Just want to put in a plug for remembering NOx. In one of the parts of this podcast you talk about 3000 degrees. I am no expert on this but it sounds pretty important, Google tells me 2800 degrees is the limit point, Erica mentioned this issue when I was asking about a letter to the editor. Air at this temp is the problem, so that's apretty universal problem (vs.
wood, metal, brick, mud)
First, is this an actual an issue?
Second, in trying to offer solutions, though I can only conjecture vaguely and these may be useless...more thermal mass around the burn chamber? idiot-proof it so people can't put in more wood than __?
water, just to make it less burn-y? different kinds of wood? dilute the wood with something? just don't over-innovate the damn thing so it isn't over-efficient??
I take Mud's point that it's more of the essence to make these user-friendly for many people, vs. perfecting it.
I like the portable-pebble thing vs. cob.
----
I appreciate the parts about "this is setting RMH's back" -- the metal chambers, the lid-less batch boxes. Worth a video. I appreciate clarity and want more.
Is this added to the richsoil description of RMH?'s "myths and facts" or "three biggest mistakes"?
---
Am glad that they can be built with less mass (so no broken floor). I love the idea of burning garbage this way--assuuuuuuming there isn't weird off-gassing.
---
Some green hat thinking?
1 PO RMH has no mass. 2 PO RMH has no heat. 3 PO RMH has no rocket.
4 PO RMH is made of blue. 5 PO RMH is water. 6 RMH PO paper.
1 -- the cottage one seems to be doing this already
2 -- useful for cooling. useful for placating safety concerns.
3 -- sun-warmed thermal mass. has been tried and had problems in the past (rusting buckets at Twin Oaks). but there are other ways. Can be set up outside the house and radiate. What if you had a portable, detatchable core and could unplug it from one mass heater and bring it over to the neighbors, let them heat their thing then bring it to the next house, etc.
4 -- blue shift. moving away. the rocket mass heater is itself portable and moves away when over-filled, goes to the neighbor's house.
5 -- water thermal mass goes through the RMH and moderates the temp. It is mostly heated at the exhaust temperature (120 F), so it doesn't have boiling/steaming problems. But it also can draw excess heat before it builds too high. Flexible and fluid thermal mass. Not all of it, just
enough to redistribute. Can repurpose regular radiators/steam heat pipes. Or water hoses.
6 -- It burns paper, you can't stuff enough paper in there to cause a problem. Idiot will get tired of putting paper in well before reaching melt-down temperature. Draw from RMH sucks intake/batch box lid shut so hard you can't open it, no way to refill it.
2
