www.permies.com Greenhouse construction with a rocket mas heater, including an excellent demonstration of the rocket mass heater sideways burn. The greenhouse construction class is taught by Ernie and Erica Wisner, featuring the rocket mass heater techniques of Ianto Evans (of cob cottage company fame). I cannot think of a better approach to greenhouse heating. This is the first phase of building this greenhouse. The focus is on the steps of building the rocket mass heater. This video has an excellent demonstration of the sideways burn – or fire burning sideways. Since this will be an oehler style solar greenhouse, then it probably won’t need much heat. But it will be a bonus. And the heated air could also be piped into the house. A rockey mass heater is typically 10 times more efficient than a regular wood stove. And 20 times cleaner. A mike oehler style greenhouse construction is probably the most efficient greenhouse known.
greenhouse construction + rocket mass heater how to tutorial
May 29th, 2010 · 25 Comments · Greenhouses
Tags: cob·construction·Eco·green·greenhouse·heater·Heating·house·mass·organic·permaculture·rocket·wood
there is an article with drawings and explanations at richsoil. that might help. And, of course, a whole book on the topic!
Some folks like to clean these things with a shop vac. With the vertical cleanout, you just drop the hose in there. With a horizontal cleanout, you are trying to shove a floppy hose through a big hole. Plus, you’ll be in a narrow space if you are coming in low, whereas you’ll have lots of elbow room if you are coming in from above.
legal stuff is part of it.
its also the bypass in case you dont want to heat the bed but want to just heat the green house. the cap thats on the clean out can be removed and the vertical stack place on it and the cap then goes where the stack was and you bypass the bed.
permitting: we are in the approval process now and have been for a year.
Would adding some sort of heat sinks within the pipe to better trap and or absorb the heat coming up through the pipe make it more efficient?
You know better pulling more heat out of the air rising through the pipe
to have sufficient rise of exhaust gases for a vertical stack you have to have at least 90 degrees temp. (for function in most weather) this system is just at 90 after it passes through the bed when the bed is cold. if it was a horizontal exhaust we could have taken the gas temps down with another pass or two of pipe. the vertical stack is not needed for draft since this is a push systemn but it simplifies things for some applications.
Is there a formula or anything to estimate how large a mass you would need to heat a certain amount of area? I’m thinking a plastic greenhouse here, not house. Maybe 2 layers of plastic to insulate it a little better.
Could you put the dark mass/heater on the north wall to receive heat from the sun, and maybe have a half-circle cut out from the mass to put a large circular fish tank in for aquaponics?
1. not yet. experiance at this point is giving the best answers each installation is diffrent with diffrent variables. we are however working on a formula.
2. yes a dark mass/heater is very doable the system by no means needs to be in the ground it can be in a cob wall.
3. i have no idea how well it would work for aqua culture. i would think the water would simply add thermal mass to the installation. shoot us an email and we will be happy to work with you on it.
Has anyone tried using high heat stove paint to paint a RMS?
Just wondering if it would last…
the barrel yes it works just fine. the cob nope and i would not even try it. sealing the cob with a petroleum product or cement is not a good thing. the cob needs to breath or it will retain water and eventually melt. so far every one who has disregarded the warning of not mixing media without lots of experiance has had problems. question is why paint it? do a light sanding and wipe it down with canola or corn oil and fire it. just like a cast iron pan; season it to a nice none stick black
I am speaking about the barrel. if you want the cob to be black use an earthen plaster and a black iron oxide pigment (you can get black iron oxide from a masonry supply for coloring cement.) I think pics of our stove is on Paul,s forum.
if you want it shiny black. oil it with linseed oil a couple times and get some good glycerin soap and rub it in. then buff it with a soft rag. or use bees wax if your not planning on sitting on it.
Great info Ernie… I keep giving you a thumbs up but it wont let me give Paul a thumbs up.
Still having problems posting comments
Thanks for the info….. yes I was speaking about the barrel, I love the cob just as is.
Are there any pictures of an oiled barrel?
In the video the cob has straw in it, but I thought cob around the hot parts should not have straw…. Is a straw mix okay with high heat?
the base mix right around the hot parts has no straw. in the vid you also dont see the one inch layer of perlite clay mix that is around the burn tunnel. the outer layer should never get to a temp that will ignite. if it does the straw in the mix will just burn out on the surface and turn to charcoal in the mix.
I think paul has some of our stove. several of the barrels at cobville have been oiled, and if you look for “ernieanderica” our website has links to our picture albums.
Oh that’s super – thanks for all the information!
No problem Erica and I are teachers and researchers Its not our job to promote an agenda, its our job to give you the information so you can make an informed decision.
We enjoy the questions; thank you ALL for asking them.
Nice fire… could i burn frogs teeth in one of these??
The more I see these things being built, the more I want to build one! Now I just need to see a little more about insulating the heat riser and setting the barrel and I’ll feel like all the pieces of the puzzle will be in place! Thanks for posting this!
could you create this same situation without the barrel, and bury the 8 inch pipe 12 inches underground underneath a house. with the crawlspaces sealed up couldnt the radiant heat keep my house very warm if I have a well insulated home?. I am willing to try this in warmer weather but would love your experienced opinion on the matter.
This is a great video showing you how to build, use and maintain a fuel efficient wood-fired heater out of inexpensive materials and components. This type of heater is ideally suited to heating living spaces,
shops and greenhouses. It is similar to a Russian or Finnish masonry heater in that the fire in the rocket stove burns hot and fast, heating a large thermal mass or heat sink that retains heat and delivers it to a living space for many hours or even days.
I need to build one of these. Currently I have a
section of 5/16″ wall steel tubing with an elbow in it; long piece is 3.5′, then elbow, then welded to an 18″ straight section. I set this up
and tested it with a fast fire in the short section. It sounded like a jet engine, and loud!
This could become the core firebox and heat exchanger for a bona fide rocket stove. I’ll post pix and vids of this as work progresses.
The steel tubing is 6″ diameter, small but maybe perfect for a water heater.
@Soldier957 it is not Taurus as in bull but “torus” as in ring. It is a ring of heat around the barrel.