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Rocket Stove

We’ve been playing around with the idea of using more sustainable methods for our cooking and our first dalliance in that direction has been to build a basic rocket stove. The concept involves two cylinders which intersect in a right angle elbow. The one parallel to the ground has a little shelf built in at about 1/3 the height of the cylinder which you file with dry twigs. You light the twigs and a vacuum is created sucking cool air into the third of the cylinder below the burning twigs. The heat from fire pushes the air up in a ‘rocket’ style thus creating a perfect spot for a cooking pan on the top of the stove. I hope this made sense.

Pete decided to build one out of bricks this time, as an experiment. Apparently this is how they are made in developing countries as it is efficient and very cheap to make and run. We had a lovely dinner of snags cooked on our stove and we only used a very small pile of twigs which we gathered from around our yard. My project is to try and build a solar oven next .. keep you posted!