andrew346
ArboristSite Operative
Has anyone here heard much of these or even better still- built one? ive been looking at a cheap way to heat my garage/workshop in the winter and stop condensation and ive stumbled across this concept. Its a 90%+ efficient way of burning wood which stores heat in a sort of thermal battery and slowly releases it over a day or 2 even after you let the fire out.
The big plus for me is that its something you can make yourself with very little money outlay, some firebrick , a barrel and ducting/flue. Granted it kinda looks a little ugly but as its in my garage i dont really mind.
I dont know what the policy for posting links in this forum is but a basic google search will yeild plenty of info. From what my reading so far lets me understand you light a fire in a structure made from firebrick perhaps, with two linked pits, the fire in one and an insulated small chimney/heat riser on top. (if you imagine digging a hole in the ground, then digging another identical hole beside it- then tunnelling through without disturbing the surface, you get the idea) you then light a fire in one hole. the smoke and flame will rise as normal but if you put a small insulated chimney over the second hole then the fire apparently burns sideways, there is a draw created and no smoke rises from the first hole. This is the basis of the stove.
A barrel is placed upside down over this chimney/heat riser to stop all the exhaust gasses escaping freely into the air-just like putting a big cup over it. instead theyre channeled down over the sides of the heat riser and can only escape through one outlet which is a run of flue pipe which can run horizontal or vertical twisting and turning until you actually route it out of your building to let the gases escape.
The clever bit is that a lot of cob(dried earth/clay mix) is moulded to completely cover the fluepipe. in fact many people deliberately make the pipe take a long and twisting route so they can make cob structures around it. They make benches and improvised beds from this cob as it heats up as a thermal mass and is pleasantly hot and releases the heat slowly. Obviously you get instant heat from the exposed barrel i mentioned earlier but this too is partially covered in the cob.I remember reading one guy saying his Rocket stove was so efficient he was burning about 2/3 or a cord wheareas before hed burn 6- Although less wood needed = less use of chainsaw which is a bit of a negative in my book!!
Hope i havent bored you to tears reading such a long post!! but what ive read on the stoves sounds almost too good to be true.im just really intruiged by it. Ive ordered a book on it because i really like the idea of building one. i searched on here but could find no posts on the subject- but if theres anyone here whos actually built one or has seen one id love to hear from you.
Regards
Andrew
by the way if you do decide to search for this subject on google or something, there are lots of rocket cooking stoves.. mostly made out of tin cans etc. Im talking about the same principle but instead the mass heater type
The big plus for me is that its something you can make yourself with very little money outlay, some firebrick , a barrel and ducting/flue. Granted it kinda looks a little ugly but as its in my garage i dont really mind.
I dont know what the policy for posting links in this forum is but a basic google search will yeild plenty of info. From what my reading so far lets me understand you light a fire in a structure made from firebrick perhaps, with two linked pits, the fire in one and an insulated small chimney/heat riser on top. (if you imagine digging a hole in the ground, then digging another identical hole beside it- then tunnelling through without disturbing the surface, you get the idea) you then light a fire in one hole. the smoke and flame will rise as normal but if you put a small insulated chimney over the second hole then the fire apparently burns sideways, there is a draw created and no smoke rises from the first hole. This is the basis of the stove.
A barrel is placed upside down over this chimney/heat riser to stop all the exhaust gasses escaping freely into the air-just like putting a big cup over it. instead theyre channeled down over the sides of the heat riser and can only escape through one outlet which is a run of flue pipe which can run horizontal or vertical twisting and turning until you actually route it out of your building to let the gases escape.
The clever bit is that a lot of cob(dried earth/clay mix) is moulded to completely cover the fluepipe. in fact many people deliberately make the pipe take a long and twisting route so they can make cob structures around it. They make benches and improvised beds from this cob as it heats up as a thermal mass and is pleasantly hot and releases the heat slowly. Obviously you get instant heat from the exposed barrel i mentioned earlier but this too is partially covered in the cob.I remember reading one guy saying his Rocket stove was so efficient he was burning about 2/3 or a cord wheareas before hed burn 6- Although less wood needed = less use of chainsaw which is a bit of a negative in my book!!
Hope i havent bored you to tears reading such a long post!! but what ive read on the stoves sounds almost too good to be true.im just really intruiged by it. Ive ordered a book on it because i really like the idea of building one. i searched on here but could find no posts on the subject- but if theres anyone here whos actually built one or has seen one id love to hear from you.
Regards
Andrew
by the way if you do decide to search for this subject on google or something, there are lots of rocket cooking stoves.. mostly made out of tin cans etc. Im talking about the same principle but instead the mass heater type
.
