[Cob] Want a flue-heated bench?...must use Ianto's rocket stove!

[Amanda Peck]

First couple of paragraphs--instructive, last--good idea if we've got the 
room and the time.  I had wondered why people like Ken Kern had been so much 
in favor of the Rumsford fireplaces.

......................
Ocean writes (snipped)

The key feature of Ianto's rocket is a super-insulated internal chimney,
which he calls the "heat riser", which allows the wood to completely
vaporize and burn at temperatures up to 1100F, so that only steam and
carbon dioxide exit through the flue...no ash, no creosote, no chimney
flue fires!  Actually, it's instructive and somewhat amazing to smell(!)
the exit gasses from a blazing rocket stove flue: no smoke, just steam
more like a laundry-dryer vent with a nice woody scent!

So a well designed rocket stove combusts as close to 100% efficiency as
anything I've seen.  Why is this important, if wood fuel is plentiful?
For one, no smoke to pollute our air.  But note also that more efficient
burning means more heat from less wood, hence less physical labor or money
spent acquiring fuel, more time for other activities (gardening, reading,
dancing, weaving, etc!)

Regarding the appropriate-ness of building a rocket stove versus some
other heat source for seldom-occupied buildings... we decided to provide
two heat sources in the cob Kiva at Ahimsa Sanctuary (
http://www.peacemaking.org ).  We have both a rocket (built by Kiko) for
long term heating of weekend-long events, and a Rumsford hearth (built by
Ianto) for providing immediate heat in the previously unheated building
for evening-only events.  The Rumsford fireplace burns hot and clean, and
provides immediate, intense radiant heat (it melted a plastic bucket 5
feet away!) while the rocket heats a buried-flue bench as well as
radiating heat through its drum.

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