Rocket Mass Stove hooked into existing chimney.

We have a 6x4 slab that our current wood stove sits on, that then vents into the black 6 inch stovepipe, up a 30 foot chimney. We are reading the book (Just bought it online), and googling and youtubing like mad. We really want to replace our wood burning stove with a rocket mass stove very soon. I have two questions. With the existing chimney, can I tie the rocket mass stove into it for exhaust? We can't really run a long bench for heat exchange, and would build on the 4x6 pad to make a sort of chunky heat exchange vs. a long heat exchange. I will begin drawing and pricing tomorrow, and will submit it to the forum for feedback. Main concern now is, "is using the current chimney viable?"

you can hook it up to the chimney. in your situation i would do the 55 gal drum with a brick heat riser (remember you are limited to a six inch system) insulate the back half and bottom of the feed tube and burn tunnel really well. 2 inches of perlite and clay at least, insulate the heck out of the heat riser 3 to 4 inches of perlite and clay or 1 and 1/2 inch to 2 inches of rock fiber blanket insulation (costs a bit but its worth it)

short burn tunnel and good tall heat riser. you are going to be heating mainly with radiant heat till that chimney heats up then it becomes part of your thermal mass. my self i would look for places i could expose the chimney bricks to the rooms so the heat could radiate effectively.

*shamless plug* we have plans for sale for a couple systems that we have proven over time.

Good info there.

Also, your question has been asked and answered a few times over here:

http://donkey32.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=discuss

There's some great info there and some of the responses give you some things to consider when planning your system.

Thanks, I have been reading the forums over at that site as well. I had not gotten to any where people addressed hooking it into an existing chimney stack yet. I will continue to read those forums, and can't wait to get started on this project.

Paul talks with Ernie and Erica about rocket mass heaters in this podcast: rocket mass heater podcast

They talk about using an already existing chimney.