Keep Your Home Warm Sustainably - Rocket Stove Mass Heater Uses Ten Percent Of The Wood As Conventional Stoves
Rocket stove mass heaters offer many advantages over conventional wood heating stoves.
Living with a rocket stove is labor-saving and cost effective, but more importantly, it creates a warm, cosy feeling throughout your home lasting days after the fire goes out.
What's A Rocket Stove Mass Heater?
A rocket stove is an efficient and hot burning stove using small diameter wood fuel. Fuel is burned in a simple combustion chamber containing an insulated vertical chimney, which ensures almost complete combustion prior to the flames reaching the exhaust. credit
Conventional stoves pull the heat of a fire directly out the stove pipe, but a rocket stove mass heater directs the fire through a maze of insulated exhaust pipe.
You can almost hold your hand in front of the exhaust and not get burned because all the heat has dissipated into the heat sink built around the exhaust.
A thermal mass, such as brick or adobe, is built around the exhaust channel which absorbs the heat radiating from the exhaust pipe. This heat is then slowly released, or exchanged, throughout the room over a long period of time.
This decrease temperature differentials within the room, creating a long-lasting feeling of even warmth even when the fire is extinguished.
Another benefit is rocket stoves can heat a room on a fraction of the wood necessary with a conventional stove.
According to rocket stove builder, Paul Wheaton:
This could be the cleanest and most sustainable way to heat a conventional home. Some people have reported that they heat their home with nothing more than the dead branches that fall off the trees in their yard. credit
Benefits Of Rocket Stoves
- Rockets stoves can be built with readily available materials. (Low tech)
- Heat the same space as a conventional stove using 10% of the wood.
- Emit less smoke reducing air pollution.
- more use of radiant and conductive heat increases efficiency compared to convective heat favored by other stoves.
- Can heat water at the same time as it heats a space.
Rocket Stove Designs
Some beautifully designed rocket stoves.
The exhaust from this stove passes under the bench built into it, radiating the heat throughout the room. It makes for a warm place to sit or curl up on. Like the heated seats in your car, this is a heated couch.
It won't burn you, is safe for cushions or pillows, very comfortable to sit on and will take the chill right out of you.
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A rocket stove designed for a kitchen.
This stove is well design for a kitchen area and allows for addition burners to cook on.
A beautiful, artistic, outdoor rocket stone to warm guests on chilly afternoons or evenings.
Rocket Stoves For Hot Water
Rocket stoves can heat spaces, cook food and also heat water. Adding a copper coil inside the burn chamber and connecting it to a water line is one way to do it, but this technique will heat a lot more water for a longer time.
Geoff Lawton, co-founder of The Permaculture Institute shows how they heat water for for cooking, cleaning an bathing for the entire staff at their research center.
Watch this amazing video to learn exactly how to do it.
How to Build a Rocket Stove Mass Water Heater, with Geoff Lawton
Hope you enjoyed this introduction to Rocket Stove Mass Heaters. Stay warm this winter.
he rocket stove couch in the living room is amazing!
I always wanted a rocket stove in a greenhouse to keep the ground warm during winter. Fresh fruits and vegies all year long in the snow would rule!
I hear they are very popular in greenhouses and we're considering it on our farm. Our greenhouses are big though. 98' x 30' and it's nice to take the winter off from farming.
Damn that is one huge greenhouse!
You would need a couple but you would only have to burn them a little a day because the ground would store up the heat quickly.
the more I think of the size of your green house the more im blown away. lol
It's great to have. Here's a pic of it.
If you used the greenhouse for water catchment you would be good on water too. A lot more area for catchment hen the roof of a tiny house.
Yes! That's a great idea. : )
:O
I'm so jelous!
Wow, You could build a small house in there and still have room for your garden. 8D
Now that's an amazing idea I have been toying around with in my head. Imagine a tiny home build inside a big greenhouse two rocket stoves, one for the house for heat and hot water that vents to the outside of the greenhouse and another inside the greenhouse itself to heat it in winter. Plant food all around the house inside the greenhouse and tada... a years round ecosystem to shelter your shelter, so to speak. I bet it would be warm in that house and cheap to keep warm.
I saw a rocket stove tutorial a few years ago and it played on my mind so much that I asked Santa for a multi fuel stove. There really is a Santa!
Because we were able to heat just one room rather than use the central heating system, our fuel bills were cut by around a third!
I have a tiny greenhouse but hubby is insulating my potting shed so I can heat that over the winter and see what I can do with tomatoes etc.
I love your post, I wish I could vote for it twice!
So glad you like rocket stoves and the post. I'd love to see pics of yours if you can. Thanks again.
These are brilliant and I believe will become more popular for efficient heating of sustainable home gardens (in the colder climates).
They work so well and hardly use any wood at all. Keeps your home warm days after the fire goes out. I really want to build one to heat water, like in the video posted at the bottom of this post. That thing rocks.
Keep on Steeming on! I have see these ideas in the past and I know my family really wants to try some of these ideas. Thank you for bringing this back to our memory, we need to get busy. Steem On!
Yes, you should build one. Even a simple barrel one works very well.
You have very interesting posts. It's an artform in itself. I wish I had your talent for presentation. You are very creative.
Thank you so much for the compliment and for reading my post.
:-)
awesome!
You like that kind of stuff? Me too.
OMG!
I LOVE that you posted this!
I have been building rocket stove for many years and have actually made 4 posts about rocket stoves on Steemit!
They are truly amazing and so much could be improved by them.
Rocket mass heaters are even less common but in gold climates are real game changers. Amazing how much burning could be saved if everyone used these in cold climates.
UPVOTED, following and hope to see other such practically awesome posts!
Yep, they're awesome and very economical. I found this link that shows plans for some very simple rocket stoves I thought you may like.
http://sustainablog.org/2011/09/how-to-build-a-rocket-stove/
Yes those are very basic indeed. Better than nothing and kinda nice to be able to throw together on the move, though I have really nice ones.
Check out my posts on how to make a rocket stove to see what mine are like!