Julie Reed

No interest in doing a video but some data FWIW: at latitude 61 north, avg december temps were 21.6F high and 12.1F low, house is 1800 sq ft, r19 walls, r38 roof, 100% wood heat (and 90% of cooking done on stove as well), inside temps 65-70F, burned 1/2 cord of dry hardwood. Stove is secondary air style.

Thanks for the additional info Stephen! I wonder how possible/feasible it would be to swap out the motor for a DC unit? You'd gain efficiency and be able to mill longer on a charge.

Good use of solar for a small hobby mill, I wish the video had talked about the electrical aspect. Im assuming the mill runs off batteries, not the panels directly, to avoid power fluctuations damaging the motor? That’s a nice source of power for other uses too, when the mill isn’t being used.
Start small and work your way up Tina! All sawmills do the same thing, it’s just a difference in size. And you’re right about the fascination of turning logs into lumber and lumber into finished products. It never gets old or boring!

So maybe I’m missing something here, but the main premise of rocket heater’s efficiency is the extreme temperatures in the riser burning all of the gasses completely. But the Kachelofen, as I understand it, has a primary and secondary combustion the same as a typical epa stove has. No extremely hot riser. And that has always been my understanding of masonry heaters. Nothing insanely hot happening as with an rmh.
So… if that’s true, and yet European standards for emissions are even stricter than USA, how are the Kachelofen burning so clean? And by extension, burning possibly even more efficiently than an rmh?

Interesting discussion. While they are all honeysuckle, haskap generally refers to Japanese varieties while honeyberry refers to Russian plants. All the discussion about shade surprised me because honeyberries like full sun. What they don’t like is heat. Haskaps can handle more heat but still do better in northern areas. So partial shade is a trade off in warmer climates. They seem to do well anywhere blueberries do well, though they tolerate a higher ph level soil. I recommend them to anyone who likes berries, because they are delicious and high in antioxidants. Easy to grow, easy to pick, and very rugged plants once they are established. Planted about 4’ apart they grow into a nice hedge too.

Phil Stevens wrote:   My high school physics teacher had a saying: "Look for the gas bottle." Mr Marcek, you were an inspiration!

I’ve been hearing these engine running on water stories for decades. There’s always a mystery factor- the guy died and they never found his plans, some big oil corporation bought the plans to prevent development, or in this case- a rural garage and then the car locked away.
I’ve had the interesting luck of knowing a couple brilliant engineers in my lifetime and have discussed this a few times. I’m not smart enough to understand electrical theory in depth, but I’m smart enough to know energy out cannot exceed energy in. I’m also smart enough to trust brilliant engineering skills. There is certainly no free lunch, and the best they could suggest to make ‘free’ feasible was either solar energy to split the water molecules or another source- (the hidden gas bottle?).

My thought on this would be that you would get more heat without such a thick walled tank. Since you are trying to extract heat immediately instead of move it to storage in a mass, the quicker that heat gets through the metal the better. My guess is that most of the heat is going out the chimney. Since it burns well and draws well you know it’s making heat, so where is it going?

From what I’ve researched there are a lot of variations, from simple to intricate, but so far I haven’t encountered anything suggesting exacting tolerances. Friends in Europe report that many people build them successfully without any journeyman level skills. Firebrick would only be needed in the firebox and immediate flue area. Here’s two common examples- one from the Living Homes book by Thomas Elpel and one from the Masonry Heaters Association website.

Glenn Herbert wrote:   A batch box can be made to fit the letter of International Building Code for masonry heaters, so simpler to get permission for if needed. Code requires construction or supervision by an accredited professional. A batch box with bell can reliably be built by a good craftsman who can follow instructions, while a traditional masonry heater generally has a lot more complications and probably needs a pro to build reliably.

Our issue is not code, as there is none here, being very rural, but insurance is a different thing. So far they consider the batch box design (as well as rmh) to be experimental, vs the centuries of consistency of masonry heaters. I’m curious what the complications of a masonry heater are, in your opinion, as we haven’t found them to be all that complex from what we have seen and learned thus far. They are definitely more material, weight and time depending on size, but aside from needing reasonable masonry skills I’m not seeing any particular complexity.
Here’s an interesting older thread along those lines, specifically the discussion between Mike and Al- https://permies.com/t/43809/Masonry-stove-diy-build-feasible

elizabeth mae brown wrote:    …the horrible Victorian ‘death stairs’…

That is such a great description of those old narrow steep staircases! My grandfather’s house had them, and as a kid I loved them, but not anymore!

Welcome Lee! Our household is also pondering options and specifically pros/cons of rmh vs batch box vs masonry heater. Right now we’re leaning heavily toward masonry heater because it’s more practical from the standpoint of not needing so much babysitting (as Thomas mentioned) regarding how frequently one needs to add wood to an rmh. It’s also not going to void the homeowners insurance requirements for wood fired heat.
My first thought about your idea was the labor involved bringing those blocks into a cellar from outside! I’m very familiar with what they are, and they are heavy!! But, you probably have a plan for that, so I’ll progress to my actual point (finally!)- you mentioned a greenhouse and heating the soil earlier. Since the blocks are already outside, what if that tunnel was under the soil in the greenhouse? Easier to bring wood scraps out of the basement than concrete blocks in, and you could start firing that rmh up in late February/ early March when the daylight is gaining, to pick up an extra month of growing. OR- Depending on how your buildings are configured, if the greenhouse was attached to the house or garage you might be able to have the rocket inside, and then run the mass tunnel through the wall below grade and into the greenhouse.
There’s definitely tons of information in the forums here, as well as many knowledgeable people discussing rmh ideas, so it’s certainly a good place for you to join in as the tryptophan wears off.