great idea, or not so much?

[CannaTroy]

So I've been doing a lot of planning for 2015 grow season, and one of this light bulb thingys went on in my head.. Or off or whatever
Do any of you guys know what a rocket mass heater is? If you don't here's a little explanation, but I highly suggest looking it up to fully understand.. so its a type of wood stove, you feed the wood into the top so it burns efficiently. And it does some weird shot with combustion that cancels out smoke or whatever. Then the heat travels back in a little chamber, then up a little stack thing, then along the mass heat storage place made of brick or rock, and the air stacks at the end of that. The mass storage thing is like a horizontal chimney kinda. And the rock will hold the heat for a long time. Something like that just look it up I'm bad at explaining.
So my idea was to build one of these outside where I plan to grow, and build flower beds kind of against it or on it, around it anyway. Then I want to build a greenhouse around it all. Just a good frame and clear plastic sheeting. I was thinking of this because im in north coast BC, so I could plant before good summer weather actually hits, and my grow season would be fairly extended so I can harvest in time before the cold comes.
What's your thoughts on this idea? I think its pretty nifty, and would be taking advantage of what nature provides us to make my grow situation better. The mass heater could keep the inside greenhouse temp nice, and if I need to cool it down just open up some plastic for a while. It would keep the soil protected from frost too.. I think anyway! Thanks for reading. Any input is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Antics]

It's a good idea, and efficient, but 2 problems:

1. You'd need to eventually keep feeding wood into the stove. What if it goes out in the middle of the night, or when you're not home?
2. You'd need a cooling unit to maintain air temperatures. Somewhere in the equation you need something with a thermostat to either warm the room, or cool it. Without it, you'll risk drying out your plants, heat stress, etc..

 

[CannaTroy]

It's a good idea, and efficient, but 2 problems:

1. You'd need to eventually keep feeding wood into the stove. What if it goes out in the middle of the night, or when you're not home?
2. You'd need a cooling unit to maintain air temperatures. Somewhere in the equation you need something with a thermostat to either warm the room, or cool it. Without it, you'll risk drying out your plants, heat stress, etc..

Good stuff, since its quite humid in my area I don't think drying the plants out would be an issue, and if I'm staying at a cabin near the plot then I think I could keep the fuel supply going! A thermostat is definitely a must though! I'll probably mess around with different designs and sizes of the stoves to see what's most efficient and suitable for the reason of use

 

[Antics]

Now there also might be a way to wire a normal household thermostat to a gable fan, or perhaps some fans have thermostatic controllers built in. That might be a much cheaper option than an air conditioning unit.

 

[CannaTroy]

But being outside, pretty deep into the forest I wouldn't have power, unless I hauled a Genny in which I don't plan on doing this year!

 

[Antics]

Ahh. Well in that case there's always the option of solar power. But the initial investment can be costly. I have seen solar gable fan kits though.

 

[Ascended]

It's a good idea, and efficient, but 2 problems:

1. You'd need to eventually keep feeding wood into the stove. What if it goes out in the middle of the night, or when you're not home?
2. You'd need a cooling unit to maintain air temperatures. Somewhere in the equation you need something with a thermostat to either warm the room, or cool it. Without it, you'll risk drying out your plants, heat stress, etc..

Depending on the medium used for the insulator on the "chimney" it could retain and then radiate the gathered heat for potentially hours on end, allowing you to let the stove go out for short periods before having to restart the fire to maintain the temps. For instance if they used clay or dirt as an insulator it would lose heat much slower than say straw or air would.

Cooling could be done using a (couple?) 12v solar charger and as many PC fans as you can power from it (them)... not ideal but it would help create a draft and allow for some air exchange.