How many people know what thermal mass is, and how to use it to your advantage?
Thermal mass is the heating up of a material which releases smaller amounts of heat over several hours to provide a gentle heat rather than a mass of heat which is often overpowering in a workshop, garage, or shed while you work.
Yes, we could get into allsorts of calculus about thermal transfer rates, but lets not, if we understand that most aggregates such as concrete, stone, pebbles, and sand are all suitable forms of thermal mass it will suffice, we could add bricks, concrete blocks, roof tiles, and even old household floor or bathroom tiles to the list.
If we go a step further we can add limestone fines such as small chips or even powder to this list, and of course things like the pebbles which are readily available in bags for garden use, or we could add things such as garden clay as this dries when heated and is free thermal mass if you dig some from your garden.
How can we produce thermal mass? in its simplest form we make a wood burner and stand it on a concrete base or pad, the thicker or larger the concrete pad it the more heat it will absorb and the more heat it will release over a longer time. If you add bricks or concrete blocks by building a wall around 3 sides of your fire you have increased the volume of your thermal mass and you will get a higher heat output for longer, but we have other options.
If you build a rocket stove in a gas bottle you should insulate it to keep the heat in, but if you drill a hole next to the chimney exit and weld a 1" BSP socket into it and have an 1" BSP plug you can add thermal mass. If you make "slip" which is basically liquid clay by adding water to garden clay and mixing it to a liquid you can add some 10mm pebbles through your socket and a little slip to fill the voids between the pebbles and continue until your bottle is full then instant thermal mass.
WORD OF WARNING - IF YOU FILL SUCH A VOID USING PEBBLES AND CLAY SLIP THEN ALWAYS DRILL A VENT HOLE OF AT LEAST 1/4" OR 6MM INTO THE PLUG AS LIGHTING THE FIRE TO DRY THE SLIP WILL RELEASE A LOT OF STEAM AND YOUR FIRE COULD EXPLODE.
Thermal mass is the heating up of a material which releases smaller amounts of heat over several hours to provide a gentle heat rather than a mass of heat which is often overpowering in a workshop, garage, or shed while you work.
Yes, we could get into allsorts of calculus about thermal transfer rates, but lets not, if we understand that most aggregates such as concrete, stone, pebbles, and sand are all suitable forms of thermal mass it will suffice, we could add bricks, concrete blocks, roof tiles, and even old household floor or bathroom tiles to the list.
If we go a step further we can add limestone fines such as small chips or even powder to this list, and of course things like the pebbles which are readily available in bags for garden use, or we could add things such as garden clay as this dries when heated and is free thermal mass if you dig some from your garden.
How can we produce thermal mass? in its simplest form we make a wood burner and stand it on a concrete base or pad, the thicker or larger the concrete pad it the more heat it will absorb and the more heat it will release over a longer time. If you add bricks or concrete blocks by building a wall around 3 sides of your fire you have increased the volume of your thermal mass and you will get a higher heat output for longer, but we have other options.
If you build a rocket stove in a gas bottle you should insulate it to keep the heat in, but if you drill a hole next to the chimney exit and weld a 1" BSP socket into it and have an 1" BSP plug you can add thermal mass. If you make "slip" which is basically liquid clay by adding water to garden clay and mixing it to a liquid you can add some 10mm pebbles through your socket and a little slip to fill the voids between the pebbles and continue until your bottle is full then instant thermal mass.
WORD OF WARNING - IF YOU FILL SUCH A VOID USING PEBBLES AND CLAY SLIP THEN ALWAYS DRILL A VENT HOLE OF AT LEAST 1/4" OR 6MM INTO THE PLUG AS LIGHTING THE FIRE TO DRY THE SLIP WILL RELEASE A LOT OF STEAM AND YOUR FIRE COULD EXPLODE.