I am pretty psyched right now because it appears that my rocket stove, complete with nearly 25 feet of horizontal run (including two 180 degree turns) and no vertical stack, is successfully drawing.
More on that later.
I am pretty psyched right now because it appears that my rocket stove, complete with nearly 25 feet of horizontal run (including two 180 degree turns) and no vertical stack, is successfully drawing.
More on that later.
A few days ago, I finally began building my rocket stove. A rocket stove is a high efficiency, low cost type of homemade mass heater. The advantage with rocket stoves is being able to run the stove pipe through cob furniture such as benches or beds. Instead of sending the stove pipe straight through the roof (along with the heat) as is typical in conventional wood stoves, most of the heat can be captured in the cob thermal mass. Rocket stoves typically burn way less wood than typical wood stoves, and you can make them out of recycled and salvaged materials that are pretty widely available.
I recently bought some flue pipe for the construction of my rocket stove and heated cob bed. I purchased it from a local hardware store, and I was very happy to learn that there is 60″ lengths of flue pipe for sale for roughly $11 each. Compared to the more common 24″ lengths, which are something like $6 a piece, the 60″ pipe is a bargain.
Since I will need over twenty feet of pipe in my cob bed, the longer pieces make much more sense to use. If you are planning to build a heated bench or bed, make sure to find some 60″ length flue pipe.
In the next week, I hope to get some firebricks from our neighbors at Sandhill Farm so that I can begin to build the actual stove.
Check out Michael Blaha’s rocket stove mass heater construction story at I Love Cob!. His stove features a fire brick heat riser, a 27 foot long flue pipe, and lots of thermal mass. Check it out. Lots of nice details here.