by Lucy Guss » Wed May 15, 2013 5:50 pm
My apologies for not responding sooner. I have been meaning to measure the space to respond, but the great Raccoon in the Duckhouse Fiasco of 2013 has kept me hopping on the farm. So for now, I shall estimate.
You are correct in your memory. My house is an old farmhouse on a post-beam foundation and no basement, so an RMH in most of the house is not suitable. There is a laundry room addition that appears to have been at one time a patio or porch that was later enclosed. Whatever it was, it sits on a concrete slab of some sort. This appears to be the only suitable location in the house for anything of significant weight, be it an RMH or a wood burning stove. There is another addition on the other end of the house on an equally inappropriate foundation as the main house, and there is a fireplace there. The fireplace is some sort of 1970s manufactured fireplace, and the surround appears to be a facade and not actual brick. Removing it completely would provide room for a typical wood stove, but there is not sufficient support for anything terribly heavy.
So . . . The laundry room space is on the outer wall. It is about 20" deep and about 5-6' long. There are windows above it starting at about 3' off the floor. The space seems a little small for an RMH -- primarily due to the depth, though perhaps a mini system with a smaller barrel might work. However, directly below those windows is a nice big space and a nice big slab where I could build something outside and run the heat from it through the window(s) in the laundry room. Any thoughts you guys might have would be great.
I have plenty of ability to get firewood, as I have about 20 acres in timber. We lose more trees every year due to weather than I could possibly burn in a year. That said, it's not so wonderful for the environment or my time. I'm also not looking to this as a primary heat source, but as supplemental and backup. I do plan to build two solar space heaters to supplement too.