Rocket Stoves and Rocket Mass Heaters

Rocket Stoves are a cleaner and more efficient improvement on the traditional wood burning stove. Whereas much of the heat in a traditional wood burning stove propels the exhaust gasses up and escapes straight out of the flue, a rocket stove flips the whole operation on its side, allowing for more of that thermal energy to heat the inside of your home. Even better, the rocket stove's exhaust flue can be turned into a snug and toasty heated bench or bed!

This video demonstrates how the rocket stove works and provides a quick tutorial on how to build one:

As you can see in the video, the fire burns sideways, taking the exhaust gasses with it! Coming from a home with a traditional wood stove (and remembering a few windy days where the smoke billowed back into the house), this whole sideways thing didn't make sense to me at first. The secret is in the metal heat exchanger, which has much more surface area than the smaller combustion chamber and so it sucks up the heat and exhaust, cooling it just enough to take it through the rest of the vent.

Paul Wheaton's site has much more information on rocket stoves and rocket mass heaters. Along with designs, blueprints and tutorials, he has collected some beautiful images of working rocket stoves that will inspire you to make your own!