Better Wood Heat: DIY Rocket Mass Heaters (4 movie Set)

Bought mine, just under the wire. Whenever they're ready, they'll be ready.

I have plans to install three, and a trucker friend hauled my firebrick, so. Ready to be toasty this winter. Thank you too for the podcast links.

I've started to watch the cob video, and it looks great!  On vimeo pale areas get some of that psychedelic compression sparkle, but it doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the content at all.  OK, there's that one time when Paul has a bit of sparkle on his nose, that's a little distracting, but it's only for a second or two.

Everything looks and sounds great.  The little arrows pointing out Willy Smits crack me up!

Just watched the Cob part...
I think that many details of RMH cob style building are nicely shown... Nice work! And Ernie and Erica's new book is really a nice companion reading !

Thank you for this really nicely done DVD!

Can't wait to see other videos!

Moving it over here mostly intact: ahem, review... I'll edit as we get all of them viewed here, and I'm starting with the second set of four, and will do the 2012 ones after the latest four... as of the moment I've only viewed the cob/tipi one...


As for the quality of view, now then, I am playing it on a 'gamer laptop' that was bought for a specific cpu chipset, and it is meant for graphics crunching and does the job well. I blew the playback up to about 70% of my 17.3" monitor, and it looks good. It doesn't show every molecule, but it is definitely watchable, goes smoothly, doesn't mud out, and I get enough detail to convey what I want and need to know (under the digital download not the vimeo stream). It may not be HD but it is pretty good looking and I could see what I needed to see clearly. Some time and effort was expended on lighting, angles, and getting worthwhile footage. During the tipi front part, there are two recording angles going, and it is obvious that Paul is talking to the one recording device and some footage comes from another, and both are good.

Someone cared about these, and it does show. Not from here but I've bought my share of instructionals and done online classes and. These are content rich, relevant footage, and informationally well worth my time to view. Heck I abuse Netflix and Amazon Prime a lot and sometimes instead of SD the latter especially will stream me a HD copy to ask me to rate it; and see if they can get me to buy a HD version of something they are currently offering for 'free' viewing with my subscription. If I was trying to learn to repair watches or electronics, I might need that much detail, HD. Most of the time SD will do the job and do it well, plus save bandwidth. Freezing an image, most anywhere, it retains enough detail to be useful.

I am very satisfied with my purchase of this set in digital download. The cob/tipi alone I feel is worth what I paid for all 8. I'm a top reviewer a few places because I'm not afraid to point out the good, the bad, the ugly, and the silly. In this case I would give the set an overall 5 of 5 rating, and a strong recommend that it's worth the money paid and then some.

In the near future I expect to embark on a build of three RMH, I have the fire book, and a set of the 6" and 8" plans. I waited when finding out these would be available and purchased firebrick, steel barrels, and have a good source of adobe mud, good sharp sand, and more; and now that these arrived, spouse and I are watching, learning, making notes and preparing next week to go play with cob and such and start learning so we can get at least two of the RMH installed by first weekend of October. The third one (major walipini) we are still collecting materials for and it has not been built yet, probably next year (two years behind schedule). I dearly wanted to come to that workshop last summer but health and finances prevented it, so this is the next best thing to having gotten to attend.

I do not know how this would view in a higher/larger resolution, I have not tried to stream it to say, my 42" Hi-def tv, but. On my laptop it looks really good, and I have a large laptop.

In the intro to each of the first four videos (from a couple years ago) Paul, Ernie, and Erica clarify that the video quality isn't perfect and the live event took priority over the videos.

For anyone wanting better quality video, these new four are the ones for you!

I just watched the first few minutes of each of these... streaming... and they're great. I look forward to finishing them all, but paused to say thank you Paul and crew for the greatly improved video quality in this new set. I'm glad I backed the kickstarter and proud of the product you produced. Perhaps I'll provide more review when I finish watching them, but for now, Thank you!!!

I downloaded all of the dvd's a couple days ago and just managed to finish the innovators one because I had to re-download it. I liked it by the way. Would have loved to see Ernie's kiln. I scanned through the other three ( the care and feeding was fine) and every one froze at around a half hour left. The innovators froze at 25 and the castable at 31 and so on. SO I would suggest that anyone downloading these to scan through and make sure you see a benny hill montage all the way to the credits-- if you are planning on waiting to watch them. I understand the link is only good for a month. I'd be bummed if I waited a while and then found I could not see the whole flick because there was a download problem. The problem was most likely on my end because the second time worked, but I thought I should warn others so they can avoid problems in the future.

Oh, and the care and feeding was cool. I usually just put the bricks anyway over the opening to increase the airflow, I really like the triangle.

So glad all of these advances are being filmed.

Jason

Jason Learned wrote: SO I would suggest that anyone downloading these to scan through and make sure you see a benny hill montage all the way to the credits-- if you are planning on waiting to watch them. I understand the link is only good for a month. I'd be bummed if I waited a while and then found I could not see the whole flick because there was a download problem. The problem was most likely on my end because the second time worked, but I thought I should warn others so they can avoid problems in the future.

Excellent, excellent point Jason!  Glitches in downloading happen all the time.  Just for Paul's sanity, I really, really want everybody to be successful in getting all their downloads during the month that they are being hosted.  This reminds me that I still need to download my copies of these videos (I've been watching the streaming versions on Vimeo.)

This is a VERY WELL DONE Video Series. Kudos to all that was/is involved! I enjoyed the clarity of the video's as well as the incredible knowledge that is given.
Paul, this should be pitched to the PBS stations across the country, having your own documentary, and the sales would go thru the roof!

Great Job Permies team! I have been enjoying viewing and reviewing the videos. I have learned a lot and want more!

Thanks to Jason for cobbling together a trailer for this.  I think it turned out really good!   We were going to take video the day before, but something weird happened to my eye.  So we waited a day and my eye was still a bit off - but it isn't like I'm some sort of supermodel anyway.  

That is a super fine trailer, Paul and Jason and crew!  Strong work!

I hope your eye is feeling better, Paul.  You just look like sand blew into it the day before or something.

The trailer is good, Paul. You're just as handsome and photogenic as ever. Nice job.

What did you all think of the big red message?

The trailing credits?

Julia pointed out the thing with willie.  

Don't forget to post your reviews in this thread where the first line says "I give this _____ out of 10 acorns"

paul wheaton wrote:What did you all think of the big red message?

The trailing credits?

Julia pointed out the thing with willie.  

Don't forget to post your reviews in this thread where the first line says "I give this _____ out of 10 acorns"

10/10 acorns, Paul. No problemos there.

Deb Rebel wrote:10/10 acorns, Paul. No problemos there.

Ahhhh.....  that's great to hear.  

I give this entire 4 DVD set 11/10 acorns

Thank you Paul.
I just finished my first pass of the DVD's. They are just amazing, wow.
You and the team have successfully mixed an immense amount of technical knowledge with humour, really great music and such appropriate lyrics.
The graphics and drawings (even yours) were perfect as well.  I most appreciate the level of openness and honesty in the staggering amount of experimentation you all do.
You guys/girls should all be congratulated as you are making the world a much better place through your efforts. Namaste.

Steve

Thanks Steve!

It took a looooooong time, but I have now set things up so that people can purchase the HD Streaming stuff.  


https://richsoil.com/wood-heat.jsp

I just wanted to give a big shout out for these DVDs. Just finished watching and feel like I've learned a ton! What great work everyone is doing and what a window into that work!!

Thank you and congratulations on a great project!

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Out of 10 acorns, I give this set 12. I purchased the download form, not the streaming or the DVD's. I also downloaded the free plans for the 6" RMH. Between that, and watching all the videos, #1 is worth the price paid for the whole set. THEN you get to #2, 3, and 4. Plus getting the first four as well...

I had gotten the plans, firebrick and waited for these to come out. The next weekend after watching #1, my hubby and I built a 'proof of concept' open firebox and fired it. We are currently modifying the house and shop to install (shop on cement slab, house is trickier because of building below and bringing a pier up through the joists-we live in a 'modular' (aka 'doublewide') so it takes a little more work). I so wished I could have been at the 2015 workshop, time and health and finances prevented.... but it was almost like being there with the video. I wish I could have cut my first firebrick with someone more expert looking on, and played with cob that was 'just right' so I knew, but. Truly, these are very worth it.

Paul is a natural in front of the camera, very likeable, listenable, and not at all bad on the eyes, either. The shooting is carefully done, not haphazard. There are a few lighting issues in a few shots but are well done despite the constraints. Someone CARED about this content and how it was put together.

If you are at all interested in RMH and being warm and more eco as well, this is a sound and very wise investment before you build. As others have noted, the SD version is best played back on a 10" or 12" tablet, though my 17.3" laptop shows it in a window of about 15" and they look fine there too. If you get a set of plans, look at those, then watch, you will see more than enough that you need to see. I am taking sewing machine repair via correspondence and there I need HD because of the small and intricate things to be conveyed. This is not watch or sewing machine repair. The SD will look fine on your more portable device, and you will get all that you need visually. I have played these on my 42" set, the SD, and there they do mud out. IN THE FORMAT INTENDED for them to be viewed (aka the tablet or netbook) they play very well.

The quality and quantity of information made me +1 the acorns, then of course, I gave a +1 for Paul. I have watched a lot of instructional videos over the years, and trust me, he rates right up there for personable, listenable, and likeable. If you don't know of what I speak, go look up Stained Glass Instructionals from Nancy. (content great, can NOT stand to listen to her). If you can not get to where you get to help someone that knows what they're doing (like the Wisner's) then get this set and watch them before you start on your own.