8 system with fire brick for j channel.
Rocket mass heater insulate concrete floor.
The change with rmh is that the fireplace itself is insulated so the fire reach higher temperatures 1000 c than a standard fireplace or stove.
Most installations i ve seen discussed use the exhaust pipe to heat the thermal mass.
People generally insulate their chimney to avoid a deposit a creosote non combusted waste that can create chimney fire.
The whole point of a rocket mass heater is to keep that hot mass inside the building so putting it outside is counter intuitive.
2 they are insanely efficient maximizing your fuel.
Insulation laid against the floor has no where for the heat to go so it saturates the insulation.
I ve recently been thinking of building a new house and using a rocket stove to heat it.
The stove body an insulated surround for the elbow.
If the heat is not removed the heat increases.
I should add that you should have at least one or more other ways to heat the space preferably automatic like when the temp hits 60 a propane heater comes on.
Every four feet has two 8x8x16 concrete blocks to allow flow of cool floor air through the mass.
The principle of the rocket stove itself is logical.
If you could put supportive pilings at a similar depth to your current pilings and put a load bearing concrete slab on top of them you should be able to put a stove on top of that but having it outside the building envelope well i probably wouldn t bother with a rmh.
55 gal drum for outer containment.
Insulation does not stop the transfer of heat it only slows it down.
After that we can couple the rmhs thermal mass with the concrete.
A 6 rocket mass heater system can do most of what you want however the rmh will have a keyhole shaped foot print of nearly 4 x 6.
This is why walls floors etc may reach unsafe temperatures even with a layer of insulation between them and the heat source.
The floor will warm up to the upper 70 s at most and it s just wonderful to walk around on barefoot in the winter.
To be extremely resilient to the uncertainties of life you should invest in a small portable rocket stove and a large rocket mass heater as well.
A rocket stove mass heater is definitely appropriate for this type of thing.
You can build a rocket stove from concrete blocks.
Within this space no concrete made from portland cement is safe from total distraction due to the wickedly high combustion temperatures.