Hi,
I watched with interest the video on youtube with the cast core by Matt Walker and would like to make a stove based on that.
I have a couple of questions:
What grain size of perlite is better? I can get three different types of Perlite here:
grain size from 0-1mm
grain size from 0-3.15mm, with 75% 1-3.15mm
grain size from 1-4mm, with 66% larger than 1.5mm
The EP100 is practically dust, and I've used it to insulate our attic, it also flows really well. But I feel like it would be bad for making an insulating aggregate. The EP100 is cheapest, the Agro most expensive, but this is a difference of 51€/cu.meter to 78€/cu.meter so for the stove isn't a big deal.
We have subsoil that is pure clay according to the shake test I did when making earth plaster for our walls, so I'm going to try making a core just from that first. Otherwise, because fire cement is 16€($20)/50lb sack, I have the option of just using pure fire cement/perlite mixture.
This is the layout of our house:
Total area that we want heated is 81m^2 / 870 square feet. Right now the stove in the kitchen heats up fine the kitchen and the room adjoining it, except of course during the night it needs wood added several times to keep the room warm enough for my wife. When our renovation work is done, we would be sleeping in the room outlined in purple, with the door to the olive green room with rocket stove open, and the door leading to the rest of the house. During the day, all doors would be open, except the bathroom, pantry, entrance and veranda, though we would also be having the kitchen wood stove going for cooking. So basically it needs to be heating 32m^2 (340 sq. ft) during the night, and 81m^2 during the day.
What size of rocket stove should I try for heating this house? The length along the wall with the chimney where I plan to put it is 2.1meters (7 feet) and the wall is 50cm thick (18 inches), so I wonder if anyone has tried having the pipes not only in the bench but also buried into the wall horizontally and use such a wall as part of the thermal mass to heat. The wall is not structural either, so digging into to put pipes isn't a problem.
Thanks for any advice.