As an ex-boilerman in a local Sawmill I can tell you the worst thing that can happen to the feed line is fire creeping up through the fuel and reaching the storage bin. We had that happen a couple times and it was very difficult to extinguish. The vertical door that you installed will help but a vertical separation from the storage bin to the sloping feed tray is the best way. A door at the bottom of the storage bin that lets fuel fall into the delivery tray ensures separation and so that fuel doesn't build up in the feed tray. Vibrating the sloping feed tray ensures fuel goes all the way down each time your control system calls for fuel. I know it sounds more complicated but you can't be too safe. A fire in the fuel bin could be disastrous. That vertical door that you used is also a very good idea. Nicely done project!

Somebody give this man a cookie! And make it a golden one! As thanks for excellent home-engineering contribution to mankind!

@elekkr

4 жыл бұрын

Yes he "re-invented" how to warm up water using all existing technologies known to mankind since the ancients .

@user-mp7jr6et3o

3 жыл бұрын

Нннннее]]не6 ак пн=]

i like it when maintenance men make systems rather than engineers. I've busted open hundreds of feet of concrete to get to steam lines in the earth and under the cement floor. When things get corroded or if something breaks down, you'll just be going to home depot all the time. I'm super pessimistic about anything complex. When thinking about sustainable energy and locally obtained fuel, simplicity and locally found maintenance material is a value much higher than convenience.

@billcallahan2830

6 жыл бұрын

Johnmark Hatfield great comment. Having the ability to service and using quality materials a real cost saver in the long run. As we said at work. Ain't got the time to do it right but we got the time to do it twice or three times. That's engineers and pencil pushers. Knew an engineer once pretty sure he worked for the railroad. Great comment and hope you have great days.

@SuperSaltydog77

5 жыл бұрын

Johnmark: I spent 27 years as a machinist/welder/jig and fixture builder, I agree with you 100% Keep It Simple, as possible. I spent many years in an industrial toolroom working with industrial engineers where I built tooling to make or assemble parts, complex designs trying to accomplish to many things at one time were a nightmare to keep running and production suffered.

@lancereaudamien

5 жыл бұрын

Keep It Stupid Simple KISS

This is fantastic. I'm interested in both aquaponics, and rocket mass heaters, so finding y'all is gold. Thank you!

The 2nd most viewed video this year triples the views of number 3! With 264,007 (268,862 total), it was published at the end of last year. It shows some extreme enhancements we made to the rocket mass heater to try to extract as much heat as possible from it. I'm still burning pellets in it without any issues...but I am currently working on a new design for next season! Rocket Mass Heater - On Steroids

@EpicHeroSandwich

10 жыл бұрын

do you have a cost comparison of fuel pellets vs wood?

@jamesbarr1043

10 жыл бұрын

Logan Mailandt the pellets are clearly more money, but the gain is the convenience. Over time, the user would learn the ratio of pellets over time, and be able to add that specific quantity to the system all at once. Only having to return periodically to fill the system back up for the next burn. The wood fuelled heat would consume a chamber full of fuel much more rapidly, requiring the user be present much more often. All that said, wood pellets aren't too expensive, and are much more affordable when used in a more efficient systems than the conventional pellet heater.

@dannysulyma6273

7 жыл бұрын

I can gather my own firewood but must purchase wood pellets. The ones I'm using are $7 can for a 40lb bag and I would rather burn nearly free firewood over 7 dollar a day pellets. Although he may be able to increase his efficiency by throttling down the pellet feed rate. His exhaust to outside temp seems too high, wasted money.

I've been researching this for years. this is bar none the best design and video I've seen. Well done.

That heater is producing as much heat as possible without continually increasing the wood charge. Built with readily accessible parts. So well thought out. Two thumbs up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Bigelowbrook

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the positive feedback. This heater is still running great. One of these day's I'll do an update video.

I love it when a plan comes together

Very cool design man! Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to updates!

You could use attach a peltier TEG generator on top of the warming radiator, apply cool water to the other side of the peltier module, before it enters the radiator, and use that resulting DC to power that fan.

@grayhand9676

7 жыл бұрын

Actually I had a similar plan but I planned to use TEG units instead of a radiator. They like 500 to 600 degrees. My only concern is the barrel may get too hot for them. They can get 800 degrees. So long as you keep enough water flowing through the TEG units they should be alright. I'd add some redundancy on the water pumps and I even considered adding an elevated water reservoir in case the pumps gave out. If you design it right in a pinch the heating water can keep it circulating. Maybe not enough to save the TEG units though. If they get too hot it burns out the thermal chips. I'd run the pumps off a back up battery and keep a minimum of two pumps in the system. The newer 100 watt units I think run around $700 so you don't want to kill a couple of those over a dead $30 pump or a black out.

@bobby_greene

3 жыл бұрын

Or run the fan off a sterling engine

Just WOW!!! Thank you soooo much for sharing. 5:50 I appreciate all the temperature measurments as well as the care you took to avoid sun radiation to interfere with them. Alex from Québec, Canada

Nicely done! You've done a great job not only with the build but with the video. I enjoyed it!

, brilliant. I love the way the rocket stoves continue to evolve. I feel like we're just beginning to scratch the surface or what's possible.

I use cold outside air, coming in thru my ash pit, rather than already heated room air, to feed the firebox. It means less lost room heat, and cracks & room vents don't tend to pull in cold outside air. You have the pellet chute as well, but that could be sealed with leather or plastic. I found this to make a huge difference in the comfort of peripheral areas of the house.

@dustinkrejci6142

6 жыл бұрын

you2tooyou2too oh?

@nickrowe9221

6 ай бұрын

great idea... here's another twist... run the feed pipe from outside under ground so the 0 degree outside air is warmed by the ground to 50 degrees then goes to the stove air feed.

@brucea550

5 ай бұрын

@@nickrowe9221 The air to the fire needs to be as warm/hot as possible so as not to cool the fire and diminish combustion efficiency. This is true for any wood fired heater. Outside air is fresh, room air is stale. Use the stale warm room air to feed the fire. Use the fresh air to breathe.

This is an amazing accomplishment. I'm glad their are so many brilliant people like you for me to try and copy. Awesome.

Love your videos! I'm a California guy who is moving way up north... Edmonton AB, Canada... My wife's family has a big chunk of land that we are going to start a farm on. I see me building something like what you have done at your place so your video's have been a wealth of information. I have done Hydroponics for years and have had Fish tanks most of my life so aquaponics is a natural match for me. Ill be sure to share once I start building. Keep up the good work.

Brilliant design youve come up with. you thought your way till the end. Nice choice to incorporate the heat at different Temperatures to their designated tasks.

Awesome. First video I've seen of someone utilizing every bit of heat generated.

what a convoluted fantastic design! I will likely never be able to build my own place. I've watched time on videos on earthship and dirtbag houses. I like the relative freedom of design theoretically. it was actually on one of the earthbag videos I saw them talking about a rocket stove. if never heard of it. I tried to find what in the world it was and why it was better but alas my google-fu failed. then today KZread randomly out you in my list of might likes... and i liked it. thank you so much for explaining your system. it looks like a great design and I think it's awesome that you keep finding ways to improve!

thanks I hope to do something like this for my greenhouse & lots of the rest of my farm. nice to see drawings & facts how it maybe similar.

Very nicely done. The efficiency is impressive. I can't wait to see your new RMH for next year

this looks great. good job explaining the reasons

a few things - if you cross break those sheet metal panels, or add a hem to the edges, they will be a lot stiffer and stay flat. if there's a local sheet metal shop they can probably do that for you. also, any time you have a wood fire and you're trying to remove heat from it, you have to be careful because if you strip the heat from the exhaust gases then they can condense inside of the flue pipe. all the tars and resins (which turns into creosote) will clog up if your flue gases are less than 200 degrees. unless, of course, you're able to get 100% combustion in your stove, which is possible, but on start up and shut down you will not likely be able to get 100% combustion, as the system is not hot enough.

Really nice set up on your dome. In this video you mention that it will still get colder in January; Another way you could maintain some of your heat in the dome would be adding a heat exchanger inside your flue. Old gas water heaters had a central chimney running up the center of the tank, inside this straight pipe was a spiraled piece of metal. Taken out of the flue it is simply a straight rectangular sheet of metal with regular bends to create a spiral effect increasing surface contact. if the fit is snug enough it could be drawn through the flue with edges touching the full length without having to weld it the whole way. Doing this along the length where you have the 10" cover with fan could give you a few more degrees. The same process also goes for between your flue pipe and the 10" cover pipe (with fan). The longer the air circulates across the hot metal the more temperature you will retain. Also, while I don't know the soil content of the greenhouse floor, if you want it to absorb and transfer the heat a little better don't let the ground dry out, moist soil keeps a better temperature when the air cools off... Though depending on where your runoff goes the ground may have plenty of moisture. Also curious what temperature range your fish tank goes through day to night, while I don't know much about the biology of fish I do know the water temp affects their behavior/ feeding habits, etc.

Great vid - i have only one comment on this design: you may want to consider a heat exchanger at the aquaponics location to exchange heat to the water the fish are in. Fish emit nitrates as waste and these nitrates will corrode any metal parts in your system. The heat exchanger for the pond will need to be a material that can tolerate the high nitrate concentrations - such as a plastic unit rather than metal - since it is submerged in the pond it will not be subjected to very hot water. I have seen some systems that combine the pond with a plant hydroponics set up so the plants extract the nitrite nitrate and ammonia and this also helps the fish.

it's good to have the small hot water input, that way the fish can choose to warm up or cool down throughout the day or night, like having a light bulb for chicks in the corner instead of the middle, when they're too hot, they'll move away and move in when cold.

I love your pioneering approach ! I’m very interested in watching further developments and refinements to measure performance.

Very well thought out! I'll definitely be taking inspiration for my cobb house to be =D

Awesome and innovative system! love the idea of pulling heat for my aquaponics system from my greenhouse stove... great job! thanks for sharing!

You have one heck of a setup there! Been enjoying your videos on your RMH! Keep up the great work and videos! Thanks for sharing!

Awesome! Just Awsome! I was trying to come up with a way to heat my system with coils in the ground. I never thought of radiators. Thanks for the idea! Keeping Tilapia inside all winter is becoming a pain in the arse.

Excellent video. I was hoping to build the same thing for my house. Thank you for sharing.

Great work sir

Finally! A crazy invention video on youtube in High Def! Thank you!

Interesting setup. But I would not use a box fan laying down. Most all have sleeve/thin bushing mount for the motor shaft. Its made to be run with shaft horizontal. Those mounts will wear out soon or cause motor to run with friction as the weight of the stator and fan blades push downward.

@doumardose9785

5 жыл бұрын

But they're $15

@age_of_reason

5 жыл бұрын

@@doumardose9785 Your mentality is exactly the reason China owns us.

Great! That's Korean traditional heating system, 'Ondol'. They heated rooms from outdoor fire, cooking with the fire. The heated air flows under floors warming rooms. Warm foot. Free from smoke. They take off shoes indoors, enjoying comfortableness. Now they flow heated water under the floor through pipelines.

Having some of the heat "leak" into the building actually works out well to heat the space. It's a fairly good balance between heating the water, air, and mass.

Impressive, thanks for all of your effort

The Blue Tilapia I have are rated at 50-55 degrees for survival and they start dropping at 45. When the temp hit 60 I started moving them into the living room. That move took out 22 of my biggest because I didn't have enough oxygen or filtration. Obviously, I didn't think this through. So back to the drawing board for next cold season. I have a neighbor who is trying an in-ground RMH in a Green house. That may me my solution. I wish I had your forethought or research skills! Love the vids!

I grew up with a wood burning stove for a heater that my dad put a 55gal drum upside down over & let the exhaust pipe run through it to catch radiating heat & pump it to the rest of the house via a squirrel cage blower & 6" pipework along the ceiling. It worked great but not as efficient as yours... But then again were in Texas so it didn't have much to contend with. I was always trying to make it more efficient though.

Your filter for the water from the auqaponica to the radiators could benefit from a sump tank. A small tank where the water, after being filtered, flows freely into, and allows any unfiltered sediments to fall out of the water before the water continues into the radiators. :-)

nice and cozy all over the green house area due to underground heating system, love the idea, nice...

Beautiful design! One thing I'd add: PLEASE make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector when making a home-made heater. One small design mistake can cost you your life.

@tastedlikechicken

7 жыл бұрын

in my opinion a carbon monoxide detector is a absolute must have no matter what kind of fire place you do have running. lucky we are these detectors exist so it would be a shame to risk your life just to save a few bucks.

@billrussell7672

5 жыл бұрын

Truth is this design leaves less pollution than your basic church candle, a carbon monoxide detector is valuable but it's nessity is overstated. For this design stove in general , conversely the heat from the outlet of the burn chamber can erode and rust the barrel faster causing open flap es into a room this seems the most hazardous complication in design there should be a solid burn plate over rocket stove into the mass accumulator like a rorer plate in a Optimus petrol ( gasoline ) stove with a barrier plate flame spreader The first being titanium or stainless and the second being a cheap thick plate steel

@michaelheery6303

3 жыл бұрын

U VERY VRAIEY

Amazingly awesome or awesomely amazing! I can't decide which.

Excellent video.

keeping the dome in the 50's over the winter is fine for the plants. I didn't want to make it more complicated to run. The ground mass has been slowly raising in temperature the more I burn. That was sort of the goal I was aiming for.

I am wanting to do the same type of thing with the hot air in the top of my greenhouse. I plan to hang a radiator up in the top of the greenhouse. I was planning to make it closed loop system as the radiator is aluminum. I think that the best tubing to use in the fish tank and/or slump is PEX with aluminum in the middle. It has PEX on the outside and PEX on the inside and aluminum in between. This is used in in floor heating systems to spread the heat out.

Good Job! I love the way you speak with DATA..it beats talking out your ..bleep..every time!

That was informative as hell , great job .

Excellent modifications

This is excellent. I love this Idea. May I suggest holding seminars at the Mother Earth News Festival. They had a person doing the rocket furnace stove there last year. If you can combine this with the aquaponics you mentioned, you should have great success! I am going to keep a close watch on your upcoming videos and probably use your build in the near future. Thank you so much for this video!

This is very very interesting indeed- thanks for sharing this

Great video. I was trying to find an idea to heat hot water and use the exhaust air to heat the air and i had thought of using radiators with fans to do it. your video seems the closest to my thoughts but looks like a very involved build

Part of what he wants this system to do is to heat the thermal mass of the ground. This is where some of the confusion is coming from for others concerning the heat output of the system. Most are not taking into consideration the ground. Good on ya to catch that! Just keep in mind the reason he has those tubes is specifically to heat the ground.

I like your ideas and application. great video, keep up the good work

Excellent work, excellent video. Thank you!

wow that's quite a system great build

Kudos to you both, I must say.

Hey there , I gave you a thumbs up for the design , work , innovation put in and learning you must have done in the project. I always appreciate some one who adds to the conversation in a meaningful way. The amount of BTU out put will always be limited by the amount of fuel burning at one time and the amount available in chosen fuel. 8000 btu per pound of hard would at 10% or less moisture. Not sure about pellets. Area of wall surface area divided "R" value of the wall then multiplied by Delta "T" ( desired temp difference needed on coldest day) will give you BTU's required for a structure . IN water it takes about 1350 BTU to heat one gallon from 40 to 180 degrees. Last exhaust temps should be kept a little above 200-235 for good draft and to prevent gases from condensing in the chimney that will cause build up of creosote, thus the myth that a rocket stove can heat your house on sticks from the yard. IT cant that wood is not dense enough or dry enough does not contains sufficient BTU out put to heat a house because there is not enough of it on fire at one time releasing the energy required.

You have spent a tremendous amount of time and effort I think it has paid off Great vi

this is really neat, dude.

Brilliant build advice thank you

Interesting and beautiful fish.

I like your water heater. You gave me an idea.

What an amazing mind you have.

I am considering using Miscanthus giganteus as my rocket stove fuel. Its a perennial grass hybrid that grows 3/4 inch canes 8 to 12 ft tall. Take 10 or so canes and stick it in the rocket stove and just let it burn down. Great stuff, love your work and thought you are putting in to your systems.

@keralee

4 ай бұрын

Interesting idea...wondering if energy density is sufficient? Let us know how that works?

The water will boil out of the radiators and the heat just domes out of the cover. It's happened twice now. Usually if we lose power, I usually run down it shut it off before the water boils out.

Well done👍

nice video very well put getter with all information and stuff

anyone who does NOT! LOVE THIS!! is a Hater! This system is FANTASTIC!!! You can service it! It is in-expensive! and it works!! PLUS!! You "DID IT YOURSELF!!" and saved HUGE! MONEY!! Thank You! for being such a Good Sport and Sharing this Wonderful Rocjet Stove / Heater. God Love and God Bless You and Yours!! Please keep sharing!! I just found you but I will be watching every video you have made!!

I would not use aluminum in contact with the aquaponics water. Only stainless steel should be in contact with the fish water. It would be safer to use a closed loop system for the heating fluid. It would also keep the radiators clean and free of outside sediments. It is a little more work and cost but much safer for the fish and you. Aluminum is no good for the body. Excellent build though. Working mine out in my head now. Most of the materials are onsite and this is what I am doing too.

@SteveBroyles

6 жыл бұрын

other than the cost of an additional pump, it should be pretty easy to run a closed loop for the water heater. You could just coil pex into the bottom of the fish pond and run it through the radiators. I wouldn't expect the aluminum impact to be significant, but there's no doubt that you'll get organic plaques forming in the radiators that will eventually foul them and might be difficult to clean.

@WandersOfficial

5 жыл бұрын

good point.!. what about copper...?

@llewelyn9084

5 жыл бұрын

@@WandersOfficial no copper either mate. Only food grade plastic or stainless steel.

@surronzak8154

5 жыл бұрын

@@llewelyn9084 Coper is anti bacterial, we use it for clean water in homes ...

It's about time someone moded a rocket mass heater! I like your design and I don't think I could have done better. I am only concerned about the operating costs of pellets and wood. By lining the inside of the dome with some Mylar you can reflect some solar heat into the fish water.

Great job. Thank you

nice video / project ! Keep up the good work.

great job man

that's really 'cool' seeing the fish enjoy the hot water :)

Well thought out :)

Keep up the good work.

True those are not normal pH ranges for fish and can in and of themselves be a problem for the fish. No need to have heavy metals or other things build up in a system so that they are released as poison when the pH goes out of the acceptable range. Another option for heat exchange in the fish tank is a stainless steel heat exchanger. These can be found at swimming pool shops that sell heaters for pools. However with any closed loop method you end up needing another pump.

Yes. I'm currently working on a new design that can deal with wood chips.

My main point is that the ground is already near the temp you want the air, so use the ground as a heat source to preheat the air to near 50 degrees, then you aren't burning anything to get it there. You just need to reverse the flow and draw air from the barrel and feed it as intake air to the heater. If you have enough contact area with the ground, you will effectively raise the temp of the air for free.

Thank you Sir for your efforts to educate me

Elegant, bravo!

I get it . Like a mini in floor heat without the out door boiler. High heat minimal creasote. Thermal mass, slow to heat, slow to cool. Good job.

I can't shut off the water that goes throught the radiators because it will boil out of them. There's so much mass in this system that running it for a 6 hour run only changes the water by 5-6 degrees. This design is nice and simple...don't have to deal with the risk of getting any antifreeze in my water either!

Relax.. Your welding will only get better and better =) we all had to start somewhere so i just wanna say keep up the good work =)

Great design my only worry is copper in the radiators could become a problem. Great engineering!

The ground is often considered a semi-infinite heatsink. The air is similarly often considered an infinite heatsink. We don't like letting heat escape to the outdoors because it can always accept more (act as a heatsink). Unless you have ground insulation, it will do the same thing. The ground is interesting in that it also acts as a thermal mass so if the thermal conductivity is low enough, the benefits of the mass/storage properties can potentially outweigh the negatives of the heatsink properties. It would be interesting to compare the system's performance with and without the ground duct blower on. My hunch is that the ground vents actually reduce efficiency. Even then, their other benefits including improved airflow and a more uniform temperature distribution may outweigh that. Interesting system indeed...

@joshroberts2038

5 жыл бұрын

Maybe you could supply the induction air from the underground pipe from outside. (1 line supply) and the second line into the living space.

Did you add a means to control the water's temp? Probably would want some electronic mixer to ensure that the water won't scald the fish or raise the temp of their water too quickly.

How fun! Though it makes me glad that I live in Virginia, where it only gets a little bit crazy cold. Very ingenious!

great video. thanks for sharing!

Holy smokes, that's quite a system!!!

You might consider to redo your feeding system. Professional wood pelett heater usually use a screw conveyor . this would make your stove more secure and solve all the issues you have regarding manual controlling the feeding. Plus you can build a big pelett storage below your stove and feed directly from there risk free.

@Bigelowbrook

4 жыл бұрын

The point of this design it to not need electricity to feed the pellets.

@pasgaf19

4 жыл бұрын

​@@Bigelowbrook Right. For that, you could use some thermoelectric elements to run the screw conveyor. They are silent and should provide enough power for that. Of cours you would have to manually feed at the beginning when the oven is cold.

Hello, you will want to use the exiting excess heat to preheat new cold incoming air in the winter. This gives you a higher efficiency of the system and a higher room temperature. Nice job!

I'm impressed. Using at rocket engine to both heat the floor and heat water is a great application. I've seen more recent attempts at heating the floor where they put insulation down below the floor because they didn't want to lose heat to the earth. I think this might be misguided. Even if you are heating the earth for several meters below the floor, it's just more thermal mass storing heat.

@brucea550

5 ай бұрын

The real advantage is insulating the perimeter. Heat won’t go down as much as out, because it will move to wherever is colder, which is the first few feet below grade. If you live where the frost line is several feet deep I don’t think insulation under the mass is a bad thing.

Similar to what I've been working on. No pellets though as I am striving towards self-sustainability and pellets simply will not do. But, running wood through a shredder allows me to produce smaller sized wood for the burner and thermal valve feed control.

it would be a good idea to wrap your exhaust stack tube with copper tubing and run water through it to heat more water, why waste the heat

the hammer mill pulverizes the wood into sawdust, and then you can feed it into the pellet mill. (they aren't able to grind up material, just compress it together)

Cool info, thanks.

Good job!!! I hope to see more videos soon!! Its good to see people doing the things i do!!! Keep up the good work!! Thx