converting wood stove to rocket stove operation

I am thinking about converting a standard space heater wood stove to a rocket stove design. In doing this I am thinking about putting a false ceiling in a standard wood stove running the burn tube up through a hole near the door of the stove. I am replacing the door with a plate with the feeder tube extending through the plate. On the opposing end there will be a hole for the exhaust to flow down to the flue pipe. What I am thinking on this is it will hold the heat at the top of the stove where most of the heat comes from. This would also enable to burn pellets or small strips of wood to create a hot fire the same as large logs will do. Easier to start and using pellets I can also put in an automatic feeder to keep from getting up through out the night to refill the stove or keep the fire from going out during the day while I am at work and coming home to a cold house. Here is a rough diagram of what I am thinking. Would like some feed back on this. I am kind of doing this design off of a rocket cook stove I have seen on you tube.

If you succeed in getting this to burn like a rocket stove, it will quickly burn out the metal parts. You seem to be looking for steady day- or night-long heat, which is best achieved with mass heat storage which releases over time. Any source which only supplies instant heat will often need to be dampered down to avoid baking the house, which will kill the efficiency and maybe prevent it from working at all. It may also cause chimney fires when the damped-down rocket is opened up and high temperature gas goes up the chimney.

You might be able to convert your stove to a batch-box mass heater, if you line the firebox with refractory material and add a refractory heat riser and masonry bell (chamber) to the top. The exhaust would then leave the bottom of this bell and go to the chimney. This kind of system would require the least modification to the footprint of your stove.

Thank you for your input on this. I had wondered about the heat burning out the stove, especially right above the fire tube it self. I had thought about a plate above it to deflect the main flame such as in a forced heat furnace. I had not thought about the gasses going up the flue and causing a fire though. Thank you for the suggestion of the bell use on this. I guess I will sit down and do a little more research and design modifications on this. Thanks again

David Giffen : A couple of places to look for wood stove/rocket stove hybrids ; 1) Our sister site, Richsoil.com Clickon the Rocket Mass Heater
Word space and scroll down the list of videos, near the bottom there is one video where Ernie W. explains its drawbacks !

Also, You can Goto :::--> www.handprintpress.com/authors/kiko-denzer/ and look at the Listing of Stove and Heater pieces done by Kiko Denzer,

AND, there is a nice article on making firebrick and one on using Water glass with Clay/cob construction i need to read again soon !

Enjoy the tour ! For theGood of the Cause ! Big Al

After watching the video on why the conversions are not as efficient I am thinking that if the fire tube is insulated with perlite and then a thicker top or a fire plate above the top, the old fire box should work the same as a 55 gallon barrel does. I have built one out of 4 inch square tubing 1/4inch thick, I know over kill lol but it is some that I had laying around and then put it in an old job box that I had laying around. Still have not insulated around the burn area but so far has been working great on the test burns. Definitely very little heat from the flue pipe or in the flue pipe it self and the box it self has gotten up to 200 degrees on the top. The reason I am wanting to use the fire box as a heat collector it that it has the outside housing around it to reduce the chance of severe burns.

David Giffin : Have you been following the proposed changes to a big box wood stove by Tim Blackk in his Thread Convert wood stove to rocket bell (& mass) heater,simply

Here in the Rocket stoves Forum Threads ?! The tolerances for the needed volumes of space are very, very close, but possible ! For the Good of the Craft! Pyro-logical Big AL