We had another week of single digits this week and gosh I'm tired of a 60* house. I disconnected the RMH today and subbed in the old pot belly, just for a little assessment. One load of wood through it (3- 7"rounds, about 50#) and an hour later my house was 20* warmer, not to mention the heat coming off that thing was almost instantaneous! It was great, I boiled some water, cooked some pork and beans, and still threw a ton of heat out there.
Watching that thing burn got my wheels turning. There's been a lot of talk about my big 'ol bench and my 6" RMH, and I'm sitting there looking at these two heaters that both have issues and noticing that they are on two extreme opposite ends of the spectrum. What would my ideal heater be? Well, burn bigger pieces of wood, allow more instant heat, but still have the ability to store that heat for a slow release (though not as slow as I've got now). Looking at my big old bench I'm realizing that this big old mass is more of an insulator than a battery.
I currently have 2 thoughts. One is that a cooking heater for my upstairs would be great. It needs to offer quick heat, not big storage, and I have a very limited amount of space to put it in. My concern is that even with this extra heater upstairs it may not address the whole house warmth issue. I posted somewhere else recently about my air exchanger and that is helping circulate the heat, but the fact remains that there just isn't enough heat. So my second thought is that my project this summer might be to take a pick and shovel to the 6" RMH and convert it to an 8". I think trenching the pipes through the bench will be fairly easy, it's converting my chimney to 8" that will be the bigger challenge, but it can be done. The chimney is actually a 7" square column that I have lined with a 6" stove pipe. It would be perfect for an 8" system. But I hate messing with chipping rock and there will be quite a bit of that to do to get an 8" opening, not to mention pulling the lining and having to replace the pipe through the roof. This seems like the best option, though. And I can use all the lining to build the upstairs cook stove. Anyone got an idea for a J to cook on that will fit in a space 16" x 36" x 30"?
In the meantime the RMH is back connected and storing all its heat from the little sticks that it's burning. (sigh)
I'm gonna go eat some pork and beans. Then maybe go snowboarding.