Zachary Bauer

While I'm not opposed to an entire rebuild of the heater, I figured for sure that quarter inch iron for both the inner riser and the outside would be sufficient to last quite a while. Are you saying I should only use brick?

Ok, So I have only posted here maybe once before but I have been gleening info from these forums for months. Also I have the DVD set that really helped in my research.

I have a 6" system and we fired it up last week for the first time in the greenhouse. It's been really cold here the last week with temps in the low teens and tonight maybe into the single digits. The greenhouse houses an aquaponics system and so far none of my pipes that carry water for the system have burst which I attribute to the RMH. I fire it up every night and feed it for an hour. Within a minute the barrel is too hot to touch on top. I have good draw up the feed tube so all seems to be working.

MY QUESTION: The exhaust pipe is about 10 feet long and then it runs up and out of the greenhouse. Mostly its steam. The pipe never gets really hot...only warm. I have the pipe surrounded by larger rocks and towards the barrel its also covered right now with some clay dirt as well. I have some sand underneath the exhaust pipe to insulate it from the ground as I read on this forum a while back that this will help prevent losing heat into the ground.

Could something be wrong if my barrel is really hot but my exhaust pipe only gets warm. I was hoping that the exhaust pipe would get hotter than it does to help heat the greenhouse. I mean, how is it supposed to heat a bunch of cob/mass that gives off heat for 24 hours if its only getting warm? The steam coming out of the end of the exhaust pipe is slightly warm.

I also realize that the greenhouse is not insulated like a house with a RMH so the heat generated will dissipate faster. I'm open to ideas. I just want to get the most heat that I can this winter.

System Stats:

6" throughout.
55 Gallon Drum
1.5 inch clearance from riser to drum top
Using sand and perilite for insulation between riser and outside of burn chamber.





Many thanks to everyone who put this forum together! It's really helped in this project.

No Joseph but it was really my fault. I didn't really put it in the best soil and didn't weed it starting off. It got choked out. But thanks for the seed. If you have more this year I will try again next year!

Yeah from what I have found it doesn't sound too promising. My alternative is just put the whole thing inside the greenhouse...which is fine I guess, its just space is at a premium and I was trying to save some. Thanks for the links. I have found the information and pictures at permies to be awesome!

Hey all. I was given the permies address this past week and have been knee deep with information gathering since. So I might as well say hi and make a post.

I have a question that I can't find addressed anywhere online.

First the set up: I have a very large off-grid aquaponics system running in Northwest Arkansas. It's running inside of a greenhouse. Its a new system that was set up last winter and everything is running great. Arkansas is south but not south enough to avoid freezing. We are using bluegill in the system. Last winter, temps got down to -4 twice. While that is extreme for this area, I think I want to be prepared for cold temps and I'm worried about my pipes freezing that run to my growbeds.

I plan to post a lot of pictures later but I just have that one simple question I can't seem to find an answer to.

Question: Is there a certain distance that the small part of the "J" has to be from the large part of the "J"

Usually on most MRH I see the entrance to the "J" where the wood is placed very close to the secondary combustion chamber or drum that folks are using. The reason I ask is because I want to load the firewood on the outside of the greenhouse and have the drum located on the inside of the greenhouse meaning the "J" would be/could be 2 feet long. So does this matter?

Thanks for all your help. We are DIYers extreme here and are ready to take on the rocket stove challenge. If you're interested in our AP system you can see our video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrfmOhCmTYo