Cameron Green

Howard Hoffman wrote:Hello Scott- I looked through all the Uncle Mudd videos I could find. I have for years seen the cobb benches for mass heaters and also for the Liberator  which I have something like. I didn't really see any videos doing something like I want to do which is without a bench or wall somehow get more heat retention from my heater. At present as long as you are burning it you have heat but when fire goes out or down the cool down in house is almost instant, at least very quickly. In looking at my situation I can put something on the round top of the stove. I was thinking maybe a stack of regular old bricks. I am not a scientist but remembered years ago people would put warmed up bricks at the foot of their bed so maybe this would hold the heat or maybe I should try to build a cobb barrel on top of the heater. I have a good 4 feet below ceiling to catch or retain the heat. If you see a particular video I have missed with something directly on top of the stove if could could maybe post a link as I have never seen anyone do what I am asking about.

Hi Howard, you could pull the stove a bit away from the wall and build a pretty massive heat bank by both pouring a concrete slab for it to sit on and putting brick in back of it (multiple rows).  You would get the heat from the pipe going through it but given the proximity to the back of the stove would really soak up the heat, the canister portion gets incredibly hot as it burns the wood gas.

Howard, if you look at Uncle Mud's YouTube page he covers this topic much better than I can.  Seems as though there are a lot of ways to add mass to retain and slowly release heat.

Best,
Scott

I went through this drill a different way, I looked at the water heater itself, how it was constructed, etc.  I made several changes, I build a 2 X 4 insulated box and lifted the water heater off of the cold concrete floor, bought a wrap and what I think is the most important part is insulating the hot water out on the unit as given the design this is where I was losing most of the heat.  I don't have any watt saving but the overall water bill decreased $15/month.

JoAnn Johnson wrote:

Karl Treen wrote:

Does anyone know if Karl’s website is taking orders again now? I tried to order in November 2023 and it said it wasn’t taking orders. (Screenshot should be attached.)

I received the same message

I bartered for an unused  Liberator Rocket Heater over a year ago for my off grid cabin.  I would like to know if anyone has come up with a successful method of incorporating thermal mass in the install of this product?  Thank you!

Gina Jeffries wrote:Good question! I didn't get everything done that I should have in the good weather so now I have to fight mud in the buck pen. That means a truckload of chips that I get to wheelbarrow in through soft ground and mud. That'll teach me....

Other winter to-do items include fiddling around with a mass for our Liberator rocket stove (also should have been done this summer), stripping the outside off a junked Lance camper and rebuilding it so it's road worthy, cranking out lots of soap, and catching up on my reading list which is at least twenty books long at this point.

Some of the titles on my to-read list are:
Homestead Tsunami by Joel Salatin
The Independent Farmstead by Shawn and Beth Dougherty
Old Fashioned on Purpose by Jill Winger
The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard

You know, just a little light reading...and of course, anxiously awaiting my new Natural Cheesemaking book as well!

I appreciate your planned reading list but thought I would mention that I couldn't find "Homestead Tsunami" by Joel Salatin.

Hi Glenn, my off-grid cabin is in Oklahoma.
Thanks

Good morning, I am designing a rain catchment system at my off grid cabin in the mountains of Oklahoma.  I am building a 24 X 48 foot garage/shop.  The structure will be 24 x 28 with 10 foot overhangs on each side and will have a North /South roof peak orientation.  I plan on putting in multiple food grade dark resin containers that will be connected at the bottom allowing rain water to fill each of them with a single entry point.  The tanks will be in one of the 10 foot overhang areas and should allow me to collect roughly 30,000 gallons per year.  My question is does anyone have a good source for containers and the attachments I will need to hook everything up?  I've seen pictures of gutter connectors that screen out or remove things like leaves and pine needles.  I plan on using a tractor sprayer 12 volt pump that can move 2.2 gallons per minute at 100 psi to move water through the filters ( I plan on having in the shop) to the off-grid cabin which is 40 yards away.  If readers believe there is a better way of doing this please let me know.

Thank you for your time and the sharing of your experience.

Hello, I've been researching gray water systems and methods for my off-grid cabin.  I've read that kitchen sink water with even microscopic food particles is not gray water but black water.  I would like to know how people are disposing of sink water.

Thank you!