Hello from East Texas

I'm from and in East Texas, looking to learn how to build a rocket heater that can heat a 1200 sf uninsulated metal building.  Hello to everyone.  Glad to be here.   :)

welcome to the site

i gather that would be 1200 sq ft to heat up im only aware of garys rocket stove that can pump out enough heat on that scale of size of building but his is insulated

it is better to have an insulated building or even a preheated building or any type of heater is going to struggle with it

if you have metal structure does it suffer with droplets of water or not when its cold or has snow on the ground reason why i ask is that a box profile roof still drips as ive found out myself in a little shed of mine

Hi gadily.  :)

I live in the building with family.  We are very poor, cannot insulate.  Maybe next year.  This year, there is only small bit of money to build a heater with, can't buy crap tons of wood, so trying for something more efficient than a barrel heater (vogelzang).  Not enough money to heat with electric space heaters, and there is no heating system or ducting.  Condensation inside has not been an issue.  Also, roof is gable type. In my area, we get snow/ice maybe 7 days in winter, that's all.  Winter temps don't get much lower than 25F (-3.8C), with February seeing the coldest temps ~19F (~-7.2C).  That said, this is a metal building with a concrete floor and no insulation.  Indoor temps won't be much higher than outdoor temps without heating.  :/

thankyou for being truthful it helps to aid you better

theres a few designs out there that can build you these rocket stoves but is dependent on what you can get hold of and also what you can do

t2h has been in your situation and within a camper van

lets start off

quick builds



improved by this type



for a longer burn in a firebox





with further adaptions with metal tube these systems can provide more heat output

what you would be creating would be a system like this



to read up on the build

https://woodstoves.forumotion.co.uk/t857-arocket-for-my-narrowboat

you can smaller it a good chunk using this method or within a square build like the turbo stove build

https://woodstoves.forumotion.co.uk/t678-cook-shack-rs-heater

these are the systems i would choose to build for speed and materials needed for quick build these materials can be adjusted by using firebrick method of build within the firebox but its an untried system

i have built one myself but i am now building a smaller one a hybrid of 3 systems

https://woodstoves.forumotion.co.uk/t219-start-of-my-rs-build

there is smaller systems that forum members have built on here if you cant get the materials i can advise these type of builds instead

Welcome