Rocket Yurt!

[bendything]

Hi,

I have recently ordered a yurt to be the permanent dwelling for my family (as well as converted shipping container, I'll come to figuring out how to put a rocket stove into that later!) and am totally into the idea of putting a rocket stove into it. It will have a rammed earth/poured adobe hybrid floor so standing a rocket stove on it will be no problem, my concern is with the mass element - bench or otherwise. Most of the stoves I have seen pictures of have a cob bench against a heat resistant wall, yurts don't have this, and can't have a great weight leaning on the wall. So would I need a freestanding bench with and extra thick cob back for support or would I be better going with a pocket rocket type system and just heaping loads of mass around the barrel.

I know a beautifully elegant solution would be to use the floor as the mass but my experience with cob is very limited, as are my technical skills in general and my resources so I'm reluctant to take on a project as complicated as underfloor heating at this stage. I also have a time limit as I am six months pregnant and really need a nice warm living space before my baby is born!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Donkey]

Welcome.

If you plan to have a bench, it really doesn't need to be up against a wall. Is seems proper to (at least) stand it back from the yurt walls by 4 inches or so. Especially (I think) if you are getting something like a Pacific Yurt, with the plasticized canvas walls.

Perhaps a better option, it could serve as some kind of space divider somewhere inside. Round space can be uncomfortable to live in, so it makes sense in many cases to divide it up. You could build a short, heated, cob dividing wall which would provide visual privacy to the sleeping area as well as radiant heat on both sides of it. This wall could have inset niches, bookshelves, benches to both sides or what-have-you.

There is really no requirement to make your heat storage any particular shape. It could be abstract cubist sculpture if you wish..

[bendything]

Thanks for the advice, I'll have fun designing my sculpture and upload the pics when it's done!