Dean Chiasson

Hello. Trying to do what a lot of people have probably already tried, just wondering if anyone has actually succeeded. I want to heat an openly vented water tank (with a small kettle like cap at end of vent) with a wood stove for my domestic hot water, as well as part of my heat battery for my tiny house.

I plan to run a pressurized cold line to the top of my tank for ease of filling with ball valve in.

The hot out would be:

1 - A ball valve.
2 - 3 way mixing valve with cold coming from above mentioned pressurized cold line.
3 - hand primer.
4 -  12v pump.

Perhaps the 3 way valve and the pump would have to be switched. I don’t think they work without equal pressure on both inputs. And not sure if they work at all on suction. Just didn’t want scalding water entering my pump. Though hopefully it wouldn’t get to the scalding point.

I would like to find a way to control my wood stove better without being inefficient. Has anyone toyed with adding a small air intake fan ( I’m talking a computer cooling fan) to the back air intake of a wood stove? That way I could control the oxygen better so I might bring the water to a desired temperature and then turn take away oxygen thus reducing the heat. I understand the stove would have to be well sealed in order to do this or the pressure may build higher than the pressure inside my house and release gases and smoke inside.

I would also include a ball valve with a drain out of the tank and a thermometer in the tank. That way if the water got too hot to use, I could simply drain out some of the hot water and add
cold. This approach may not be very water friendly, but in the winter time there will be an abundance here.

Any input appreciated, I know free hot water is something humanity has been chasing for a while now so I am wondering if anyone here has attempted anything like this and succeeded.

Cheers,
Dean.

Hello all.

I’m wondering if anyone here had tried what I’m hoping to try: an open boiler pot with the insides coiled with copper pipe. The copper pipe is pressurized to about 25 psi from my main line, loops through the boiler coils to become my hot water. The idea is that since steam can only be steam once it gets hot enough to leave the water, my copper pipe that is submerged inside should not boil and there for hopefully will not explode upon me and my dog.

Another idea to combine with this is to attempt to close the system in a sort of, “pressure cooker” esk style and use the excess steam and pressure to power my Tesla turbine. Only problem with that is of course with higher pressure comes lower boiling point which could affect the entire “ no boiling in the pipes” theory.

Ideas?

Thank you much Thomas! Do you have any idea what the heat loss is over say, 4 inches of cob? Or 2? My reason for asking is I plan to run pex pipe through my cob bench as a method to slowly heat water without boiling it. How hot would cob be 4” out from the 2-500 degree duct? It’s tricky, I’ve got to be under boiling but above cold so it doesn’t take for ever and ever to heat up my water.

Hello all. I am wondering if anyone knows the approximate temperature of a 5” system exit duct burning at its peak. By exit duct I mean the point closest to the barrel. I am also wondering how that temperate dissipates over the course of the duct. For example if I had a 20’ bench, what would the initial output be and what would the exhaust at the end be. Another question is how heat runs through cob. Will it maintain the temperature of the duct if given enough time? Or does it fall significantly?

Thank you in advance for anyone who knows and would like to share

Cheers,
Dean.

Hello friends. I’ve just purchased an old tiny house on wheels which is about to undergo serious renovative good stuff. Most notably a rocket mass heater. This mass will probably weigh about 2000lbs and will perhaps remove the portability of the unit. Anyone who has info on a lighter system will be thanked greatly. Anyway I’ve been playing with the idea of having my mass double as a water heater using pex runs through the mass. Also toying with “hot water on demand-ish stuff, this would include multiple shutoff valves and a gravity drain so I may open current and quickly dispose of or use it so not to over pressurize the system. it would be just awesome to 1, have free easily accessible hot water during winter and 2, have a partly emptyable heat storage unit. Perhaps I could empty the unit of water before driving and take 2-300 lbs off my load. We know water holds heat well. And the surrounding cob would keep the water warm for extended periods of time.

Has anyone played around with this idea? The main things that I’m hoping to gain information on are 1, the general heat level 1-4 inches away from a 5 inch rocket exhaust duct (the duct run exiting the bottom of my barrel riser) and how distance affects that Temperature. Also learning how to maybe not blow both myself and my dog up would also be key information.

I am new to the site and even newer to rocket stoves. Any and all information on the topic is appreciated! Happy days and sunshine to you all.