Rusty Rich

Thank you for the prompt responses and the insight. I have absolutely considered the weight and balance issue. In fact, that's really the bottom line of what I'm trying to solve. I really do like the water and could possibly incorporate that into a hot water system. I'm still toying around with other ideas for heating the camper such as solar collectors and wood burning stoves. My main goal here is safety. With that being said, adding a few thousand pounds to the camper isn't an option unless I can remove it before hitting the road. That's why I am looking for a dry substance that holds heat well, but doesn't weigh much so I don't have to use any more water than I have to. I've spoken to a few chem majors and hope to meet with a chem professor today to see if such a substance exists, in mass quantity, at a very low cost. Worst case scenario is I'll have to get an additional solar panel and a few extra batteries to run an electric heater at night. Tom, I just purchased the camper a few weeks ago and parked it on the farm I am leasing. My university is 300 miles away from there so I haven't had a chance to really get into the guts of the unit but I highly doubt it is insulated to any extent. I have some ideas for that as well and now that you've got me talking about it, I think that's the issue I should be addressing first so thank you for that.

Hello all,

This is my first post and I have a question regarding installing a rocket mass heater in a camper. I am graduating college in May (at 34 years old no less) and will be moving into my recently purchased 36ft camper once I'm finished. My goal is to use the camper to reduce my consumption as well as my financial expenditures in order to pay off my mountain of student loan debt as quickly as possible. I do not want to rely on propane or electric forms of heat any more than is absolutely necessary. I love the idea of a rocket mass heater and believe that if I can make it work inside the camper, surviving winter inside it (with a short haired dog) will be not only plausible, but comfortable. I think it's important to note here that I live in Michigan and if you've been keeping tabs on the weather around the Great Lakes, you know it can get extremely cold here (-15F near Lansing this coming weekend). Creating the heater will be the easy part since I have been studying many designs for months. However, here are my concerns:

Weight: The camper already weighs more than 5500lbs. Some of the cobb thermal mass structures I've seen weigh in at 2 metric tonnes. How do I calculate how much mass I'll need, to efficiently store the energy I'll need, to heat this unit and keep it above 60 over night, all while keeping the weight down. (I don't want to have to purchase a larger truck than is already needed to pull the unit.

Heat reflection: I will need to reflect the heat generated by the barrel away from the camper walls to avoid damaging them as they are made from a wood-based paneling. I don't want to compromise the glue. Will a couple layers of aluminum flashing work?

Barrel size and ducting: I only want to utilize one barrel and combustion chamber, but want to be able to switch the heat from the living area to under the bed in the bedroom, can I insulate the duct work so the heat will be absorbed by the mass under the bed and not be lost in route?

Thank you all very much for lending your expertise,

Rusty