6" RMH Build

[pa_friendly_guy]

When they told you that you would not have been covered for a fire since you had not told then I would have to say that none of the companies that I represented would have taken that stand. I was an independent agent and represented companies that used the ISO forms. ISO is the Insurance Service Office that publishes the standard forms endorsements and premiums used by most Insurance Companies. There are some companies that write their own policy forms, and may try and void coverage if you don't tell them about a wood burner . Most of the companies that write their own policies and forms are Direct Writers like State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide, progressive etc, their policies are not better, and they are not worse, they are simply different that the standard policies that I sold. There is nothing in the standard ISO forms that voids your coverage for fire from what ever cause [ other than arson from a fire that you set yourself ] Some other companies may have clauses that would void coverage if you add a wood stove, but I can't tell who they would be. My best advise is to ask your agent how your company treats wood stoves, or read your policy and see if there is any thing that would void coverage from actions taken by you. You can ask Hypothetical questions with out divulging too much information, like, I was thinking about installing a wood stove and wondered how my company treats them? Or, What are the minimum clearances my company wants to see in a wood stove installation? Or, What would happen to my premium if I installed a wood stove? Something along those lines does not raise a lot of Red Flags, and your agent should be helpful with their counsel and advise . I can't speak for all insurance companies, only the ones I represented.

[mannytheseacow]

My bench seems to be holding it's temp in the high 80's at this point and things seem to be evening out. It's a little chilly in my place but I'm staying warm for the most part.

I was out of town there for a while and had the bench up in the low 90s before leaving. When I returned I found the house and the bench sitting at 63*, over a week later. The outside temp was in the low 40s the day I returned. I can live with 63*. It took about 2 days to bring the temp up to the mid-80s from 63.

The house seems to be staying at about 70* now, and I'm burning about 20# of wood a day. I bring 20# in a bin up to the house every day, burn a load in the morning and then feed the rest in the evening hours. Probably works out to be something like 5# in the morning and 15# in the evening. The lesson to be learned here, I think, is that the massive bench that I have just stays slow and low. It radiates for a very long time, but doesn't ever get that hot.

[rjdudley]

Just checked my bench and it's 130˚. It's working like a champ, but, here's my problem: vaulted ceilings.
My ceilings are like 20 feet high and guess where all the heat is?
I have a ceiling fan to push the hot air down, but, after a while it feels like it's actually cooling the room.
Moral of the story: Build your RMH in a home with regular ceiling heights.

[mannytheseacow]

High ceilings can be vicious. I love the feel of high ceilings but unless I lived in the tropics I don't think I could ever do them. I think if I was to build a place from the ground up (or underground) I would probably do 7' ceilings.

I realized that with bench temperatures I've been looking at the two coldest areas of my bench. When measuring under the cushions and finding the hot spots towards the center I'm actually getting about 110*. That's great news for me. My water lines are right over the tubes so it's probably 110* or higher there, plenty to heat some water. I still haven't cycled the water through the pipes yet. We've been having some great weather here but as soon as it turns and the solar water heater isn't working I can't wait to see what this water heating can do.

P.S. Ray, I'm still blown away by how good your RMH turned out! There aren't even any cracks and the lines are so clean! You better stay away from Illinois or you might get Shanghaied. I've still got some plastering to do...

[rjdudley]

Thanks for the kudos Manny. I think we really lucked for our first try. I have some more pix that I'll post later. We've added some trim touches and have put a coat of olive oil soap over it to help protect it from spills. The soap darkened it up a bit and gave it more of a "Flintstone" kind of rock look, but, we like it.
These high ceilings really tick me off. I hadn't given them much thought until this was built. It gets wayyyyyy hot up there (there a loft on one end of the house). So any attempt to regulate upstairs and downstairs in pretty futilte.
BTW, I've been staring down you Rocket Maple Cooker and believe it may be my next project. How did you connect heat riser and burn tunnel?

[Lollykoko]

RJ, do you remember pictures of old castles, and how they would swag fabric 7 ~ 8 feet above the floor, preventing sight of the ceiling? I think that was to act as a heat shield, insulating barrier, to prevent all the heat from rising in the center of the main room.

One of these days I may find out, since I have a room (rarely used) with exposed rafters and access to large quantities of old but never used upholstery fabrics.

[rjdudley]

Lolly, THAT is one of the more interesting observations I've heard in a long time. Now the wheels are turning!!!!

[mannytheseacow]

[mannytheseacow]

I've had the opportunity to run the water through my bench a little bit and just wanted to post an update on its performance. Or, lack thereof. I've got the bench rolling pretty consistently in the 100*s at this point and pumping water through it has little effect. The initial blast of water that is sitting in the bench before the pump is turned on will be in the 100*s as well, but once water starts circulating the output temp is about the same as the input temp.

Thinking about it, this makes sense. The earthen bench has very little conductance compared to something like steel, copper, or aluminum. Once the small area of mass touching the circulating loop cools off it takes a greater amount of time to reheat than the water will absorb pushing through the circulating loop.

I think at this point I've reached the conclusion that burying water lines in your bench won't work unless your bench is made of a high conductant material. Perhaps if the circulating loop was in direct contact with the heat tubes running through the bench it would work better? I think a better design would be to place a coil directly in the heat path, perhaps inside the barrel around the outside of the heat riser.

[matt walker]

That makes sense Manny, darn it. Just think of that water in the coils as extra mass, a net positive! Or, at least, a Learning Experience. In all seriousness, it's really great that all of you guys are continuing to post your experiences with your heaters here in such a forthright manner. I think we are slowly getting a really great information set built up here of real world use of these things, and that seems to be sorely lacking elsewhere. I know all the dialog has really helped me sort out a lot of stuff in my head about these things. So, yeah, thanks for taking one for the team!