Ken Scheffler

Excellent reply! That answers most of my questions. So the burn chamber is 1/2 the height of the heat riser, that makes sense.

How is the draft established in the first place? You build the fire in the feed tube but it would seem that the fire would naturally want to work up the wood and cause the feed air to come from the outside instead of the other way around?

Is there a reason that the heat riser should end 1 1/2" from the barrel lid? Is this to cause the hot gasses and cooling gas to not intermix (so as to keep the air flow in one direction)?

Does the distance from transition zone to the vent make a difference in functionality. I understand that the longer the vent system, throught the mass, the more heat exchange to the interior of the house that will occur but is there a point at which the gas will no longer move and cause a problem with the venting/air flow?

Very interesting stuff, I'm excited to build one of these! Though it may be a while. . .

SO, i have been reading up on these things all day and it sounds like a very interesting idea and may suit my needs perfectly. I am looking at living in a Yurt in Nevada in the coming years. I have a job that will move me down there and I am tired of renting and want to buy/own a place of my own on a limited budget. Now on to my RMH questions. . .

What should the distance between the feed chute/burn chamber and the rocket pipe/reburn be. So how long should the bottom part of the "L" be? Does it matter? My second question is, where does the ash go? and how is it removed? I'm guessing that it end up just after the barrel, maybe down in the junction to the mass heater portion???

Since the gasses are cooling and descend from the barrel, shouldn't the duct work through the mass heater portion be in a top down manner. THis is so the cooling gasses can continue to descend, rather than trying to ascend up the ducts to go outside. If this is the case could you plumb the exaust pipe out through the bottom of the house (floor of the yurt)?

I am looking into the feasability of a yurt because my career will have me moving around every 3-4 years in my life and I want a "house" that can be moved with relative ease. I was thinking of using sand and making some modifications to the RMH so that it could also be moved. . . ANy ideas on this front? Maybe use sand or similar material for the mass as it could be excavated and dumped during disassembly and easily aquired in the new location? Does sand work well for mass? What is an ideal (optimally efficient) mass? I'm not sure what kind of finish work/cob would be the easiest to disassemble when moving.

Wow, that is a lot of questions lumped into one post. Thanks for any insight that you can provide!