The rock-bucket rocket

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:34:45 +0000

I got the idea of this stove construction reading a book on how they used to heat medival castels. Offcourse this is a radical downscale of the concept, but the function is somewhat the same. I really like the simplisity of this construction. And I like to think that the “organic” unnsymetrical channels formed by the rocks somehow works better together with the natural flow of gases than channels and chambers… This is neither a bell nor a channel system. It becomes something in between. I know that maintaining a good surfface/weight ratio is important for a good working stove. And I cant think of a more interesting way to obtain that.

I rebuilded the firebox four times, and there is some critical things to consider. The airgap in the back of the burn chamber should be thin enough to shoot the air as a laminar flow along the back edge of the chamber for secondary burn of the gases up in the tube. (Thanks to both Alex Chernov and Ekonomka for learning more about that) Thats why it doesnt work as well having the exit at the front or middle position over the chamber. This setup showed in the movie works ok, but I think it will work better if I make the chamber deaper and have the wood laying dow keaping the airgap in the back clear through the whole burn. The burn dosent nead a lot of air to maintain combustion. Ratio 1/3 or 1/4 compared to firebox exit seams ok including gaps around door.

Cleaning it is also an issue. The best way seams to be knocking on the barrel now and then and vacuming at the flue exit. But probably once a year it is good to take out the rocks and clean it throughly. That means that constructing it with a removeable lid seams necessary.

Compared to the rocket mass heater we here have a stove that dosent nead to be constructed permanently in a house. And it dosent nead a special foundation. It will work with a standard 4″ flue that they use here. It burns down the wood in one go with minimal maintainance of the fire. It burns almost as clean as the RMH? It gives a very hot cooking surface.Its total cost for a selfbuilder is about 20$!
On the down side it “only” retains heat for about 8 hours after the burn. Other negatives??

Some questions to be answered. Will it be sufficient to heat a livingroom space throught the winter in this climate? Will it give the fuel savings that we are hoping for?

I will have this construction tested through winter to heat a friends livingroom, and come back with some reports on its performance.

If you ever do this construction yourself, I would love to hear about your experience with it.

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The original stove

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:58:43 +0000

I had a very encouraging trip to a nearby village recently, and it gave me some additional information on design needs. But first and foremost it was very encouraging to be so well received. It is always encouraging to build friendship as making friends is important and people even make friends and partners online with the help of site like chatsex online. It looks like this can be one of the places we will start to spread our ideas.
This is a photo of the original kind of stove found in most villages around here. They have to clean the pipes monthly because of the creosote build up in the 10 cm flue pipe ( sign of bad combustion) And with only 1mm sheet metal in the construction, combustion temperatures end up way below the point where most gases are consumed. The expected life of this stove is one or two years! So there are plenty of room for improvement to this design.To keep this going they need two truck loads with wood to stay warm in the winter. (That is aproxemently 80 meters of 30cm wood or 25 square meters). The good thing in villages is that because of the high thermal mass in the buildings the house stays comfortable during the night as the walls gives of the heat they have charged. This households man is a little bit more clever than most because he let his pipe run through the room upstairs, and the boards between the rooms had purposefully half centimeter glitches between them so that the heat could come through. It actually worked ok. Almost like in floor heating upstairs. But he is very exited to try out a different stove that will save wood, and save him the work of cleaning the flue pipes every month.He also expressed the importance of the stove being good for cooking, so this is something we have to emphasize in our design, as it can be a deal breaker. If we succeed in his house he wants to introduce this stove to all the houses of his village. He wants to partner with Tamiz and learn how to make them. In this way he will make him self a small income, at the same time people in the village will save money and increase their comfort + the big end product for us all is that we are reducing emission and cutting of a valuable forrest. This is how change can come, by knowledge and training village after village. Our hope is that once the rock is thrown and proved its impact, the idea will start spreading like rings in water….

gases – Tamiz Solutions

The rock-bucket rocket

The original stove