Brooks Miller

hi ed - the cob is actually all going to be beneath the fodder trays, which is sheet metal roofing - figured any drips would be caught on the metal and run back into the pond.


anyone ever tried lime plaster or any other coatings to waterproof cob? i suppose it wouldn't hurt considering the humidity in there

hi frank - thats awesome - looks like you've spent some time with sketchup!

i have a few questions/critiques.

my only immediate concerns with putting the pipe directly into the water would be water tight welds/unions, loss of volume (space for fish to live in considering size of an aquaponics greenhouse), and how you would control the heat.

my idea with heating a tank of water and then moving it was because you'd be able to put the circulation loop in the pond on a thermostat so you don't go overboard on heat....but maybe you kinda can't go overboard?? i think the cool part to me about heating the water is that then whe you use water to irrigte, you're irrigating and spreading that heat out into the whole greenhouse more evenly.

questions:
1. how hard is it to cut rock wool plates, where do you get them, and how good are they at insulating?
2. whats up with leaving the top of the first piece of the heat exchanger uninsulated?
3. how would you make the stainless below the surface watertight? do you have access to a TIG welder onsite? what size pipe wall?
4. are the pipes in the bottom of the water representing your irrigation pipes?

looks great, and thanks for sharing.

an update to my design is that we've done some rough figuring and think that just heating a mass beneath the fodder trays may actually be enough to heat the whole thing....that way our cob mass running through the brooder sections radiates up and warms trays, and the plant water pulls the heat into the pond.

cutting and setting posts today - ill "post" some pics tonight!

no worries - love the concept of the alcohol setup on a farm, but the execution may be a little more involved than blume tends to lead on! i used to make biodiesel and ran my old Benz on SVO, but oil sources have dried up, i hate having methanol and KOH on the property (with 2 kids and one more coming), and it takes lots of energy to make the stuff, and it only works half the year!! horses are in the works for us for draft power, but for other equipment, im checking out the ethanol gig. used to be a brewer in a former career, so i have some experience, and ferment shit for a living (im a farmer:).

mmmm.... the red rabbit. beware the bunny dust, pretty sure its just MSG!!

brooks

Rocket Stove Evaporator

Posted the total of this question on the rocket stoves for greenhouses page https://permies.com/forums/posts/list/40/19178

Here is a simpler part of the question - anyone have experience making a big rocket stove that is capable of boiling 300 or so gallons of water? The basis for my current design is the one in the Blume book for a still. This project is destined to ultimately be a still and a sterilizer for mushroom substrate, but for now will be a water heater for my fodder greenhouse in central PA, to produce 4 seasons.



Thanks!

Brooks
www.NorthMountainPastures.com

i live in central PA - north of Harrisburg

our farms website: www.NorthMountainPastures.com

thanks everyone!

Hi Folks - I'm on my second functional rocket stove, and about to design my third. this one will be much bigger and serve MANY purposes. It is going into a 20'x70' bermed greenhouse that will be used mainly for fodder production for my herd of pastured pigs (currently around 150). We're building our chicken brooder into it (6,000 broilers or so annually), and a pond that will be the main heat for the greenhouse, heated by the water heater. The pond will have tilapia and ducks.

Main question is - has anyone built a rocket stove that can heat a 400 gallon tank to boiling? I'm basing my design on one found in David Blume's Alcohol Book, attached.



I will be using the tank as a water heater, but plan on using it in the long term for a still (for drinkable and fuelable alcohol), a mushroom substrate sterilizer, and maybe a beer fermenter, on a day when it isn't being fired!

I plan on building a cob structure around it, leaving one opening over which I can put a Mineral wool - filled metal door for insulation. But I need it for cleanout and access (I think).

I have the area excavated and will be sinking posts a la Mike Oehler PSP for the rear wall, and the rest of the greenhouse is steel hoops from a local guy. The barley fodder trays will be roofing tin. The brooder will be located UNDER the fodder trays, and I may even install a reeeaaaaaly long worm bin under the trays to supplement the broilers in the brooder.

So mainly looking for comments on this whole hootenanny and some comments on larger stoves. I also need to figure out some heat exchanger stuff to know how much PEX I need in my pond for winter heating. A Little mindmap of the whole build: