Batch Rocket
Mass Heaters
Our heaters are efficient, they use less wood and are clean-burning. Not to mention they are affordable, safe and need low maintenance.
BatchRocket mass heater
versus
conventional wood burning stove
Less Pollution
Conventional stoves are generally much more polluting as they dont burn very hot and therefore don’t burn all the fuel. This unburnt fuel pollutes the environment. The fuel that is burnt is transferred into heat.
How efficient this heat is captured determines how much fuel needs to be burnt in total. This is usually much lower in masonry stoves like the BatchRocket mass heater.
They are designed to burn wood super efficiently and to capture and store that heat as well. They do both of these tasks much better than most conventional wood burning stoves.
Ease of Use
We all want to keep our homes as cosy and warm as possible while using the least amount of wood. With conventional wood burning stoves people often try to keep a fire burning all through the night which will make it easier to light the fire in the morning by reducing the intake of air. This makes the stoves much less efficient and much more polluting.
BatchRocket mass heaters are designed to keep their heat for a certain amount of time after having burnt a so called batch of wood and in general the heater is very easy to startup, especially when not totally cold.
Maintenance
The BatchRocket produces much less ash & soot, so there is no need to clean the chimney. Once or twice a year cleaning of the inside is needed with a vacuumcleanner and is done through built in access points. This should only take a few minutes. With conventional woodburning stoves you should have your fluepipes cleaned at least once a year.
Safety
Even though the BatchRocket heaters burn wood at much higher temperatures than conventional woodburning stoves it is always possible to touch the bricks and fluepipes without burning oneself. It can still be too warm to comfortably hold it but it is much safer than other stoves that can be quite dangerous.
Heat
BatchRocket heaters heat by radiation which reduces air movement and hot ceiling effect. Radiation warmth is gentle consistent warmth as opposed to really hot or really cold.
Conventional wood burning stoves heat spaces by convection which leads to lots of air movement/draughts and heat concentrating at ceiling level.
High Efficiency
The BatchRocket heater is designed to have an flue exit temperature of between 120 to 150 degrees. This is the minimum temperature needed to maintain a draught. It is achieved by having an ideal size of inside surface area where the inside heat is exchanged with the bricks.
Temperatures in a conventional metal stove never reach over 600 degrees as to protect the stove from oxidizing. At temperatures of 700 degrees and higher steel starts to oxidize considerably faster, in essence the metal is being burnt away. Manufacturers of these stoves make sure that fires are cooled when needed by adding an excess of air to the fire.
Sometimes you see flue pipes glowing red hot. All that heat is projected to the outside and is basically lost.
Efficiency achievable depends on certain conditions: dry wood, amount of air, etc. Manufacturers’ published ratings assume ideal conditions, which is hard to achieve in practice.
Operation Time
Conventional stoves need to be fed with wood frequently. How frequently depends on a lot of factors. An example of someone who counted the amount of times he went to the stove to put a piece of wood on the fire was that he got up around once every 15 minutes. That is very often.
A BatchRocket stove only needs to be fed once in every so many hours, depending on the size of the stove, the temperature outside and inside, the size of the space and the insulation of the space.
Wood
A BatchRocket mass heater uses 50 percent less wood than a conventional energy efficient stove when used according to specifications (which most people never really do). When not used according to those specifications the usage of wood can be decreased to up to 90 percent when switching to using a BatchRocket mass heater.
Another difference is that conventional wood burning stoves require thick pieces of wood to burn properly. The Batch Rocket stove actually likes a bit of thinner pieces so it can use pieces of wood that would have normally been discarded as waste.
The amount of stacking and moving firewood around depends on the amount of wood used to heat the space. Switching to the use of a BatchRocket system greatly decreases this time spent. Or if you normally buy your wood it can save you quite a bit of money. Over the many years you will enjoy your heater you will gradually earn back your investment.
Design
The design of the heater can easily be adapted to the space that it is going to heat. The finishing of the Heater can be done with firecob and gives the owner the possibility to make it their own by creatively decorating it. The Heater is mostly built from locally available natural materials.
100mm BatchRocket Mass Heater
100 mm BatchRocket mass Heater
Our project started with this design. Developing it was our attempt to bring rocket stove technology to the people. Our main goal was to make it as cheap as possible by standardizing the design and fabrication process and looking for the best and cheapest materials.
Properties:
The 100mm BatchRocket mass heater has a dimension of 58x58x130 cm. It weighs about 600 KG. It uses about 3 KG’s of wood per batch which gives off enough heat for 2 to 6 hours depending on the space you are heating.
The materials used are:
- Firebricks
- Sand and clay to form firecob (which is cob without straw)
- HTC (High Temperature Cement) for gluing the firebricks to create the core of the heater
- Firecord and ceramic fibre blanket for insulation
- A few steel parts: the door, the secondary air channel and the top plate
Suitability:
Whether this BatchRocket Heater is powerful enough to heat your space depends on many factors, but it is found that taking only the following aspects into account is often sufficient in determining the needed heater, and whether this one is sufficiently powerful:
- How big the space is in cubic meters (m3)
- How warm you would like it to be in the space compared to the outside temperature
- How well is the place insulated.
If you provide these details to us we can calculate whether the stove is suitable for your space.
Purchase includes:
- All the materials
- Us building the heater in your place in two days time
- User manuals on
- drying the heater
- maintenance of your heater
- daily use of your heater
- Free support while you become accustomed with your stove
Does not include:
- Flue pipe installation
- Any preparation work that needs doing before we can start installation
- Applying any form of finish, such as plastering
- Transportation fees
100mm BatchRocket mass heater
150mm
BatchRocket Mass Heater
About the 150mm BatchRocket mass heater
After the great success of our first model, the 100mm BatchRocket stove, we are very excited to share with you that we have been working on a new bigger model, a 150mm BatchRocket mass heater!
While talking to you we realized that in some cases, where there is poor insulation or the space is too big, the 100mm BatchRocket might not be sufficient to satisfy the heating requirements needed.
The 150mm has been specifically designed to fulfill a greater heating demand and produces more than double the heat output of the small model.
Properties:
The Bell of the 150mm BatchRocket mass heater has a dimension of 68x90x170 cm and the heated bench next to it has a dimension of 150x60x50. Together it will weigh about 1300 KG. It uses about 6 KG’s of wood per batch which gives off enough heat for 8 to 16 hours depending on the space you are heating.
The materials used are:
- Firebricks
- Sand and clay to form firecob (which is cob without straw)
- HTC (High Temperature Cement) for gluing the firebricks to create the core of the heater
- Firecord and ceramic fibre blanket for insulation
- A few steel parts: the door, the secondary air channel and the top plate
Suitability:
Whether this BatchRocket Heater is powerful enough to heat your space depends on many factors, but it is found that taking only the following aspects into account is often sufficient in determining the needed heater, and whether this one is sufficiently powerful:
- How big the space is in cubic meters (m3)
- How warm you would like it to be in the space compared to the outside temperature
- How well is the place insulated.
If you provide these details to us we can calculate whether the stove is suitable for your space.
Purchase includes:
- All the materials
- Us building the heater in your place in five days time
- User manuals on
- drying the heater
- maintenance of your heater
- daily use of your heater
- Free support while you become accustomed with your stove
Does not include:
- Flue pipe installation
- Any preparation work that needs doing before we can start installation
- Applying any form of plastering
- Transportation fees
150mm BatchRocket mass heater
Custom Design Batch Rocket Mass Heater
Not every space can be heated properly with a 100mm BatchRocket system. Your space might be fairly large, it might be poorly insulated or you might have other requirements like a heated bench or a specific shape or size to make the heater fit seamlessly into your living space. If so we can offer you to custom design your heater.
Which BatchRocket heater do I need?
To find out which size BatchRocket Heater you need that is powerful enough to heat your space you need the following information:
- How big the space is in cubic meters (m3)
- How warm you would like it to be in the space compared to the outside temperature
- How well is the place insulated.
If you provide these details to us we can calculate whether the stove is suitable for your space.
Possibilities
We can design a BatchRocket mass heater to your needs. There are certain limitations given by the dimensions that have been tested and need to be adhered to ensure the proper working of the stove. That said there are many properties that we can change.
You could have a heated bench for example. The bench can be placed on either side of the heater and can be sized to your specific space.
You can vary the height, width and depth of the bell to a certain extend as long as the core of the BatchRocket mass heater fits in and the inside surface area does not exceed the limit given by the dimensions of the specific Batch Rocket Heater.
Pricing
It is very difficult to say something about cost without knowing your specific requirements. We can say that we have put a lot of effort into making sure that the 100mm system can be sold for 700 Euro. That effort is not reflected in the price and is our gift to everyone who gets one of the 100mm BatchRocket mass heaters. But for any custom design we have to do a substantial amount of work designing the model.
Get In Touch
Send us a message with the properties of your space and your personal requirements and we can advise you on what size Heater is most suitable for the space you want to heat. Also any questions are welcome.
Reach out to us
Share your ideas, ask your questions. We are here to help.
Address
Rua Principal 563
3305-033 Benfeita
Portugal
Call Us
(+351) 967 651 904
for calls or WhatsApp
Email Us
info@batchrocket.pt
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Our designs derive from the Batch Box Rocket concept by Peter van den Berg.
Everything is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
