JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 4, 2014 21:58:57 GMT -8
Welp, it's been a few years since I posted here, but I've done a lot in those few years. Unfortunately, we couldn't rewire the old house in South Dakota fast enough because it burnt down last year. Faulty electrical wiring in that old house we were living in...and unfortunately...our rocket stove, although it made it - wasn't able to be moved due to the debris. We moved back to Michigan after losing everything in the fire. But...we are now living in a historical house made in 1871 and are renovating it. In the corner where there is age old fire brick with re-mortar and a newer (I say this with caution...the chimney was built in the 70's) chimney on the South wall - I have built the combustion chamber for the mass heater I will build. The cool thing about this is that the original house was a queen anne style and where the original door was, there is now (what was the small foyer) 4 tall windows. I am going to build part of the thermal mass in that inlet where the windows are and down the wall about 3 feet past that to make a nice window bench with 8" stove pipe in the battery. This winter is supposed to be a wicked cold one...so I am really seeking out that battery retention and will really appreciate that radiant heat...I hope. lol All in all, I will be building 3 rocket mass heaters in this giant house. One in the basement, the one I'm building in the open living area (I took out the floor above the area that the rocket stove will be in so more heat can get upstairs and have created a balcony to the upper echelons of the house) and one in the kitchen that I will cook with - but that one will be more of a masonry stove than anything. The one in the basement will be for hot water throughout the house and have even though about trying to run some type of radiator system off of it next summer to see how it handles it. But...here's what I got so far. Kirk - my apologies if you're still on dial up Monday I will go for more fire brick. My Kia sportage just can't hold enough bricks! lol
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Post by grizbach on Oct 4, 2014 22:34:31 GMT -8
Welcome back to Michigan!
3 rockets? You sure have some energy! Will they all share a common chimney?
I would seriously consider making your bench into a shallow bell. That's what I did to mine, and a lot more heat goes into it!
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Post by Daryl on Oct 5, 2014 4:02:30 GMT -8
Welcome!
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 5, 2014 6:46:38 GMT -8
Welcome back to Michigan! 3 rockets? You sure have some energy! Will they all share a common chimney? I would seriously consider making your bench into a shallow bell. That's what I did to mine, and a lot more heat goes into it! Now see - I've been seeing a lot of titles here about bells but I haven't looked into them much. I'll have to do a bit of reading to see what it is and how to do it. It would be nice if I could share a chimney and run the thermal battery all the way across the house, but I'm not sure I'd be able to get enough suction to heat them all to max capacity. It's definitely worth doing the math over though...I think?
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 5, 2014 8:56:51 GMT -8
The clay in the ground here is "blue clay." It's so hard that you need an excavator to get it up out of the ground. I have resorted to using fire clay enriched with other ingredients, masons high heat mortar and 9x2x4 fire bricks rated for 3000 degrees from Industrial Fire Brick in Wyoming, Michigan. Andy is a pleasure to work with.
Next summer when I am digging more underground green houses, I will be able to use the clay dug up from the excavator work...but for now - I have to use what I can get my hands on. This makes "cob" making very difficult. I could use suggestions on building the thermal battery since I can't get that blue clay up out of the ground. What other materials do you think would be good (open question for anyone). I want as much heat retention in the battery as possible since this house is pretty large. It's about 3500 square feet which is why I took out half of the upstairs floor so that heat could travel upstairs as well. I'm using low profile ceiling fans on extenders to help keep some heat downstairs.
The problem I see is that I'm not trying to "heat my house," I'm trying to heat the bodies "inside" my house. Until I can get the straw bale construction done next summer (this is a balloon framed house and poorly insulated) and the cob put on the walls...I'm gonna have a very hard time keeping heat in the house...so I really have to focus on "roundness" inside of the house and heating bodies - not the house.
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 18, 2014 15:29:22 GMT -8
Alright - I had an electrical issue that needed fixing but I'm back here. I got this half done rocket mass sitting here. I went out today and found a candy store - check it out: So I got home - unloaded some brick and 6 buckets of that awesome clay: Now for cob test runs yay lol It feels so good to have my hands back in the clay. There's just something about it.....
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Post by mscantrell on Oct 19, 2014 9:46:15 GMT -8
Is that a big pile of fire brick???
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Post by satamax on Oct 19, 2014 10:50:19 GMT -8
Is that a big pile of fire brick??? Well, even normal ones, that would be fantastic for a mass!
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 19, 2014 14:48:00 GMT -8
Is that a big pile of fire brick??? Heck ya!! The house that they tore down had 4 chimneys!!! When I saw it I about fell out of my car!! I'm telling you! I found heaven!!! lol
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 19, 2014 14:49:17 GMT -8
Is that a big pile of fire brick??? Well, even normal ones, that would be fantastic for a mass! Oh you betcha!@! Thus far - I have half that pile relocated to my house lol and I drive a small Kia Sportage lol. Tomorrow morning I'm gonna get up bright and early and go get more. One can never have enough fire brick!
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Post by mscantrell on Oct 19, 2014 16:39:25 GMT -8
Sooooo... I'm in Jackson, where are you, and where's this trove? Is there enough to share with another Michigander, or do you have plans for the whole stack?
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 19, 2014 21:19:51 GMT -8
Sooooo... I'm in Jackson, where are you, and where's this trove? Is there enough to share with another Michigander, or do you have plans for the whole stack? I'm 8 miles east of Ithaca. The trove will be there all week. It's 2 miles east of Ithaca on Washington road. Go up to 127 and head north. Get off on hwy 57 and take baldwin to the north to Washington. If you want - give me a call or text and I'll come help you load up. The clay is AWESOME - near perfectly ready without bringing anything into it. 605-592-0283 My name is Jamie
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 19, 2014 21:21:26 GMT -8
Here's what my soil test looked like - it was the same throughout 12 samples:
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JJ
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by JJ on Oct 19, 2014 23:48:16 GMT -8
Is that a big pile of fire brick??? Well, even normal ones, that would be fantastic for a mass! You know, a friend on facebook - an old hippie who used to live in communes...etc raked me over the coals this evening about my using fire bricks for the heat riser rather than stove pipe. My first rmh, I used the stove pipe and insulated with vermiculite and clay - worked alright. But then as I built them more, I went to the fire brick heat riser and I seem to get better rocket as well as more heat retention. She said I am making more work for myself using fire brick...etc. Thoughts? Is stove pipe better?
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Post by Donkey on Oct 20, 2014 6:38:10 GMT -8
Stove pipe will burn out, so you gotta do the clay/perlite thing (or clay/vermiculite). There are some folks here that will very firmly insist that the lighter heat risers are THE WAY.. They have a VERY good point. Your heat retention should really be in the mass (bench, bell, etc.) and lighter heat risers make for faster starting stoves that burn clean earlier.
I'm a little more old-school than that.. I'm of the opinion that if it works (well), it's good. No broken, no fix.
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