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Rocket mass heaters

Following up on my previous post describing rocket stoves, I’d like to briefly touch on “rocket mass heaters”. A rocket mass heater is essentially a large rocket stove that is adapted for heating indoor spaces. Instead of transferring all of their heat to a cook pot, typical designs heat space through two mechanisms:

An inverted metal drum surrounds the combustion chamber and radiates heat while the fire burns.
Exhaust gasses are directed through a large thermal mass (such as ceramic brick, stone, or cob), which absorbs and then radiates heat over a longer period, acting as a thermal capacitor.

In the latter respect, rocket mass heaters could be considered a form of “masonry heater”. Masonry heaters are one of those good ideas that keeps popping up in different cultures at different times, “Russian stoves”, “Swedish stoves”, Kang bed-stoves, ondol, and hypocaust are all examples of the concept.

Proponents of rocket mass heaters claim that they are safer for indoor use than typical metal wood-burning stoves because rocket stoves (as previously mentioned) produce lower levels of dangerous particulates and gasses, including carbon monoxide. They’re typically constructed as a DIY project, but not easily adapted to existing spaces — they’re necessarily heavy. To get the most out of a rocket mass heater (or any masonry heater), the interior space would ideally be designed with the heat source in mind (for example, they often integrate seating as part of their design).

—2022-05-17T16:29Z

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