Stephen richardson

So what is the thermal gain on a glass bottle wall? I want to build a tromb wall and wonder if they would be suitable

i am in the uk, its pretty wet here at times.

the roof has a small slope alomst flat. OSb is like plywood 12mm sheets of timber.

i was thinking of putting a damproof course down and putting carpet ontop to protect it. This should work in theory but I wonder if any birds will peck at the carpet and pierce my damp proof course. I dont think the carpet would rot other than just soak up water.

Ok what about covering it with bark and woodchippings, with a small layer of stones for drainage, anyone think this would work?

I wanted an earthroof but the drainage mats seems expensive and I dont have the roof strength. Is there a cheaper way to cover my roof. ?

The roof is currently covered with osb and is allmost flat. It is felted but has suffered water leeks. I was thinking of covering it with damproof but this would be exposed and may become cut. Is there something I could cover it up with that is cheap?

I love the idea of rocket mass heater and want to fit one in my kitchen which will function also as a oven and hot water supply. I plan to have a second chamber behind the firebox with an oven above it and then have the flue pipe leading out.

However I wish to fit a one meter long fire box because its such a pain cutting wood into small chunks. I get my wood delivered and those branches cant be axed and are about one meter long so it make sense to cut down on work My question is, is it safe? I assume as I will be putting in big pieces of timber so temperatures can become pretty hot. I mean my wood burning stove now is 10 inches wide and hits 4kw.How much more with one four times the size.

My second question is about the smoke, will this increase compared to the videos I have seen of the rocket stoves? Will I need to modify the design to have no smoke being released? its important I have no smoke as its illegal to burn wood without a smokeless approved woodburner so it needs to be covert. My neighbors would be straight onto the council and I would have a big fine. My plan is to have the flu pipe coming out the kitchen into a lean to conservatory so those nosy neighbors cant see the smoke. Does this mean my flue liner will have to be x meters long?

I appreciate your feedback, has anyone designed one with a big firebox? I would love to read about it

So I set up a rocket stove without the barrel in my garden to test it out to get a feel for it. I made the burn chamber 4.5 inch by 4.5 with a 9 inch depth. First problem was this was way to to small and the fire kept going out. I think even if it was 9inch by 9inch I am still going to be spending loads of time feeding in small bits of wood that dont last. What is the ideal size for the burn chamber?

The second thing was the was a lot of smoke coming back up the burn chamber. Now Ive read the combustion takes time to heat up before it draws the smoke but that much smoke would be a lot in my house. Is there no way around this?

allen lumley wrote:Stephen Richardson :I was on my way out the door and checking e-mail when your thread caught my eye,!

Please Post that e-mail video here, congratulations, on finding a true gem on U-Tube, It will be useful here !!!

I will check back and give you my best answers to any remaining ?s Yrs 'n haste BIG AL

I will have a look on my youtube history when I have more time. However that was a pressurised drum that hadnt been opened, But what I am on about what if a bird flew up the tube and blocked the pipe, wouldn't the gasses build up in the drum and cause an explosion or backdraft of co2?. What kind of precations are needed?

I remember once my friend put a gass canister on a camp fire and it exploded 50feet in the air so I really want to make sure this is safe before I put it in my house.

Hi I am new here and I am going to build a rocket mass heater in my kitchen.

Anyway I watched a guy on youtube blow up his drum while cutting it and it got me thinking what are the dangers of this I need to consider before building my rocket mass heater?.

Do I need minimum size exit hole from the barrel to stop it expanding and blowing up?

Do I need a registory plate like a wood burning stove?

Does the barrel need a certian amount of thickness to stop the gass leaking?

Would I need some other kind of gas detector in my house other than a carbon monoxide detector?


Does the wood need to be seasoned like a stove?

Anything else you can think of?

many thanks