Housing Design- Rocket Mass Heater location

[jamesneuen]

So, I've mentioned that I plan to build a super insulated house when I settle down. I am constantly refining and changing things to try and make it as energy efficient and comfortable as possible without losing all the creature comforts but also without making it way too much work that someone needs to stay home 24/7.

Most likely ICF construction for the bottom and top. Currently looking at a half buried basement, all the living quarters downstairs, with the working areas in the "main" floor.

My question is this,

Can I use a rocket mass heater in the "basement" or am I risking mass exposure to carbon monoxide?

These are rare enough I don't expect anyone to be an expert and I have done tons of searching but it hasn't helped. My concern is that since carbon monoxide is a heavy gas and the ICF is so vapor tight that it would be dangerous. I have never really seen a fireplace in a basement, just a furnace and they were never a living space in those kind. This will be used as my main source of heating, with a regular stove tied into the flue on the floor above.

[Sniper-T]

My parents had a fireplace in their basement. The only time it was a concern was when it was left to smoulder and go out for the night. Other times, we would always open a small casement window outside of the room and around the corner. We would run the furnace and a couple fans would circulate it throughout the house, or without, that room could mummify while most of the upstairs could make ice.

We also had an upstairs fireplace, but they shared a common chimney (albeit different flues), but they could not burn at the same time, or one would draw in the others smoke. In hindsite, dad should have run one flue up about 4 feet higher than the other, and then with window(s) open, they could both burn.

Keep in mind tat these were both stone fireplaces built in the '50's, not a modern insert. with an insert, many new ones are vented to draw fresh air from the outside, so as long as your house isn't too air tight, you can keep your windows closed.

Best bet get a CO/CO2 alarm/sensor, and experiment. I'm pretty sure that those stoves aren't designed for that, so data may be limited.

As an aside, I had an uncle who built an old fashioned stone firepit it the middle of an open basement that could burn 4 foot logs that he brought in via a shute through the wall. It was a really neat system that employed block and tackles to raise the firebox almost to the ceiling, where a large inverted 'funnel' near the ceiling, would catch the heat when he burnt some paper/kindling to create the draw, and then load and lower it as the fire picked up. We could sit around like we were outside, while he heated his house

[Domeguy]

Far from an expert here, but I have built my own home and installed my own wood stove and chimney flue pipe. In planning it all out, I also tried to consider any other problems I might encounter. Have you considered the possibilities if something might happen to go wrong one night, and for some reason, the fire might go out. I know very little about rocket stoves, but how much smoke and CO2 could be produced if it were to drop below that magic percent number if something went wrong? I am not trying to discourage you, but just hoping you have all bases covered.

[jamesneuen]

That's neat ST. I'm not sure how I would make everything work for the flues. How do modern inserts get their air from outside?

From the style of the stove I don't think anything could make it smolder really because of the way it's designed with a downward feed. Plus if it ever stopped drawing enough air to suck the exhaust up the flue it would smother the fire in the burn chamber since is lower than the start of the feed.

[Sniper-T]

They have two intakes to draw air from a primary and secondary source.
with the old fireplaces, if the heatrise became too low, the smoke would dissipate into the room, and it would start to draw from the chimney.

This is why current pellet stoves have a fan to force air into the burn chamber, and if power goes out, the stove shuts down.

[jamesneuen]

I don't think that would really be possible with the design of the rocket heater