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A
rocket stove is a very simple furnace, which can be used for cooking,
heating and water heating. It uses less wood than traditional open
fire, can burn small pieces of wood, produce less pollution and can be
easily constructed from cheap materials.
A rocket
stove provides efficient combustion of fuel with a high temperature to
ensure that there is a good air supply to the fire, controlled use of
fuel and effective utilization of heat. It has been used for cooking in
many Third World countries - especially the Rwandan refugee camps.
Rocket
stoves are well suited to developing countries because they are simple
to build and the materials are cheap, maybe free. For the same reason
it is suitable for self-builders in the industrialized countries who
want to build their own oven.
The rocket stove has
always been meant to be simple and easy to construct and therefore it
can be build from old tin cans, bricks, etc.
The main components of a rocket stove are:
• Fuel Stack: For the firewood and heat entering the combustion chamber.
• Combustion chamber: The end of the fuel magazine, where firewood is burned.
• Chimney: A vertical stack of the combustion chamber providing buoyancy to maintain the fire.
• Heat exchanger: The heat is transferred, by cooking to the pot.
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Benefits of rocket stoves
- Rocket stoves are easy to build
- Rocket stoves can be built of cheap, maybe free recycled materials
- Rocket stoves save firewood
- Rocket stoves are quick to make
In
developing countries rocket stoves are an obvious alternative, because
they save precious wood while reducing cutting of forest, reduces the
risk of children injured by fire, and not least the flex oven create
less smoke indoors, which is vital for health - each year more people
die of smoke from open fireplaces than die of malaria.
History
Dr. Larry Winiarski began to develop the rocket stove in 1980 and
invented the basic principles in 1982. Another well-known developer of
rocket stoves is the American Ianto Ewans.
Rocket stove for space heating
When a rocket stove is used for space heating it can be designed to
heat a large quantity of material that keeps the heat and slowly
release it, just as is the case with mass stoves. Rocket stoves can be
arranged creatively, such as a hot bench, where the heat through the
chimney passes through a bench to sit on. Similarly it can be used to
heat the water and much more.
Links
YouTube
Drawings for rocket stoves
Pictures of rocket stoves
Wikipedia
Rocket stove.org
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