Rocket Mass Heater

[wtyamamoto]

Just a curiosity. I saw a post somewhere mentioning "Rocket Mass Heaters" as a 'super efficient' type of wood burning stove. The only information I could really find on it is a book on how to make them yourself and it's appears to be gaining reputation among people who like to build eco-friendly houses. From images, it seems like it's made from 55 gallon steel drums.

Has anyone heard or used one of these? What's the deal with these?

Wayne

 

[Sundeep Arole]

I presume if they worked and were safe to use, there would be a company (or multiple companies) making and selling them for serious money. Given they are not, I think it safe to assume they are ineffective, undesirable to have around, or unsafe, or all of the above. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[wg_bent]

From poking around they look to be a giant version of a wood gasification cooking stove.

That said, I'm not sure how that really differs in practice from a high efficiency wood stove. Essentially, a woodstove creates wood gas and burns it, followed by a charcoal burning stage.

Not sure how those things are really different, plus I can't say they're very attractive. Maybe interesting to play with for the academic exercise, but I doubt they could be better than and EPA approved stove, especially all the $$$ that companies like VC and Harmon etc... put in the R&D.