Efficient home heating with rocket stove mass heaters

A few years ago, a family member bought a small "as seen on TV" newspaper grill. It was a novelty item that got hauled out at family get togethers to cook a few items with only newspaper for fuel. The newspaper grills have quite a cult following among outdoorsman and survivalist sorts. The newspaper grill is based on the engineering of a rocket stove.

A rocket stove is a specially designed efficient wood burning stove with a well insulated chimney and a side feeding fuel space. The rocket stove concentrates the heat that burns off the noxious smoke from the high temperatures. Rocket stoves have grown in popularity with permaculturists and they have been adapted to whole house heating systems. The first time I saw a rocket stove was when Our Daily Green visited the Community Greenhouse Partners in Cleveland, Ohio. They utilize a rocket stove system to winterize one of their hoop houses.

Rocket stove mass heaters revolutionize the way we heat our homes with fuel. While they are not available to a mass market, with good instructions and a few simple supplies, many folks have built their own.

illustration: Wikimedia Commons

Rocket stoves are not commercially available, but have been utilized around the world to cook and heat. The fire burns sideways and the stove pipe/combustion chamber ensures a high temperature and efficient burn. The resulting heating system is similar to a condensing gas boiler.

Paul Weaton has developed a series of 4 DVDs either available as live streams or via mail order. He has worked closely with Ernie and Erica Wisner, who have built over 700 rocket stove mass heaters. The videos detail exact plans on building a rocket stove mass heater, as well as the physics of how it works and the implications for sustainable heating. Safety measures are discussed throughout the series. Done properly, a home can be heated with minimal fuel and maximum heat. A rocket stove mass heater can heat a home with 10% of the fuel a conventional wood stove uses.

Our Daily Green has worked closely with the permaculture forum, Permies.com to bring our readers information about rocket stove mass heaters. We have received a live streaming code of the DVDs as well as financial compensation. All opinions are our own and all information has been carefully researched. We recommend learning as much as possible before you begin building a rocket stove for home heating. Paul Weaton's comprehensive video series covers every possible question someone interested in building a rocket stove mass heater could potentially have.

Be a Fan