Are you familiar with rocket mass heater design?

[enosis_]

Is anyone familiar with the so called rocket mass heaters - a popular DIY project? Has anyone ever studied design or uses?

 

[berkeman]

Is anyone familiar with the so called rocket mass heaters - a popular DIY project? Has anyone ever studied design or uses?

I hadn't heard of them before, and the term sounds kind of scary (!), so I did a quick search. Much more benign than I had pictured at first...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mass_heater

A rocket stove mass heater or rocket mass heater, is a space heating system developed from the https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Rocket_stove , a type of efficient wood-burning stove and the https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Masonry_heater . Wood is gravity fed into a "J-shaped" combustion chamber, from where the hot gases enter a heavily insulated metal or fire-brick vertical secondary combustion chamber, the exhaust from which then passes along horizontal metal https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Duct_(industrial_exhaust) embedded within a massive https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Cob_(material) https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Thermal_energy_storage . The thermal store is large enough to retain heat for many hours and typically forms part of the structure of the building. They have proved to be popular with https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Natural_building and within https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Permaculture designs; they are normally self-built and are not yet recognized by all https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Building_code which regulate the design and construction of heating systems within buildings.

An internal vertical insulated https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Chimney , the combustion chamber, ensures an efficient high-temperature burn and creates enough draft to push exhaust gases through the rest of the system. https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Flue_gas are cooled to a relatively low temperature within the thermal store, approximately 50 °C (122 °F), and steam within these gases https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Condense into liquid releasing the associated https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Latent_heat of evaporation, which further increases the efficiency in the manner of a https://www.physicsforums.com/wiki/Condensing_boiler .[1]

 

[enosis_]

The name does sound a bit scary (LOL) - hadn't thought of that. I found this... http://www.dragonheaters.com/how-rocket-heaters-work/

 

[enosis_]

Also this...

 

[enosis_]

...and this...