Matt Adeljar

This all looks great to me! If you have any additional resources on working with round wood, I'd love to see that in the bundle...

Thanks, Glenn! That’s very helpful.

I’m now planning on going with a Walker Stove for our tiny house, specifically his Tiny Cook Stove (https://walkerstoves.com/tiny-masonry-cook-stove-plans.html). I’d also likely add some small metal radiator “windows” lower in the brickwork to get additional lateral radiant heat (to supplement what’s coming off of the cooktop).

Once we start construction on our house in the spring and are getting closer to building this stove, I’ll definitely be in touch with you Glenn to discuss it all! Thanks!!

I’m new to RMHs and  just finished watching some of the Better Wood Heat DVDs (specifically the Fire Science and Pebble Style RMH videos). After watching those I was going to go with the 8” pebble-style J-tube design from the 2021 Jamboree (https://permies.com/wiki/193712/Plans-Pebble-Style-Rocket-Mass). But then I came across Matt Walker’s website (e.g., https://walkerstoves.com/batch-rocket-mass-heater-plans.html) and am now wondering whether that’s a better approach for me. I’m trying to figure out what type of RMH to install in two structures that we’ll be building in the spring – a tiny house and yurt.

I was leaning towards pebble style instead of cob because cob seemed like it would require much more labor, be more difficult to move at a later time if needed, and require more expertise (i.e., in working with cob) than the pebble style. Though I like the aesthetic and flexibility of shaping that comes with cob (e.g., so that you can shape a comfortable bench) and perceive that as the major downside of not going with cob.

But if I’m not going with cob, I wonder if one of the Walker brick-based systems would make more sense. It seems more logical to use brick instead of wood to build the bench portion – more logical in that you’d be building it with a material that has high thermal mass. I’m new to both woodwork and masonry, so I don’t know that the learning curve on building the brick structure would be any steeper than learning how to build the wood box. I also like the flexibility of the different types of Walker stoves and might want to build a tiny masonry cook stove in our tiny house and then a batch box RMH in our yurt.

I also wonder if it would be easier to get a Walker stove past our building code enforcer since it looks more similar to other masonry stoves. I’m not familiar with building code for masonry stoves myself – anyone know if Walker stoves would easily meet those code requirements?

Lastly, in an effort to help spread RMHs and in an effort to teach youth these skills, I’d like whatever I build to be a pilot that I can work on with teens in the homeschooling program I run (https://thisiscommunitas.org). I already have two teens interested in building projects like this, one of whom wants to go into masonry as her career. After we’ve built a few, we’d like to eventually start selling them elsewhere in the community with continued help from teens in our program (as an additional revenue source for our homeschool program). So I wonder if the brick approach might somehow be better from this perspective – it might be aesthetically more appealing to people in the community who might want to purchase one and the brick laying skills might translate to other interesting projects that I could pursue with the youth in our program in the future.

The only lingering question I have about the difference between a brick Walker stove vs a pebble style RMH is how they compare in terms of radiant heat. I thought that most of the radiant heat comes from the barrel riser. Would a comparable amount of radiant heat be coming off of the brick riser portion of the Walker RMH?

My mind’s been spiraling in an endless loop of indecision about what approach to take, so I’d really welcome people’s thoughts on all of this. If there are any other considerations I’m not thinking of, please let me know! Thanks everyone!!

That sounds like a good option, too! Thanks, Cole. I think the hardest part for me would be having to drain it after every use in the winter...

These are great suggestions - thanks! Neither are options I had been considering, but I will now...!

We're trying to figure out what our solar needs will be for two off-grid yurts we'll be building and living in this spring in central New York. Someone mentioned that, generally speaking, using electricity to heat things (e.g., water) is pretty inefficient and takes a ton of energy. I was looking at some electric tankless on-demand water heaters that do seem pretty high in their energy needs (e.g., ranging from 9 to 27kW of electricity). Do people have other recommendations for heating water? The bit I read about rocket mass water heaters makes it seem out of my reach...

I've seen many off-grid people using tankless propane water heaters but we have an aversion to propane (because it's a fossil fuel and just nervous about the safety of it for indoor use in terms of fumes and flammability) – though maybe propane is the way to go....

Any suggestions? Thanks!

I love the idea of having an earthen floor and wonder if it would make sense to put earthen floors in the two 21'-diameter yurts we'll be building in the spring (that means each yurt is about 346 sq ft). The yurts are wool-lined and we'll be heating with an RMH (assuming our building code guy is ok with that...). The yurts will be on a wood deck. So my questions are...
- Do earthen floors seem appropriate for this?
- How would you suggest we do it? On top of plywood? How thick? What other details?
- How would you suggest we insulate the floor? Since our yurts will be insulated with wool, we'd love to avoid foam insulation... maybe we could put wool or rockwool insulation underneath the plywood that's under the earthen floors? Any other suggestions for insulation material?

I'd really love to get earthen floors in there but wonder if it's a silly/impractical wish... I really appreciate any and all feedback!
Matt

Thanks, Thomas!! This is very helpful...

Thanks, Thomas and S Rogers!

Thomas - you do make the batch boxes sound more appealing... Is there any reason I shouldn't just start with that instead of the J-Tube?

And thanks for bringing up the question of piped mass vs a brick bell! I don't remember coming across brick bells and will have to look into that... Any suggestions for where to learn more about the use of brick bells specifically?

Thanks again!
Matt

Hi everyone,

I’m new to the forum and to RMHs but really excited to dive in… In the spring, we plan on putting up two 21’-diameter yurts to live in and we want to heat them with an RMH.

I’m intimidated by all that’s out there on RMHs and am hoping I can get some suggestions for what RMH design would be appropriate for our situation…. (Once I’ve determined that, I’ll need to educate our building code enforcer about RMHs and the one we want to build so that he has enough information to “perform a comprehensive inspection of the installation in order to sign off on it.” Once he’s given us the ok to proceed with the RMH, I’ll work on learning how to build it…)

Here are some details for our yurt plans:
- We’re purchasing the two yurts from https://yurta.ca; they’re each 21’ in diameter, translating to about 346 sq feet per yurt, for a total of 692 sq feet.
- The yurts use 100% wool insulation lining (F11 wool), needled to 1/4-1/2” thick
- The yurts will be on a single raised wood deck (that has wood siding around it to keep wind out from underneath).
- I’m not sure what the interior floor will be and how we’ll insulate the flooring – that will be another thread… (I’d love it to be an earthen floor if that’s possible and wise…)
- The yurts will be connected to each other (there will be a doorway going from one to the other).
- The current plan is for one yurt to have the kitchen, living room, and small office/guest room, while the other yurt will have the bathroom and a bedroom (we might try to put a lofted bed on top of the bathroom), though the floor plans are still evolving and we're open to making changes….
- We plan on living in these yurts for the foreseeable future, but it’s possible we’ll get tired of it and need to take them down or move them to make room for some other structure (we live in an intentional community and have only a small lot on which we can build a home, so there probably wouldn’t be room to build an additional structure next to the yurts). So it’s possible that we may need to remove or relocate the RMH in the future…
- We live in Danby, which is near Ithaca, NY – Zone 6
- I have no background with building RMHs or related skills. I'm eager to learn, but am hoping for an RMH design that's beginner-friendly...

My two questions are:
1. Can we get away with a single RMH or should we go with two RMHs? The yurt company (Yurta) says that most of their clients heat them with wood stoves but that you’d need a separate wood stove in each yurt. If using a single RMH, would we need to somehow run piping (maybe through the floor and wood deck?) to a thermal mass in the other yurt?
2. What RMH design should we use? Would a pebble style make sense because it would be easier to disassemble if needed? Or one of Uncle Mud’s Cottage Rockets? Something else? Relatedly, I’m also not sure if we should be going with an RMH designed for a smaller space (given the size of the yurts) or with something designed for a larger space since the insulation in our walls will be relatively low.

Thanks so much for your help!
Matt