The goal is to burn as hot and fast as possible and then close the chimney and the fresh air intake, trapping the heat in the masonry. Then, the masonry slowly gives off heat over time. Ours stays warm for more than 24 hours, but we burn twice a day when it's cold to increase production as much as possible. It is not recommended that we burn more than this, since masonry has a limited thermal capacity.
A rocket mass heater (RMH), also known as a massive rocket stove heater, is a type of slow-release radiant heating system, designed primarily to heat people and, secondly, to heat areas in the line of sight around them. The variations of the RMH can also be extended for the functions of cooking, heating water and producing hot air for distribution. A rocket stove is an efficient, hot-burning stove that uses small-diameter wood fuel. The fuel is burned in a simple combustion chamber that contains an isolated vertical chimney, which ensures almost complete combustion before the flames reach the cooking surface.
Rocket stove designs are most often used in portable stoves for cooking, but the design is also used for large fixed stoves in institutions and for manufacturing rocket-mass heaters for heating. The Rocket heater, with pellet hopper, that I bought has passed the Underwriter Labratory tests and can be insured in a home. The DVDs will be about cob-style rocket mass heaters, pebble-style rocket mass heaters, cores that can be shipped, and even the Mass Heater rocket innovators event that Paul organized on his land. In his extensive explanation of the operation of a rocket-type stove, he suggests keeping the supply tube as short as possible, the combustion tunnel as short as practical and the heat elevator as high as practical.
The purpose of a rocket mass heater is to keep that mass warm inside the building, so placing it outside is not intuitive. With a rocket-type mass heater, heat is absorbed into the mass and extracts as much heat as possible before the exhaust gases leave the house. In the e-book “The Rocket Powered Oven”, Tim states that “for a rocket stove to work well, dimensions are vitally important. This allows rocket mass heaters to continue heating a space for quite some time after the fire has stopped.
Unlike conventional wood stoves and fireplaces, in a rocket-type mass heater, the combustion is almost complete. The problem with what you're proposing is that cooking on a rocket stove without the oil barrel is that you usually cook on the heat elevator and end up with a truck full of smoke. I know that there are portable rocket stoves that are mainly used for cooking, but I don't know if they would provide enough BTUs for heating, plus that some type of ventilation would be needed. Although in a sense they are simply a variation of a masonry heater, most rocket mass heaters are distinguished by producing immediate radiant heat (starting from the burnt metal barrel), by being constructed with much cheaper materials (usually a pod mass, a 55-gallon steel drum and a small brick combustion chamber) and by requiring a less robust base to build on, since the weight of a rocket mass heater is distributed over a larger area.
This characteristic aspiration of the flames into the combustion tunnel and the resulting “roar” is what gives the rocket stoves their names. As you can see, these rocket-type mass heaters provide a multitude of opportunities to heat your home in a clean, efficient and economical way. Rocket Mass heaters are developed from rocket-type stoves, a type of wood stove and masonry heaters. .
