Natural Building Network Cob Building Straw Bale Earthbag Cordwood Workshops Earthen Plasters Lime Hemp Adobe Bamboo Natural Insulation Earthen Floors Compressed Earth Light-Clay Fidobe Stone Masonry Timber Framing Wattle and Daub Thatch Living Roofs Permaculture Sun Community Energy Building Codes Permits

FEATURES

Natural Building: Workshops & Events

Natural Builders:
•By Location
•By Specialty
•With Workshops

Community Classifieds

Colloquium and Gatherings

Why Natural Building?

Natural Building Resources

NBN

Join

Home

About Us

Staff Bios

Contact Us

Fine Print

Copyright

Disclaimer

Rocket Stoves
JACK STEPHENS

The Rocket Stove is a simple applied technology that makes a typical box wood stove seem like something from the dark ages. What makes a rocket stove a rocket stove?

1. A roughly J-shaped combustion chamber with abrupt right angle turns. Hot gases rising up the long leg suck cool air down the short leg through the fuel.
2. A combustion chamber enclosed in high temperature insulation. (Insulation = high temperature = complete combustion = high efficiency).
3. An insulated chimney which is inside the stove itself (creates draft).
4. The firewood stands upright and burns at its bottom end only, feeding the stove by gravity as it falls into the fire.
5. The capacity to push heated gases through long horizontal passages in floors, beds, or benches.
6. The concept of separating the combustion unit from the use of the heat so produced, and particularly, storing that heat for hours or days in inexpensive built-in furniture.
7. Extraordinary efficiency, both in extracting heat from the fuel and in delivering heat for use when and where it is needed.
8. Easy to construct from inexpensive materials.

A typical metal box wood stove has combustion temperatures of about 500-600 degrees F, mostly heats the sky, and produces lots of smoke. In my own stove, I’ve recorded temperatures of 1200+ degrees in the combustion chamber, stored that heat in a built-in stone and cob bench (safely diffused over several days, warm enough to lay on comfortably and not-too-hot), and what comes out the chimney is mostly steam (H2O and CO2). 

The book, Rocket Mass Heaters: Superefficient Woodstoves You Can Build, written by NBN members Ianto Evans and Leslie Jackson, shows me how to build the stove myself, step-by-step with clear, easy to follow directions and lots of illustrations and photos.

I highly recommend the book, available through the Cob Cottage Company at www.cobcottage.com or Leslie Jackson at www.rocketstoves.com.