Rocket Stoves (What a Blast!)

   

       They call it a rocket stove for a reason. (Reason being it sounds like a rocket blasting off when you first light the thing.) But the thermal dynamics of this one have me rethinking what I thought was already a cost efficient consideration as I've been looking to add a standard wood burning stove to my place before winter sets in.     However, the more I dig into all things green, sustainable and permaculture-driven, the more I am learning (and questioning and trying to get my head around)...At the same time, the more I am discovering just how much I don't know.
       In case you're as unfamiliar to this concept as I was, a thermal mass rocket stove does wood-burning one better, using a fraction of the wood for an even greater, more consistent output of heat. As it was explained to me, typical wood stoves waste a good deal of heat with the (hot) smoke that goes up the chimney. A rocket stove removes that element, converting nearly all of the fuel combusted into CO2 and water (including the smoke, which it recycles back into the equation before releasing it). The heat created is stored in a bench of a battery chamber that is then slowly released (from a flame that burns sideways, no less) making for an extended version of what wood burning can do.
     Like a standard wood stove, the rocket stove also burns both logs and scrap wood, only it uses 1/4th the wood for the same amount of heat generated. Good for yard clean up (for folks like me with endless branches and twigs). Good for tree conservation (as it doesn't require as many trees). Good for heat (as the combination of slow release and recapturing of energy that goes out the chimney with traditional methods, makes this one of the hottest energy sources around. And I do mean that literally.)

     My thanks to Wayne and Bev Malchow for sharing their story, their time and their home. For more information and workshop schedules where you can learn "hands-on" how to create your own rocket stove, visit:

http://midwestpermaculture.com/2013/04/rocket-stove-workshop/