Lasse Holmes lives in a beautiful place in Homer, Alaska. The best brewer in the state, he is also a natural builder and lives in a timberframe and strawbale cabin that he built in the mountains overlooking the Kenai Peninsula. Lasse turned up on Kirk’s forum, introduced himself, and started sharing his experiences with adapting a Rocket Mass Heater for the heating needs of the cold cold North.
Lasse goes by the handle “canyon” on the Kirk’s forum at www.donkey32.proboards.com.
Alaskan winter conditions are on a whole ‘nother scale from Oregon’s. Lasse Holmes showed up on the forums and began sharing his ideas of a “batch-style” horizontally-fed wood-burner that would allow for cramming it full with wood, burning unattended, and charging a big mass. I’ve visited his place in what I would call winter (there was plenty of snow on the ground, though it was March) and it was cozy. He heats his water and his whole leaky strawbale-timberframe cabin with his Lasse style stove. Not pictured here, because if we showed it to you, you’d try to build it. What he builds for other people is what he teaches. The home stove is strictly experimental.
The burn chamber of firebrick requires a metal frame to hold the firebrick in place, and to mount a front door. Sadie scouts around while we visit a stove in the Homer Alaska wilderness. She’s one of a pack of five awesome sled dogs. He demonstrates this stove to groups, provides the kit hardware which he hand-fabricates in advance.