Why insulate the stove?

If it burns hot enough to raise the temp of a cup of water 150*F in two minutes, what is the advantage of all this additional mass, bulk, and weight, as opposed to a little heat loss or putting more wood on the fire?

Insulating the combustion chamber is a key element in the Winiarski rocket stove. It causes the chamber to burn hotter and more efficiently, producing less smoke.

http://www.bioenergy...Principles.html

Scroll down to the 'Principles' list. The main idea is to extract the most heat energy possible from the fuel and deliver as much of that energy as possible to the pot.

Recall, the rocket stove is a cook stove. A rocket mass heater is used to warm buildings. Similar principles but entirely different execution.

The Effect of Material Choice on the Combustion Chamber of a Rocket Cooking Stove: Adobe, Common Brick, Vernacular Insulative Ceramic, and Guatemalan Floor Tile (Baldosa)

Increasing combustion chamber temperatures can be achieved by using a VIC or baldosa/insulation material. Higher temperatures should result in a cleaner burn and in our tests these stoves did seem to produce less smoke. The combustion chamber bricks that were tested were 12 inches high. Studies at Aprovecho have shown that the most fuel efficient Rocket internal chimney is shorter, on the order of seven or eight inches high, because temperatures reaching the pot are hottest (above 1,600 F.). But this short chimney is smokier. A insulated internal chimney around 20 inches high is very clean burning but temperatures at the pot are greatly reduced (after 30 minutes around 700 F.) until equilibrium is reached. So chimney height is an important variable. The choice of 12 inches for these tests has created a relatively clean burning stove that is not as fuel efficient as possible in shorter term tests. Stove designers should take the decision of internal chimney height seriously.

Seems to me that this is what you would want to heat a shop. Or this
Not a rocket cook stove. Just a thought.

I agree. The rocket stove is designed as a cook stove, and later adapted to as a mass heater to heat a room.

The drum stove is designed as a space heater.

I know that winter may soon be over for some of us, but was wondering if anyone has experience using a rocket stove to heat their shop/work area?

The original question was more "could it be done".

The most interesting thing we built was a Incenterator for medical supplies. Larry said it would heat enough to melt most medical waste and if not would provide enough heat to fully sanitize. It worked well, I helped build and demostrate it. Lets just say it would burn hot enough that in just with a small fire area it would sunburn you.

Like many others have said before, "God, I love this site!"

Glenn, your thoughts about ventilation are well taken. I understand that a space with cracks and holes is not "ventilated" if the air within it stands stagnant! Seen more than one article about men dying while being trapped in a hole in the ground with stagnant air - being asphyxiated. The top of the hole was ventilated in a sense, but most inefficiently! Routing the exhaust gasses from the rocket stove through a space with some type of piping could work ... but then I gotta go outside every once in a while to feed the beasty.

The question was about had anyone had any experience with a rocket stove as heater ... seems that the result of all this centers around personal choice. Like many projects discussed here, this one may not work. It could work, but without another's experience as a time saver (not having to reinvent the wheel thing) it may require too much experimenting on my end to make it worth while. Guess I could take that 15 gallon drum I have, cut to half size and make it into a heater, unless someone knows where I could find a very small wood stove. Thanks everyone for helping to sort this out. Group inductive and deductive reasoning ... God I love this site!

Perhaps this link provides the answer to my heating issue ... sorry just couldn't resist the tangential thing.

I think if the stove were attached to a pipe the draw would so fierce it would send most of the heat up the chimney.....It would make a good ''car camp'' stove, plenty of wood scraps nearly everywhere....

One word of caution: remove the cartridges from the box before building a fire. (grin).

:lol:

I have one of the original handbooks on how to make a rocket stove out of gallon cans and would be glad to take it apart and scan it to put on here if anybody is interested. The only change I made was to use a store bought drain elbow instead of small tin cans for the burner. The little cans burn out way too fast. This little stove will bring a cast iron Dutch Oven to a boil in no time with twigs. Amazing little camp stove.

looks like a great camping tool

Yeah, ... that was my first thought too.

I do a couple of presentations each year, on Wood Craft, Shooting & Fishing, for the local Boy Scouts.

I think I'll cobble up a portable "Rocket Stove", and give it to them to "field test" this Spring.

It should be interesting .....


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I have one of the original handbooks on how to make a rocket stove out of gallon cans and would be glad to take it apart and scan it to put on here if anybody is interested. The only change I made was to use a store bought drain elbow instead of small tin cans for the burner. The little cans burn out way too fast. This little stove will bring a cast iron Dutch Oven to a boil in no time with twigs. Amazing little camp stove.

If it's not too much hastle I'd like to see that Eric ! Thank you for the offer !

Dick

On another forum

The combustion chamber (sheet metal) in my rocket stove has burned out with less than 20 to 30 hours of use and has made the stove unusable. Sheet metal pipe and fittings will not put up with the temperatures for long.

Dean Aggett's design is built much heavier to address this problem.

As long as your considering the type stove to use, may as well consider and choose the type fuel that contains the most BTUs, or the amount of BTUs you want.
Firewood BTU Comparison Charts

An interesting read. I built rocket type cooking stoves in the peace corps in 1985. At that time the efficiency made them easy to sell to the women of our village. Deforestation made gathering fuel a major choir each day. they were a major improvement over the 3 stone cooking fire.

I haven't thought of them for years....I may have to make one for some outside cooking. LOL

One of their selling points is that they use fuels that others have already passed over, twigs and dry grass and such. They use about 1/3 the fuel of a 3-stone fire so much less fuel needs to be gathered. In deforested areas that's a big plus.

Every year, for the past couple of years, a group of dad's with sons gets together at one of the dads' vacation cabin in the mountains of NC. two years ago, one of the mid-teen boys fashioned a dakota stove using cinder blocks covered with a large amount of dirt. The first year I showed them that providing additional air (two kids with paper plates, fanning vigorously) would get a piece of rebar glowing kinda orange, and if they stuck a splitting maul in a big stump, they could "forge" the re-rod into "something".
that is now one of the looked-forward-to events with the boys

I like the rocket stove idea for outside cooking. goes well with tripod over open fire.

This is interesting for the do-it-yourselfer. It's from a rocket stove website. There's a section on home made insulative ceramics (page 27). I wonder if they would hold up to blacksmithing work.

http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/Pcia/Design%20Principles%20for%20Wood%20Burning%20Cookstoves.pdf

Tom A. your link is to a gold mine! Thanks!!

Here is the site for the little Aprovecho Camp stove: http://www.focaproject.com/FOCA/SOCEatTIC111021115381.pdf
I recommend using a store bought pre-made elbow of some sort in place of the small cans used for the burner because the cans burn out QUICK. Good to know how to make it with cans though out in the middle of nowhere.

I often heat several pieces at once to black and dip them in oil for a finish. I wonder how well one of these would work for that? I usually go through a heck of a lot of propane when I'm doing them en-masse.

should work well, in winter I just through work on the wood stove to heat to black.