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.
It feels like building season is almost upon us. There’s a hint of spring warmth in the air, and I get antsier with each passing day as I think about the prospect of finishing my humble abode. I have a building sequence of events that I’ve been thinking about today.
Other than finishing the living roof (I won’t load the topsoil until the spring rains have largely passed, so I’m not in an immediate rush to finish the other roof work that remains), there is a fair bit of interior work to be done.
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.
About The Year of Mud
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This website is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. In 2012, we started offering Natural Building Workshops, so you can learn essential hands-on skills to build your own natural home.