Rocket Mass Heater for my home

[mannytheseacow]

Not to derail the thread- but I had to replace a sliding glass door this spring. The old one broke (the fiberglass frame separated from the panes) and I had a half inch gap all winter at the bottom half of the door with ice forming and cold air blowing in. It was a good quality Anderson window, too.

Long story short- Being the nerd that I am, I spent a lot of time at the local lumber yard crunching numbers and prices on all the different R-values, double vs. triple panes, special coatings, etc. What I determined was that it would take me over 70 years to re-coup the cost of triple panes by the small increase in r-value that it provided over the coated double pane. Don't sweat your windows too much, Guy. The door that I replaced was only 34 years old.

[matt walker]

I like thread derailment, keeps things interesting. Guy, you were so far ahead of the curve you were probably confusing the hell out of that poor contractor. He probably went home and threw another tire on the fire and wondered why anyone would pay so much to insulate when all you had to do was burn more stuff. I kid, but man, we have all been left a legacy of stupid, stupid systems. I love our crew here, all of you. People who are aware that our current systems suck and know that we can do so much better. Great job team!

[matt walker]

Okay, I'm tearing into this thing right now. Ack, it's in perfect shape for the season, and I'm having a hard time with the first strike into it, but....here we go. Batch loader in progress....

[mannytheseacow]

Good luck, man. I actually enjoyed whacking in to mine. It had it coming!

I'm excited to see how this works. I recall looking at Peter's batch calculator and the riser for an 8" batch is huge! Are you going to vault your ceiling, or what?

[matt walker]

Nah, after building the 8" batch with Peter in Montana I'm quite sure the 6" box will be more than enough btus. That 8" firebox was ENORMOUS! Peter and I discussed pairing a 6" front end with my 8" riser and flue runs, and decided it was worth a try. This is an experiment for sure, it may not work, but I think it will. I'm done with demo, mold is built and in place. I'm going to cast it right now, in place. Wish me luck.

[wileythenord]

Awesome! I've spent the past week reading up on Peterburg and all of his craziness. With your experience I'm sure it will work out great!

Pics! Please!

[matt walker]

Pics coming. It's cast, I'll wait 'till tomorrow to burn it out and patch the crappy voids that I'm sure are in there. I'll need to fabricate a door and the P-channel, and then cover it all with cob, but so far, so good.

[matt walker]

Here's some pics of the process so far.....The little frame on top is for a window...











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[mannytheseacow]

[wileythenord]

That is going to be awesome, now you won't have such a struggle splitting wood down to 2"

My question is where will you make bread? I was planning a trip to Washington just to get some of that famous Walker bread, now I guess I'll have to go hunt Mick Dodge and eat local forage instead...