Sky Huddleston

About 3-4 months ago we received a purchase order from Albania for 105 of our Gen 2 rocket heaters.

The British port authorities blocked the shipment from going through their country, even though they were not the intended customers, because they weren't tested/certified to meet European safety code standards.

The French port authorities did the same.

The Albanians investigated taking the cargo through Constantinople on account of the Muslim world not giving a flying hoot about those bureaucratic hindrances, but no insurance company would cover that shipment on account of there being a 50% cargo loss rate through the region (thieves).

So they just threw their hands up, said to heck with it, its obvious that European governments want their people to freeze to death, and so freeze to death they will. Not my choice of words.

Michael Cox wrote:I truly don't see any kind of corporate troll behaviour in that reddit thread. Instead I see people talking at cross purposes, who when they have misunderstood what is being discussed have reached erroneous conclusions. And then as is the nature of social media they have voted according to what they perceive. In this case they thought they were dealing with a snake-oil salesman, and voted accordingly. But this is because of the fundamental disconnect between the language of the two "sides".

People who are promoting new technologies, especially where they make grand claims for benefits, need to work hard to fine tune their message to make it palatable by the audience they are speaking to.  Here Paul chose to approach a demographic he was unfamiliar with, and who were unfamiliar with the ideas he was discussing. And he went in heavy on the benefits, as he sees them, but left them just with increased scepticism.

The spate of down voting is a natural consequence of the circumstances, and not a grand conspiracy.

My fear is that talking about it as an us-against-them conspiracy may excuse "us" from actually addressing the communication problem properly. And if we collectively don't learn how to communicate these ideas in an way that is palatable then we will remain stuck.

Thats fine and all, and is a scientific perspective that I respect and I fully recognize can be useful. However, I do want to emphasize that malicious actors have been for decades feigning incompetency and ignorance to shirk responsibility and accountability for their actions. This way if it blows up in their face, they can claim good intentions despite knowing full well what they are/were doing, and its completely non-falsifiable in most cases. So I've adopted a different model that emphasizes personal responsibility and accountability for everyone. Which is simple. The intentions do not matter, only the outcomes. If somebody has well intentions but their miscalculation leads to horrendous outcomes, they are just as responsible for those outcomes as if they did so maliciously. Its not perfect, but this way everyone has to take a little extra time to think, consult, and plan before acting. It emphasizes personal responsibility and culpability for ones own actions above all else, because actions speak louder than words. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then action is worth a million.

Most people will only take action when the pain of inaction exceeds the pain of action. When they start to get cold, they will start to do some research. Until then, like touching fire, they are going to have to learn the hard way. When they do, we will be here for them.

Freyda Black wrote:Will you be posting information on how one would go about intetgrating this heater with thermal mass? And do you feel it would work in a smallish yurt or dome shaped structure say about 20' across for heating and cooking?
Thanks for making this technology available!

Integration into thermal mass is outlined in our owners manual. I have attached it as a PDF so everyone can see how this particular heater is integrated into thermal mass.



Chris "Uncle Mud" also did a lot of work in figuring out various ways Liberator Rocket Heaters can be integrated into thermal mass and has an excellent video series on the subject.

Meadow Cern wrote:I'm so pumped by this, because it's just a step away from RMH's getting manufactured, then legal systems being available in Canada next and also approved through insurance companies. I can't wait. Every rural home should have one, IMO.  Right now many of us cannot insure our homes if there is a homemade RMH because it is not an "approved" system. This is a game changer. Thank you and kudos to you guys!!!

We are in production now and are taking orders. We do have backorders we need to fulfill first, so we're looking at 3-5 months out to ship if you place your order now. The website to get one if you want one is https://rocketheater.com/

Thank you all so much for your support throughout this entire process!

Jim Roberge wrote:Patiently waiting since 1/3/2022 for The heater to arrive. I have been harvesting some nasty evasive bamboo growing along the river banks. Hoping to see how  Sky’s heater handles it as a fuel source.

We have 50 heaters on the factory floor crated and awaiting to be shipped, and another 24 in production. We are producing approximately 12 heaters a week, so things are finally catching up.

Our website is rocketheater.com

We're currently backordered out by 3 months or so.

Jeremy Baker wrote:Following…….update please. Thanks

We're fully EPA approved and in production. Our full report is available for download on our website. We did it. Rocket Heaters are now EPA certified.

Mike Haasl wrote:2 inches of oak would be a good start but not excessively beefy for a 6-7' disk.  Especially if they're actually 3/4"?  I do like how stable it would be.  How about 4 layers?  1 vertical, 1 horizontal, 1 45 degrees up, 1 45 degrees down.  Through bolted to hold it all together.

They've managed to make wooden doors for centuries without steel cores so I'd love to see one made from primarily wood.

Better insulation might be possible if the central layers of the door were cedar (reportedly higher R value) but that wouldn't help the strength of the door as much.

If you came to WL with all the 8' boards milled/edged/routed, the assembly could happen on site.  Depending on how much of the 2 weeks you have for the project.

I'm going to be dedicating 1 week, so the door and doorframe, and hinges, will be built in my private shop, and then trailered to Wheaton Labs. Like Paul said, the real engineering will be in the wall.

Sizes and dimensions are all nominal, actual sizes.

As far as the dowels go, they wont be all the way through like re-bar. Instead the holes will be drilled 5" deep on each side of the boards, before the tongues and grooves are cut on the tablesaw, and then dowels will be glued and inserted into one side, following by the final assembly. The cross grain of the dowel will provide added structure for the joint

Mike Haasl wrote:I'm pretty sure used motor oil wouldn't be approved either.  But bare oak or a bit of tung or linseed oil might work.  

How would you laminate the oak boards together?  If glue, that might also need to be approved by Paul.  Bolts through the door pinching the two slabs together would be a decent option I think.  And look "old timey".

I think when Paul says "a hinge point outside of the door" he means that the pin of the hinge is to the side of the door, not at the edge of the door.  Maybe a few inches away from the edge of the door or a foot.  That way as the door closes against the flat lip, the side closest to the hinge is still able to compress a gasket/seal.  

It's a great question to wonder if the door needs to open in or out...

Yeah I was planning on using glue. And thats also my interpretation of "hinge point outside the door" which I was planning on doing anyway, as designing a complex machined and welded hinge with grease points and adjusting nuts is frankly less intimidating to me than carpentry. I'm kind of backwards in that sense.