Clay Cobbing a Kang bed-stove? Or Rocket Stove Mass Heater: Silverfire to the rescue.

So at my soon to be "residential dwelling site" there is no permit required if there is not "structure" defined at something 30 inches higher off the ground and a fixed location.

So a tent is not a structure - since it's not fixed - and hence no permit required - even though a tent is still a residential dwelling unit.

So today I discovered my land has a very nice clay soil - and the water table is very high. I hit water at 4 feet just digging into the clay. This is good news for survivalist apocalypse living. haha. Water is crucial.

But a good structure in the winter is even more crucial - and for the alchemy training it is necessary and ideal to be connected to the ground - the Earth - to resonate the Yin Qi energy.

The Chinese Kang bed-stove is documented as far back as 7,000 BCE!!

My Swedish relative shared with me a brilliant design - unlike the "wood stoves" we use here in the U.S. - instead you heat the house with a ceramic stove that has many inner weavings of the chimney - so that the exhaust is all used to heat the house.

This burns off the exhaust for a more efficient and cleaner fire - and wood smoke is a noted problem in Minnesota - by the EPA (or I mean the "former" EPA).

So my plan is to build a below ground tent like this video shows with a wood stove at the end.

One of the comments to the video plans to add a heated bed structure made from steel roofing.

Personally I would prefer the steel roofing for the actual roof. When I went to Morocco I saw actual adobe houses lived in - it was truly awesome.

I would like to build an adobe house but - with all the rain and snow it is not feasible - and cob requires a "glue" to hold it together - the manure.

So this thread discusses builing a stove from clay using "fire bricks."

And it is these fire bricks that the Chinese built the Kang bed-stove out of.

The video uses plastic tarps for the roofing but I despise the chemical off-gassing of tarps. And fresh air is key for the alchemy training.

Rocket Stove Mass Heater

So if you search youtube for Chinese Kang bed-stove: NOTHING. haha. But the above is a vid.

So the idea is that the constant heat then keeps the clay solid.

So it looks like I could just get the "round pipe" for the heat exhaust - as the brick is only used for the perimeter - I would just use the earth itself as my perimeter.

you don't need a chimney for the draw in a rocket stove.  The draw happens in the combustion chamber, not from the exhaust pipe(s). So the combustion chamber pulls the fire and smoke from the burn chamber, and then pushes it out through the exhaust pipe. It's very different from how a chimney works.

So one of these rocket stoves is knee high chimney. Sounds great.

So I'm wondering - they use galvanized steel trash cans for the combustion chamber? they use it for rocket stoves - so should work. I have a steel trash can that needs a use.

O.K. -

So some kind of variation on this.

So instead of needing to cut out holes in the drum - you just turn the trash can over - on top of the clay burn chamber....



Then just get some duct pipe - and cover it with more clay....

This vid explains the principles of the sideways burn via a duct pipe.

So the whole point of insulating the duct pipe is so it retains heat to get super hot thereby burning off the exhaust as pollution - creating only heat, steam and CO2.

Too bad that vid doesn't actually show how they fit the duct into the combustion chamber - that's the most important part!

Oh I just remembered you don't want galvanized because of the zinc fumes - so who ever made that galvanized zinc rocket barrel didn't know that!!

yeah so they say even the exhaust pipes - since they are galvanized - that it can be an issue.

So why not make the old style Kang bed-stove?

If only I knew how it was designed.

Here we go.

not enough explanation.

this pdf is much better

so fancy ceramic plants.

Someone makes the same connection I do: Kang bed-stove or rocket mass heater?

So in another video it is explained - because the gas is combusted - therefore the mass of clay cob can store the heat efficiently.

The ceramic fire bricks are super pricey!!

O.K. I just realized - I already bought a rocket stove for over $200. haha.

So all I have to do is somehow connect the exhaust - put another top over the stove with a duct pipe branching off....

Bingo: Someone wonders the same thing as me:

Can I convert a Stovetec Rocket Stove to a RMH? (rocket mass heater ...

https://permies.com/t/28172/convert-Stovetec-Rocket-Stove-RMH

May 16, 2014 - 5 posts - ‎2 authors

Bethany Dutch : If there is a rocket mass heater R.M.H., in your future ... would expect the Stovetec, or the Silverfire to last a few months when ...

 And the answer?

In a more perfect, kinder world it might be possible to make a combustion/fume hood with an air gap directly above ether of these two stoves, allowing you to bring
them indoors where you could easily monitor these stoves and channel extra heat into a thermal mass for a little heat storage, but, you still would not have created
the conditions for the flow of hot exhaust gases to flow sideways for 20 or 30 ft thru a thermal mass ! Also the size of ether stoves combustion area would require you
to split every piece of wood fuel that you fed it down to the size of a fat to a very fat pencil to achieve near the efficiency of a rocket mass heater, in which case I
would expect the Stovetec, or the Silverfire to last a few months when exposed to the temperatures that is common with any merely good rocket mass heater !

The amount of time that you would spend, crouched over ether of these two models until they failed, with or without a fume hood over the top to carry your exhaust
gases away and past a thermal mass and then out of your house would cause you to pray for the day that your ' rocket stove ' finally failed due to metal fatigue !

Let me see - the Chinese Kang uses a clay stove but the Silverfire is not good enough?

Then they keep plugging their books for sale!!

I'm gonna try converting the Silverfire!!

So it will be this concept - build a clay-sand oven-stove around the silverfire - so I can access the silverfire from the front and then the heat will go down and around the silverfire - into ducts covered by clay-sand along the floor.