RMH v1

Saw this and it made me me sigh just thinking about how we have somehow forgotten how to live more sustainable.

Cool, did some more reading on those floors. At least there are those rediscovering this type of knowledge and sharing it with others. Ancient wisdom, modern practice!

There is even different flow patterns.
I wonder what parameters would make someone pick a particular flow pattern vs another one.

Does anyone know what the flooring material is in this case? I thought traditional korean floors were floating wood boards, but with this configuration, wouldn't you need something more heat resistant?

It does say ‘under a thick masonry floor’ so I guess you could have wood on top of that but i don't think that sort of system would pass building control where I live!!!

The illustration shows "Floor finishing with clay".

Wouldn't the clay be heat resistant?

I like the idea of using the smoke (hot air raised close to the floor) to heat the floor.

It does indeed say floor finished with clay. I noticed that but still feel like I'm missing a lot of information from this graphic.

It looks like there are three layers of flooring structure and if the diagram is accurate the bottom layer is clay. Perhaps the upper layer is wood and the middle is some sort of insulation? There are also the "Gudeul under floor heating structure"

I found the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondol

From which I get "The heated floor, supported by stone piers or baffles to distribute the smoke, is covered by stone slabs, clay and an impervious layer such as oiled paper."

This is noteworthy, though probably could be mitigated "Ondol had problems such as environmental pollution and carbon monoxide poisoning resulting from burning coal briquettes. Thus, other technology heats modern Korean homes."