June 27, 2008

How to build a rocket stove , following Larry Winiarski's Rocket Stove Principles. These highly efficient, easy to build cookstoves can cook a meal using a handful of twigs, so the inventor says.

They've been around for about five years, showing great promise for use in deforested developing nations. Also very interesting to the strawbale-house / biodeisel / solar energy type (such as myself). Rocket stoves, however, probably won't create much lift (unless used in conjunction with a paper-bag hot air balloon). via

posted by stomper 16 years ago
  • Um, am I missing something with this 'rocket stove principles' stuff? This isn't anything new to those of us who have built a few campfires in their lives, and not the friendly, crackly kind, but the full-throttle-afterburners kind whose blue-core flame attracts the attention of the warden... Also, can I use a rocket stove within my rocket house, or is that crossing the streams of rocketry?
  • I think Winarski's work does add something of value. Having built some hot little fires myself I'm going to guess that you used more than a handful of twigs to get there. The idea is to take your blue-core fire and make it hyper efficient, using a carefully designed chamber, and insulating with low mass, heat resistant materials. Perhaps most exciting is the how simple it is to make these materials from local clay and sawdust.
  • I like that video. Low-tech innovation is cool.
  • They've been around for like 2,000 years. It's an anagama kiln. We make these in ceramics every year.
  • I wouldn't discount it so quickly - Mr. K. The anagama kiln is not very efficient, and consumes fuel quite rapidly. The so-called "rocket stove" is quite efficient, and has reduced smoke emissions (compared to other methods). Interesting post. Thanks!
  • It must be difficult having "invented" a new stove. Everyone around you is probably going to be all "pft. fire. so? we've had that since -- what, a million years ago?"