Chase Anderson

I've read up on Pemmican over the last year or so, as well as Keto-Adaption, which is kind of the main application that this is for...specifically meaning a diet with an absence of carbohydrates. I've been working towards keto-adaption and I do feel much better and rarely get cravings for food like when I was Carb-based. Read up on this more here hhttp://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=97997 Because of this post on this other forum, I have made some pretty significant lifestyle changes, and I am also planning to raise merino sheep because of it! And coconut oil is awesome too! I harvested several deer this year for the first time and made sure to harvest all of the fat off of the animals to use in making pemmican which I plan to do soon. As of yet, I have not tried it.

I am a "survivalist" but I do it from a permaculture standpoint rather than a "prepper" standpoint. I'm not stockpiling MRE's, I'm building greenhouses and raising animals...get what I mean? So that's why I reference to that forum, but take some of what they say with a grain of salt and adapt it to your own needs and vision as necessary. Hope that helps, it's a very good read!

Hey guys! I've made some progress on the RMH! I was really excited with how it was turning out. See below!


However we've hit a hiccup. My wife just can't bare the thought of having a steel drum in the living room to look at all day so I've been forced to reevaluate our options (compromise). I think I've come up with a viable solution. Instead of using the drum for the bell, we have decided to go the direction of a masonry bell similar to the picture below. We have a source of good paver bricks at .25 cents a piece that we've used to create the air channels under the bench. I would like to use those bricks for the bell. There's a picture below of them. Now I've read in the book somewhere that covering the steel drum with cob completely can create draft problems due to loss of heat transfer. What about if the bell is made of masonry? What other effects will we see? I already assume a loss in fast radiant heat due to the time required for heat to travel through the thick brick as opposed to the thin steel drum? That sucks, but tolerable. Do we need to try to round the internal corners out somehow to help with restrictive corners for the downdraft? I also came up with internal dimensions of 22" x 21" with some wiggle room added in, trying to match the area of a 23.5" diameter barrel. Is my math right? Should I add in more for rounding the corners if that is advisable.

And lastly for the top of the masonry bell. We were thinking of options for supporting the brick top, which seemed problematic, then my wife suggested a square piece of sheet metal. I liked that idea but thought it might be even cooler to get some type of cook top up there. Cast iron would be nice but I thought about the newer residential stove tops that are usually black/see-through that glow red when heated up. That would be awesome if we could have something on top that could give off a glow from the flames below in the heat riser turning the corner but still have the ability to transfer enough heat to boil water for tea. Is there something available that I could salvage that could withstand the heat of the RMH at the top of the heat riser yet still look somewhat modern and give off a glow, even if it's somewhat dim? Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Holly Dozier wrote:I know this is an old thread ... sorry. Im just learning about Cob and I have a question that I can not seem to find the answer too. Everyone is concerned about heating Cob in the winter ... what about cooling it in the summer for us folks that live in NWA. I live near fort smith and the thought of a house that is going to generate heat in the summer is NOT good. Can someone tell me how this holds up to keeping it cool in our hot arkansas summers?

Holly, I wanted to check to see if you got things sorted out with your cob experiment. I live in sallisaw and I will be building a Rocket Mass heater in the next couple weeks. I'm looking for a source of good clay. I have some in my yard but it's very rocky, too rocky to dig deep. I tried all of the sand and gravel places around here and haven't had any luck finding any. Let me know if you know of a place, it would be appreciated. Thank you!

Thank you all for the helpful advice, wisdom, insight, and food for thought. I've been a follower of this site for a while now, but this is my first posting, and you all have been a very proactive and helpful group of people.

So after a long period of hard negotiation and brainstorming with my wife, I think we may have come up with a winner solution. Although it is still contingent on the answer to a question I have and the review from the wise men and women here. As you'll see in the revision below, we plan to make an L shaped mass. The short leg of the L will be used as functional seating (with a loop of flue inside), something we really couldn't do with the last model. It will also put the barrel in a corner which I imagine will help to direct the heat from the barrel toward the crowd better. The question however is that we would like the exit flue and the long end of the L to then make a 90' turn through the drywall (non insulated and steel framed) and into a hot water heater closet on the other side of the wall in a bathroom and from there go vertical into the attic and out the roof. The long vertical flue in the living room was a no-go for my wife as that is the main wall we look at everyday and if we were going to do it she wanted to wrap it with brick like a chimney and I don't want to box in 16' of vertical chimney, not to mention the cost. The difference now is that instead of just making one hole through the vaulted ceiling and out the roof, now we will potentially make three holes (one to go through the wall, then going vertical and a hole through that 8' ceiling, then through the attic and a hole through the roof). So how will these holes need to be negotiated? Double insulated pipe? Heat shields? Please note that we live in Rural Oklahoma and there are literally no building permits required of any kind for any work. I've seen some really weird construction out here ha ha ha. We can do whatever we want without complying with code regulations, but we still want to be safe, and we don't want to get ourselves into a situation where we have a fire and the insurance company won't cover it because we were grossly unsafe or something. Also we will make sure that if we ever do sell this house that nobody uses these pipes for a regular wood burning stove with much higher flue temperatures (obviously). So, is that a viable option? It would at least give us the long vertical exit flue mostly in the interior of the house as recommended, and the attic is very well insulated.

Also note that in the crook of the L, we have thought about doing two 45' angles instead of one 90', in order to give us a seating spot right in front of the barrel as well as to potentially use it to dry out the next batch of wood, or wet clothes or whatever. Are two 45's less restrictive than one 90' elbow?

I'm back with a few more questions. I have been tirelessly attempting to convince my wife that we should have the main vertical portion of stovepipe in the living room up to near the peak of the ceiling as suggested. The problem is that the whole idea of installing this RMH is a large compromise on my wife's part, as she would prefer to have a normal wood burning stove or perhaps even a good old fashioned fireplace (I'm all about efficiency, and I just can't bring myself to settle for that old age innefficient garbage!) She is mortified at the idea of a large vertical flue in the living room. I had previously mentioned running it through the wall near the heat riser and into a water heater closet located in the master bathroom and up from there, but there are some pipes and wires in the way that will have to be moved and modified. With 42' of horizontal flue, is it absolutely necessary to have a long vertical flue in order to have success? As long as the mass and flue on the inside of the house is a higher temperature than the outside, it seems that I shouldn't have a problem if it just exits horizontally out of the wall. This would save many hours of grouchiness and conflict if it is possible. Your thoughts?

Thank you all for the replies and suggestions. Good insight on the exit location. Ok well I'll make some modifications and see what I can come up with. As requested previously, and in hopes of meeting locals, I live in sequoyah county, OK near the Arkansas border. Wind is typically very strong year round due to living on top of a mountain.

I had thought about the single loop as well as the air channels underneath. The problem with the "u" is that it would create a huge 19' pipe (ceiling is 16' high) that my wife would consider an eyesore. However, if I were to elbow it through that wall just behind the stove, it would enter a water heater closet in the master bath and I could take it up from there out the ceiling (might be able to heat the hot water somehow in the future too!) FYI, I know you would probably warn of off gassing of the wall studs, but my house is steel framed, no wood in walls. But what about damage to drywall?

As far as the channel idea, I can think of how to do it except for how to raise the base off of the ground, meaning what would make up the foundation that the channel-creating bricks would support? (I hope that makes sense)

And thank you for the quick response

I'm about to begin starting my build, the only supplies I lack are the straight runs of flue, sand, and perlite. I've attached my plans below. I do have a few questions though. In the 2007 version of Rocket Mass Heaters Page 25 (placing the pipe), it mentions 30ft of pipe performs well, but what about 42 ft of pipe with 2 180' turns. This house has a very large open floor plan so I figured I would need plenty of thermal mass. The floor beneath is currently laminate that we will remove to expose concrete slab, should I insulate that from the burn chamber at all or just leave it open to the slab? And how should I exit the house with the flue, at bench height or 90' up and 90' out a few feet below soffit height? I'm also open to suggestions for cheap flue runs. I've looked everywhere and all I can find is brand new stuff (I've looked at junkyards, asked contractors, dumps, commercial projects etc.)...any online sources recommended? I'll buy new if necessary though, just wondering if that's a good place to splurge a little for quality materials or money is better spent on other parts.