Podcast 519 - RMH in the Tipi

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Summary

Paul calls Jen Richardson up to talk about the rocket mass heater in the tipi, its history, potential improvements, and possibly either a rebuilding it, or building a whole new tipi and RMH.


Built seven years ago to prove that they heat in a different way, it can make the tipi feel like 50F while it’s -26F outside, even when the fire went out eight hours ago.  Five years ago, they had the idea for a stratification chamber – have a small exhaust coming off of the lower part of a large chamber so that it keeps the hot air in longer and the cooler air is exhausted.  Three years ago the RMH started to show much less draw, so Ernie took it apart and found that the core had mostly dissolved due to the perlite melting.  The core was rebuilt with orange firebrick, but had to be shaved down two years later to improve airflow.

Theory is that with a stratification chamber in the tipi RMH, you could further reduce fuel consumption by half, however this seems to require further improvements to the core and remove the three-minute-riser and burn tunnel with moulded ceramic versions.  

Cold plugs happen when the outside air is warmer than the inside air and are characterised by being harder to light and smoking inside after a couple of minutes.  Cold plugs are common in the tipi due to it being uninsulated.  They can be helped by putting the vertical exhaust close to the barrel so that it heats up earlier and makes a full draw sooner.

Paul goes on a tangent regarding well digging and the problems he’s currently facing with getting one along with taxmen.


Relevant Threads

Tipi RMH thread

Cob forum
Rocket Mass Heater forum

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This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
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Bill Crim
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