Rocket mass heater and heating the air in a room

When I hear Paul rave about RMHS one of his points is that they heat you and not the air...

Well what if I don't really sit down that much? Is it still good then? And what if the room I am in doesn't fit a RMH?

I'm usually in the kitchen most of the day, and I can't really see how we could fit a RHM in there. We had planned to put one in the living room, but that isn't really close to the kitchen (we have a very big old farm house), and would only really serve us a couple of hours a day...

My husband has suggested putting a really efficient convection heater in the children's room as it is between the kitchen and living room, but I would love to figure out if I could maybe add some conversation toon properties to a RMH instead?

Hi Dawn;  They do heat the room up as well, just not like a conventional metal box stove.  

Cool, thank you!

So maybe putting one in the room between the kitchen and living room would provide mist value for us? How much space are they able to heat?  And can you add some kind of cape on the barrel to increase convection?

Dawn; Anytime your rmh is burning the barrel is giving off heat just like a metal box stove would,  A fan would move that heat around your home. After your fire is out you will have a 90-100 F mass sitting there radiating heat. At that point as Paul says, sitting on it is the best way to enjoy one.  I think of Spain as a normally warm place ?  How big is your farm house ? What is it constructed of?  Is there any insulation ?

Spain is usually a pretty warm place, but in the winter the temperature does drop. We don't have frost but this past week eg. we haven't had any sun either and it has been 2C at night, and almost constant rain, which cools everything down. The house is build of stone and no insulation. We have put in a new roof which is insulated, we have also put in passive solar heaters on the south facing walls, which provides good heat on warmer winter days days. The floors are tiles directly on top of dirt or concrete (depending on how new they are) we need put in better doors and shutters and curtains in front of the big terrace doors. Our house is infinitely warmer than most Spanish houses just from the insulated roof though, and we currently do just fine with one gas heater, but we would like to replace that with something that makes use of the resources we have on our land (300 olive trees). The house is 250m2

hm... could you take a wall out and rebuild it with the pipes of the rmh to have the wall act as mass? the firebox could be in another room then...

Tobias Ber wrote:hm... could you take a wall out and rebuild it with the pipes of the rmh to have the wall act as mass? the firebox could be in another room then...

... every time we have put in a door or window where there was none, the entire wall above collapsed... which was OK when there was no roof on the house, but I'd be very sad if it happened with the new roof in...

Well Dawn , you had better not do that then ... LOL ... I think a rmh would work for you.  You may end up keeping it lit longer than someone who can be in the same room sitting on it.  True heated up burn time for an 8" J tube is 40 minutes between loading.  If your home, that's easy and a fan will keep the heat moving. If your on the go and the stove goes out ,its still radiating warmth for hours and when you come back, there is nothing easier than relighting a warmed up rmh.  

thomas rubino wrote:Well Dawn , you had better not do that then ... LOL ... I think a rmh would work for you.  You may end up keeping it lit longer than someone who can be in the same room sitting on it.  True heated up burn time for an 8" J tube is 40 minutes between loading.  If your home, that's easy and a fan will keep the heat moving. If your on the go and the stove goes out ,its still radiating warmth for hours and when you come back, there is nothing easier than relighting a warmed up rmh.  

Most days zip would only need to heat it in the evening - it the house feels cold I can go outside and warm up while the sun is out. Only on weeks like this last one would I turn it on during the day.

If the interior walls are made of stone as well, then you can  incorporate the kitchen/living room wall into a bell built in the living room.
The rocket itself could be in the living room, and the feed in the kitchen,if you think you might be able to sneak a small penetration through the wall,or perhaps under it.

The only issue I could see with using internal stone walls as part of the bell mass would be the climate, where heat is needed intermittently rather than all season long. If the walls are too thick it will take a long time to heat them up and then a long time to cool down. If the internal walls are thinner (8-10") they may be fine for the purpose.

Dawn, pics of the kitchen, kid's room and lounge as well as adjacent corridors would give us a better picture.