Rocket Stove for cob home

[soulmatenlove]

Superefficient heating unit that will provide a nice comfortable heat for our cob home. Well, we hope. As far as we know, we will be the first to build this unique stove this far north. How far is north? Winters are sometimes -40 C for a week, then we'll get a warm front. We live in Northern Ontario, about 5 hours drive from Thunder Bay, Ontario and about the same from Winnipeg, Manitoba. So, we are just starting out small, to get a feel for the performance of both our cob home and the rocket stove.

Our "Sioux Studio" is a a grand total of 75 sq ft, we are hoping that we will have a comfy little place. So we purchased the book by Ianto Evans titled Rocker Mass Heaters: Superefficent Woodstoves YOU can build, the updated version of "Rocket Stoves to Heat Cob Buildings"

Materials we have on hand to build our rocket stove are:
55 gallon drum
30 gallon drum
6" duct pipe
40 bricks
7 bags of perlite

It is a simple design that will be used to heat up the cob floor and walls. Once heated, the exhaust from the stove will warm up the mass floor and wall via the layout of the duct pipe.

This will be our first Rocket Stove, we plan to install a portion of it, before we lay down the floor, along the stonewall.

If it all works well, we will be enjoying a hot cup of tea, and maybe a nice homemade stew on it, this winter.

 

[Marianne]

Ah, we're two peas in a pod. I have that book, too. But you're doing it, my DH looked at me like I was green and had horns every time I brought it up.

Do you have a wood cook stove or similar that you're going to use and suppliment heat? It takes our woodburner two full hours to heat this large room (22 x 24). I kind of remember that it takes a rocket stove 5 hours to heat a room on that initial firing because of the thermal mass. Don't remember where I heard or read that. Guess the drum would be hotter than all get out right away though.

I just had another thought - by putting the duct that close to an external wall, would that cause a potential condensation problem? You know, inside of wall heating up, outside of wall bitterly cold...?

 

[valmom]

I'm going to be interested in following this saga! I still want a rocket stove and mass heater in a greenhouse. Someday. Probably after TSHTF and my SO gets cold.

 

[soulmatenlove]

Hello Marianne. Sorry for the late reply. I get hung up on cobbing, among other things. But to answer your condensation question, I don't know what will happen. This would be our first experiance with a rocket stove so if we get it running before winter we'll be able to find out. I can tell you that from all the different sources I've read, none have mentioned a problem with condensation. Sorry, now that I'm thinking about it, I did read one article that may have pertained to condensation around the horizontal flue that was encased inside of a cob bed. I remember my husband saying it was probably because he didn't put a vapor barrier in the floor. But aside from that, nothing else. Maybe the fire itself pulls all the moisture out of the air before it can condensate. I don't know. Whatever I find, I'll be sure to post about it.

 

[Marianne]

I was wondering about condensation on the wall by the stove. Might not be any problem at all!

DH was intrigued after I practically forced him to watch a couple youtube videos that Paul Wheaton has. So much heat with so little wood! We can't do one here in the house because of the weight, but I'd like to do one in the shop to experiment.

If we ever build another house, it will be much different than this one and I'll plan on the rocket mass heater!

Keep us posted...