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Summary
part 2 of a 2 part podcast
Continuing the discussion about burning wet or green wood.
The question is asked about burning green wood in a Rocket Mass Heater. Paul feels that it wouldn't get hot enough to burn off the creosote and smoke as it should. With that said it is probably safer to burn wet or green wood in an RMH than in a regular stove, but you still should avoid burning green wood at all.
The best plan is still to dry the wood as much and as fast as you can. You need to establish a system to process the wood and to know which wood is ready to burn and you will have to store a LOT of wood inside. It will be more work and you need to plan.
Further to the problem of heating your home, There are other things you can do to help reduce wood use. You can stack wood near the stove, but leave at least 18" space. You can fit angle iron to the top of the stove to make a rack to stack rocks above the stove to store heat for overnight. It's important not to put stone directly on the stove, the angle iron allows about a 2" gap for air to circulate and avoids overheating the stove top. Especially with a steel stove, getting it too hot is bad for it. If you have power, you can use a fan to create air movement to dry your wood faster.
Another contributor asks about how thick a brick mass can be. Paul feels if you stack a single layer of bricks it will work well - it needs a gap between the bricks and the wall. If you stack more than one layer the heat won't conduct well unless you use cob or other material to bond the bricks together.
Finally a contributor asks about heating a small home - they are trying to heat 600 sq ft. Paul feels that with a simple wood burner, that can be a challenge. Adding some mass could help even out the heat.
Relevant Threads
Rocket Mass Heater forum
how to safely heat with green/wet wood in your wood stove when you are desperate
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