thanks for the help..  it seems another issue in itself to find a suitable small wood over to buy for such a small cabin, outside the USA where some manufacturers make super mini ones (ie Fatsco Tiny Tot) at a good price..  the smallest one i can find here is 4kw.. which is suitable for up to 40m2, apparently.. and I have a mere 9m2..   id love to find a super mini regular wood stove that I can actually get hold of, but it doesnt seem possible, unless anyone has any recommendations on that.. ??  Im in Germany..

hey matthew...

where are you in germany?

you can search for a small "werkstattofen".

ebay

or you could weld an oven or a rocket space heater from a gas bottle. or a beer-keg.

One thing you may want to try is a clay pot and candle heater.  It would be very inexpensive to try out.

Candle powered pottery heater

Those things provide exactly "x" candlepower of heat, no more. The only benefit of the clay pot is that it traps the heat and re-radiates it at table level instead of sending all of it as a plume of warm air straight to the ceiling.

A RMH can be built very small and compact, suitable for a small space: https://permies.com/t/40/44671/rocket-mass-heater-pyronaut-event#411317

and I recently threw together a simple version of a 4" batch box core which requires no brick cutting or special parts: https://permies.com/t/59459/EZ-Tools-Brick-Micro-Batch#505805

Thanks..  I really like this candle idea, it does seem a little underpowered.. but then again if I had 3 or 4, it could be worth trying

The small brick rocket heater is great.. I'm gonna experiment with something like this soon..

Tobias, I am in Göttingen.. My girlfriend is from there, and we have a kind of off grid 'urban garden' on the go.. we lived in it from May - October, but will now live in flat till march then start up again with some new developments..

ll check out the werkstattofens..  thanks