A new addition to the Permies Poll series. Do you own a Rocket Mass Heater? There are many configurations of RMH that exist and could exist so I don't want to get too specific. I want to know if you utilize anything rockety and mass heatery on your properties.
I am learning about them and am constantly impressed with what these rocket scientists are cooking up every day. Regulation creations some red tape when it comes to interior use where I live but I am in the early stages of potentially incorporating one into an outbuilding.
Why yes, I have three and the fourth is rattling around my head almost ready to appear!
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For all your Montana Masonry Heater parts (also known as) Rocket Mass heater parts.
Visit me at
dragontechrmh.com Once you go brick you will never go back!
Timothy Norton wrote: ... I am in the early stages of potentially incorporating one into an outbuilding.
Me too. I'm thinking that the mass could be completely stealthy, and the rockety bits on an outdoor skid that can be connected, fired, and removed when The Man comes sniffing around. Nothing to see here -- smile and wave! Just a notion.
I'd like to have one someday when we can ever buy a house.
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The Rocket Heaters all look so cool and when I build my house, I will probably build a rocket heater or something similar. My ideal house would be well-positioned to the sun, have a greywater system, rainwater harvesting, etc. I would also consider finding a way to insulate the house very well, but use the wind as a natural AC (I'm picturing a system where you could route the prevailing wind through the house by opening/closing windows in some sort of vaulted ceiling. Since hot air rises, you could let the wind carry that out, thus removing excessive heat and giving air circulation). For now, I am in an apartment near my University, so that isn't really an option. I do some stuff in the apartment (sprout some grains, balcony garden, do some crafts, help out at a local community farm, etc.), but for now, having a rocket heater is inaccessible.
My RMH is a 7" J-tube system, all cob. There is a unique feature in this picture if you look closely. There is an air intake on the bottom left that feeds air from the floor level instead of a couple feet off the ground like most of these kinds of stoves have.
The idea is to draw in the coldest air in the room into the stove instead of air from a couple of feet higher that has already been heated. Doing this creates negative pressure there which pulls the warm air above down to floor level where the floor can be heated quicker. The floor should be considered as mass that needs to be warmed also.
The feed is 16", but the added space for the air intake adds another 4", therefore, I can insert longer pieces of wood if I need to. The pot lid is needed here in order to force the air to be drawn from floor instead of through the feed.
And here is my fourth RMH, or as I call them, a Montana Masonry Heater
Introducing Shorty Core she is a cutie!
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For all your Montana Masonry Heater parts (also known as) Rocket Mass heater parts.
Visit me at
dragontechrmh.com Once you go brick you will never go back!
Sadly, I don't. I just couldn't get hubby on board.
"The only thing...more expensive than education is ignorance."~Ben Franklin
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." ~ Plato