Post by solan on Jun 11, 2011 8:45:17 GMT -5
I have a clean burning log stove for winter, which makes beautiful curries and soups, gently slow cooking them while I relax. Sunday lunch is baked next to the soup in a dutch oven.
Summer cooking and hot water heating was going to be different. First effort was a solar box cooker, then a satellite dish for a parabolic solar cooker, then a home-made rocket stove involving 16 loose house bricks and an empty tin can. The main thing I discovered was I'm not very patient with getting stuff to work, so the solution for me is a Stove Tec rocket stove, which has been carefully researched and developed by the company over a number of years. I got it a couple of months ago. It is incredibly quick, and can be faster than the gas hob once it has got going. It has a chimney that burns off the wood gas that comes off the twigs, same idea as in the winter stove. I use it to fill thermos flasks for early morning hot water at the moment. Another idea I have had is to put a bain marie over it, ie a large old roasting tin with half an inch of water in it, and a number of pans standing in the water all cooking at the same time, which would also keep the soot away from the pans and make it easier to wash them. When I find out how to stop the soot it will be even better. It may be damp fuel, or not enough fuel, or something needs adjusting somewhere. Perhaps it burns off if you wait long enough. Anyway, it looks like a tall catering size coffee tin, has special adobe insulation inside, a chimney going down through the core, connected to a hole on the side at the bottom (a J tube) divided into two for the sticks to rest on a little grille and air comes in over them with another air gap under them, and if the sticks make charcoal you can burn that off slowly in the bottom of the stove. You push the sticks a bit further in as they burn down. About £50.
The technology is very simple, and it has no moving parts to go wrong,
so it may last a lifetime and prove a very good investment. It takes only 3 sticks about a foot long and an inch thick, to boil 2 litres of water. Incredible. So fast as well. In fact, it's brilliant, every one should get one!
Summer cooking and hot water heating was going to be different. First effort was a solar box cooker, then a satellite dish for a parabolic solar cooker, then a home-made rocket stove involving 16 loose house bricks and an empty tin can. The main thing I discovered was I'm not very patient with getting stuff to work, so the solution for me is a Stove Tec rocket stove, which has been carefully researched and developed by the company over a number of years. I got it a couple of months ago. It is incredibly quick, and can be faster than the gas hob once it has got going. It has a chimney that burns off the wood gas that comes off the twigs, same idea as in the winter stove. I use it to fill thermos flasks for early morning hot water at the moment. Another idea I have had is to put a bain marie over it, ie a large old roasting tin with half an inch of water in it, and a number of pans standing in the water all cooking at the same time, which would also keep the soot away from the pans and make it easier to wash them. When I find out how to stop the soot it will be even better. It may be damp fuel, or not enough fuel, or something needs adjusting somewhere. Perhaps it burns off if you wait long enough. Anyway, it looks like a tall catering size coffee tin, has special adobe insulation inside, a chimney going down through the core, connected to a hole on the side at the bottom (a J tube) divided into two for the sticks to rest on a little grille and air comes in over them with another air gap under them, and if the sticks make charcoal you can burn that off slowly in the bottom of the stove. You push the sticks a bit further in as they burn down. About £50.
The technology is very simple, and it has no moving parts to go wrong,
so it may last a lifetime and prove a very good investment. It takes only 3 sticks about a foot long and an inch thick, to boil 2 litres of water. Incredible. So fast as well. In fact, it's brilliant, every one should get one!