Richie Booth

Ok,
I wonder if anyone here actually has experience heating a larger house(1600 SF) with a RMH. Especially in a wood frame/dry wall modern home where I want to heat the whole house, not just the room it's in. I think it will help that there is an upstairs and that some of the heat will naturally rise to that space.

Thanks!

R Scott - Thanks for the reply!

1. I Am patching into an existing chimney.

2. The wood stove you are heating the 2000 SF ranch house with is a Rocket Stove or one of our modern metal boxes?

3. You are saying that the stove will heat the walls which will then heat the house. I Am planning on building the "portable" design that I have seen in Paul Wheaton's video's so it will be more free standing in the room. The reason is that I want to be able to remove it if I leave this house. Do you think it will still heat the walls and therefor the rest of the house? Remember, the walls are sheet rock, not cob.

Thanks again for the advice.

I Am a bit bummed as it seems a Rocket Mass Heater(RMH) may not be best for my house. It's an approximately 1600 sg. ft. modern wood frame house. From what I Am reading it seems I need a wood stove for the radiant heat. I keep seeing people say that the thermal mass only warms the room it's in or the body that's on it. Is it true that this big house just has no room for a RMH? Is there some way to get the heat exchange barrel to heat this space with radiant heat like a wood stove, while still retaining the efficient qualities of the rocket stove?
It's my hope to be able to make this modern, expensive to heat with propane and zero clearance fireplace house into something less resource consuming.