47. Rocket stove: hyper efficient wood burning stoves

A rocket stove is a hyper efficient wood burning stove that was originally built for the developing world. It solved two big problems - people were dying from indoor air pollution from cooking on indoor open air fires and all of the wood needed to run these stoves was causing deforestation. Now the rocket stove has come to North America but with a bit of a twist. Instead of cooking with it the rocket stove is being turned into a heater. It's got a cult following among the DIY and permaculture crowd and it's not hard to understand why. It uses far less wood than a conventional wood burning stove, it's cheap to build and you get some built-in furniture out of the deal. Part of what makes the rocket stove so attractive as a heater is that running the heat through thousands of pounds worth of thermal mass you get a heat battery. That thermal mass typically takes the shape of a cob bench. Learn all about rocket stoves and how they work this week on Green Energy Futures.