Stretch goals on RMH Builder Guide Kickstarter

[Edited]

The voting for our special perennial gift to Permies.com has closed.

It looked close between Mysterious Manifolds and All-Star Rocket Kitchen... until I added up all the DIFFERENT posts that favored kitchen stuff, as I said I would.
So now Kitchen Stuff appears to be the clear winner.

The Rocket Wood Cook Stoves / All Star Kitchens eBook (once I get it written) will be made permanently available as a low-cost digital download, via a special coupon for PIE participants. (PIE slices are awarded for supporting Permies.com in various ways.)

Thank you, everyone, your votes and feedback were great creative motivation. All these ideas will be in the back of our minds as we continue to prototype and write up new rocket options.

[End Edit]

My early stretch goal ideas were nowhere near as cool as what we've come up with now.

Yay getting ideas from other people with Kickstarter experience! Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Matt. And thanks everyone who has voted and commented, it really helps.

I would like a straw poll to see which of these ideas we should use for the next few stretch goals.

Please up-vote your favorite(s) with a thumbs-up.

If you have a new idea, post it, and people can vote for it too.

The vote is non-binding, but it helps to know what's most wanted.

[Edit: A la Carte:
This in-depth kitchens thing got divided into several official goals:
- our $50,000 Stretch Goal, an eBook showing 12 gorgeous examples of rocket wood cook stoves and rocket mass heaters. Working title:
"Rocket Wood Cook Stoves and Heaters: The Cleanest, Greenest, Most Elegant Wood Burning Stoves in the World."
This will emphasize professional-quality projects of many kinds, with a few high-quality DIY builds, and will be subject to the builders' willingness to divulge the interior details (and the difficulty of emulating professional mastery).

- our $45,000 goal, an eBook showing 5 examples of Rocket Kitchen Secrets, which will combine pretty faces and whats-inside builder notes (by interview mostly).

- the $40,000 milestone bonus, the Shrimp cooker plans. Full plans but just for one prototype project.

- our already-met $35,000 goal, Innovator's Cookbook. This will have more of the DIY guts-and-ingredients stuff, for those who want to build their own projects from the inside out.

For PIE voting purposes, I would suggest voting for one or more of the other relevant posts, so I know what you want the most.]

All-Star Rocket Kitchen: eBook showing our favorite rockety options for cooking, baking, canning, frying, grilling, smoking, boiling, and washing-up.

New project description
(roughly the same content, more emphasis on indoor as well as outdoor cooking options)

Wood Cook Stoves for the Permaculture Kitchen: super-efficient, clean-burning, fuel-sipping, multi-function and diverse hearth-warmers for the handmade life.
Indoor:
- range/oven, mini
- range/oven, standard
... - (has anyone done a 'catering' size for indoor use?)
- coffee stove, mini
- range/fryer/canner, high-capacity
- range/bench heater
- oven/bench heater
- slow cooker/dehydrator
- Fantasy Island (kitchen: range & bake oven, LR: heated bench or floor + fire-viewing "TV")

Flexible/Outdoor:
- Tim's triple threat (family-size grill, oven, hot water)
- Tim's Permaculture Kitchen (catering-size grill/smoker, full-size oven, hot water)
- Matt's super-efficient pine-fueled rocket grill/smoker/mass heater
- Tim's on-demand hot water boiler

Just to be clear - this would be a detailed technical tour, with lots of supporting drawings, schematics, process and in-use photos. Might even have some video to share.
Buildable dimensions and fittings will be shown where possible, but may not be fully documented for all projects, especially those by other builders.

[Already Happening (#5): Mysterious Manifolds REVEALED - $42,000 Stretch Goal (eligible as perennial gift)]

The Mysterious Manifold: in-depth, illustrated explanation of successful alternative manifolds, and a few examples of what doesn't work and why.
Could include
- hand-formed cob manifolds
- brick beehives
- regular brick work (square, octagon)
- capping slabs for larger manifolds (stone, brick, refractory, adobe)
- metal variations
- manifold-in-a-box
- no-manifold options
- cleanout options
- common pinch-points and other problems

(The main book already shows the easiest, simplest manifold, made with a partial barrel, and two brick options. This would give more options for budget or all-masonry projects.)

Mainstream version A: being Officially Cool according to local authorities.

We are working to double the number of documented cases for permitted or permit-ready rocket mass heaters by the end of the year.

Want a report?

This could include
- emissions-testing results from more heaters and prototypes, to show that they meet or exceed local regulatory standards;
- successful DIY heater permitting stories from jurisdictions in the US, Canada, and Europe
- exemptions and "experimental" permits (5-year permit, rural projects, outbuildings, etc) that are paving the way to local acceptance
- rocket-like examples, including DIY masonry heaters, kits, batch-boxes, etc.

Somewhere between the "sidewinder" and the "vortex stove" we maybe stop calling it a rocket, but I'm not sure where.
So if it fits most of the goals (very clean emissions, vertical and/or insulated fire chamber, affordable, DIY-friendly, uses thermal mass to store heat), and especially if you can sit on it as well as cook on it, then I would consider including it in the report.

Ernie wants to make it clear that he does not want to spend all our time trying to get these into code everywhere.
Local jurisdictions everywhere can write their own rules, and once written, it can take years of persistent negotiation to get something changed even if the local authorities are friendly.

But we can make it easier for them to say "yes," by showing how it's already happening everywhere.

Ernie suggests: World Tour?

I'm not sure what he means by that, but if you like the idea, we can run some numbers and see what could happen.

So far we have decided we can afford 1 long layover in Paris, on the way to a gig in North Africa.... maybe we will get to document some of our kitchen builds in person somehow.

We do have plans for lab improvements and equipment, as discussed - it would be funded more if we make these stretch goals.
But that's the reward for us, not our backers.

We keep maybe 20 to 30% of the Kickstarter pledges, after you account for shipping, fees, book costs, etc. So the "net" number is not nearly so big and shiny.

What would our backers get if we are able to finish our lab sooner?

Test reports?

Unlisted Ernie-Cam YouTube videos, Project Adventures.

I could strap a motion-detector camera to Ernie's hat, so we can capture what happens every time he does something interesting.
(He tells me he has had the emissions-sniffer out on two stoves this winter that I did not know about, but did not record the numbers. Gaaah!)

Ernie politely declines to wear a motion-activated camera (very politely for Ernie),
but says he would be willing to strap on a GoPro a few times this year, for specific projects he plans to prototype, if we got a camera he could wear on his head like a head-lamp.

In the event that he escapes detection, I could commit.

This item represents 4 new, unlisted YouTube videos available to our backers, showing this year's most interesting project adventures.

ErnieCam idea 2: Bitter Lessons storytime

This item represents on-camera versions of some of the "Bitter Lessons" eBook material. Probably casual, around-the-campfire or back-of-the-shop discussions where I manage to get the camera rolling without interrupting the flow.
(The dark side, embarrassing project fails, lessons learned the hard way, etc)

Unlisted YouTube versions made available to our backers.

EricaCam idea: Natural Plasters Mini-Vids

I want to practice natural plasters more this year.
Including trying my brand-new, novice-level tadelakt skills on a bench of some kind. Maybe a rocket "hammam" (steam bath, Moroccan style).
And maybe using recycled crushed glass to make super-beautiful earthen floors, and lime "terazzo" floors.
And insulation options - perlite, plaster over insulated stud-frame construction, straw-clay and reed?

These would not be polished how-to videos, but a sort of video journal to document different materials and methods.

I could do 6 mini-vids this year, showing practice sessions with various finishing materials.

Hitchhiker's Guide riff: We might finish near "42", which as Douglas Adams' fans know, is the Answer. To Life, the Universe, and Everything.

So we could make a $42K stretch goal titled "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," which would be an actual mini-cookbook with some of Ernie's family seafood recipes.

- Captain Ron's Teriyaki Tuna (works great on salmon or halibut, too)
- Calimari Steaks
- Cioppino (hearty San Fran/ Italian tomato-and-seafood stew)
- Clam Chowder
- Slumgullion
- Finnan Haddie
- Cold Salmon Salad with Capers
- The One True Method for Oregon Dungeness Crab
- Simple Crab Cakes
- Simple Salmon Patties
- Seventeen Spectacular Ways to Bake Salmon (Huckleberry, Lemon-Herb, Cranberry Thanksgiving, Garlic, Creamy Hazlenut, I swear it was two years before I saw him do it the same way twice)
- Stuffed Halibut
- Poor Man's Lobster
- Easy Campfire Grilled Fish
- Home-made Fish Fingers (breadcrumb or Gluten-free)
- Home-Smoked Salmon or Trout


All of these recipes can be captured on paper, and made available in eBook form, given sufficient practice material.

Already happening (#2): eBook: Bitter Lessons from Rocket Mass Heaters:
the dark side and hard-knock lessons that brought us the knowledge we share today

[Edit: More complete description]
"Bitter Lessons from Rocket Mass Heaters: Promises, Dreams, and Faceplants"

This would be the freak shows of flaming death, the good ideas that went bad, the destruction-testing of early prototypes, the embarassing errors as the cob cottage heaters hit conventional buildings, and all those lessons learned that led to safer, more reliable, more durable designs we enjoy today.

It would be an e-book, probably about 30 pages (if I can hold myself back), with pictures and diagrams and juicy gossip.

And we can offer a specific challenge to the Permies forum members backing the kickstarter.

Right now, permies.com is our second-biggest referral source - right behind Kickstarter itself, standing at about $3,000 in pledges.

If the permies.com supporters can double that, by sharing these links so the pledges reach $6,000, then we'll dedicate the book to our friends here:
"for those daring DIYers, patient mentors, and permaculture goofballs at permies.com, the guardian angels who catch so many well-intentioned projects BEFORE they go bad."

[Edit: You did it. We're making it. And it will be dedicate to Permies (in a good way)]

Already happening (#3): Heat Riser Cookbook:

Alternative methods we have used, what worked and what didn't, and in what conditions we might use them again

Demo Stoves:
- just brick
- just steel
- pre-cast ceramic fiber
- insulated Class A chimney (metalbestos)

Prototypes:
- castable and moldable refractories
- pre-cast parts (ceramic fiber, clay tile, cement, etc)
- metal attempts - steel, galvie, aluminum(!)
- home-made insulating materials (cob-perlite, perlite-adobe, sawdust-clay, VIC, etc)
- board materials (vermiculite, DuraBoard, cement-board, etc)

Installations:
- brick and blanket (now standard)
- brick and perlite
- brick and vermiculite
- insulating brick
- cob-perlite in a metal tube
- perlite-adobe

Already Happening (#1)

Teeny Tiny Mass Heater Plans

These have their own whole thread, with pictures, to vote for them... but we decided to go with "All of the above." So it's a 3 to 5-plan combo.

- The Shrimp (1-loaf oven, 4-slice grill, prototype to be completed at AT course in june)
- The WaterBug / Nymph
- Kiko Denzer's Mini Masonry Heater Hat

and with Peter's permission, his two compact space heaters:
- The Fat Rabbit
- Minnie Mouse

Dimensions, builder's notes, and our opinion on performance or further improvements to be tried.

Already happening (#4) Innovators' Cookbook:

This will be the inside scoop on promising new experimental projects, with lab notes and materials data.

Our work, other's work we've seen and liked, collaborations.
All Star Kitchen Prototypes,
Compact Heater Concepts

Erica Wisner wrote:All-Star Rocket Kitchen: eBook showing our favorite rockety options for cooking, baking, canning, frying, grilling, smoking, boiling, and washing-up.

The word kitchen implies indoors.

Give a thumbs up for this post if what you want to see is an indoor wood cook stove that is using rocket stuff for a cleaner burn with less wood.

Lasse and Matt Walker have built some things in this space.

[Already Happening: The $45,000 Stretch Goal, [b]Rocket Kitchen Secrets, AKA Rocket Wood Cook Stoves,[/b]
AKA we do an illustrated write-up of 5 gorgeous indoor kitchen rockets by any/all builders, with interviews and discussion of how they work out in practice.
Since a lot of you voted for Paul's post above, I will add that number to the tally on this post, you don't need to re-vote (but I can't stop you).
]

Candidates include
- Flemming Abrahamsson's Danish Modern Kitchen Island,
- Satamax's charming rocket retrofit in an old-school French wood cook stove (enameled and everything)
- Matt's and Lasse's recent cook stove experiments
- that charming country-style Brazilian L-tube kitchen with the white and blue tile, if I can find the builders
- The Shrimp, if it makes the cut
- Some of Kiko Denzer's bake-oven examples
- Some oven/range examples that Flemming and Max have been working on
- others that may emerge during writing

Email suggestion:

Indoor wood cook stove - something to divorce propane, but with a clean fire not smoky.

This is not something I have already done. I have cooked with wood, and I have cooked on rocket mass heaters, and I have built outdoor wood cookstoves.

So one option could be:
A mini eBook reviewing some wood cook stove designs that are already out there from other builders.

Erica Wisner wrote:Email suggestion:

Indoor wood cook stove - something to divorce propane, but with a clean fire not smoky.

The other option could be: Ernie and I each have a prototype for an indoor cookstove to finish prototyping.
I will assemble and test the Shrimp mini-wood-cook-stove (one-loaf oven, four-slice grill or pot-burner, batch box style).

Ernie's stove would be larger, a masonry kitchen island with J-style firebox, that can be switched between range top or oven.
His idea requires some fancy metal parts for the range top. One of these $5K increments, after costs, should put enough in the kitty to cover necessary parts.

So this version would two new prototypes, well-documented. Backers would get in-progress updates, (including video and interior views) a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on clean performance, and plan drawings.
(We can't guarantee performance on a prototyping project, but we would try a few things to tune the results, then release the best-performing version as shop drawings, with any suggested next steps to improve performance).

As for going maintstream, I would personally like to see a rocket mass heater that is round and neat (kind of like Zaugs), but turned sideways (so it will not stick out in the room too much), with a tempered glass cover so you can watch the fire from the side while sitting in a chair, that uses a stone pedestal and background as the mass (that curves at the bottom for fewer accidents). The background and hearth would look something like this: http://thesurvivalplaceblog.com/2016/01/08/4-simple-ways-to-retain-more-heat-from-your-wood-burning-stove/

Is that possible?

An artist I am not, but perhaps you could see what I had in mind by this simple drawing:

https://drive.google.com/a/powellacres.com/file/d/0B2jfQ-wELD2iSk5VbkpBQVZHM0E/view?usp=sharing


Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to imbed it.

I took a screenshot to make it easier for people to look at.

Thank you Glenn!

I vote for the mini RMH line of thought as apparently currently in the mix, and anything that gets close to the classic functioning model but can be used in spaces like shops, cabins, anywhere were one needs a smaller or differently configured mass. Or even that just looks different. I think we have the yurt end of the spectrum covered, what about high end modernist at the other end.

Glenn - thanks for the screenshot, Google Drive didn't want to let me see the original.

Sherri - I see what you are going for, more of a "hearth plus stove" look, instead of a one-piece mass stove.
Kind of like this: https://permies.com/t/54791/rocket-stoves/Rocket-Heater-UL-Tested-UPDATE
except with mass storage. (I don't know if Sky's stove can put heat into the mass, it looks like more of a simple radiant woodstove but with rockety clean burn.)


I have also seen some masonry heaters built into a hearth or chimney-like shape, so that they look a bit like a fireplace with a door, or a fireplace insert.
I think you could do this with a batch box, and get a moderately impressive flame-viewing door with glass in it.

Lately I have become interested in trying something with a dual firebox: something showy for flame-viewing, or quick for cooking, and something efficient for charging the mass (and maybe a slow-cooking oven too).
The idea is not yet ripe in my mind, though, and it will be a BIG project so I want to keep thinking it through.

The process of building a tall masonry mass takes foundation work, excellent planning, and sometimes tricky masonry to work around the channels (since it makes the outer skin tall and thin).
I would guess that taller or fireplace-combo mass heaters will be more expensive, and/or require more expertise, than a low bench.

Expertise and time are the biggest costs in these site-built heaters, even more so than fire brick or metal doors. The J-style heaters with earthen benches are not necessarily quicker, but you can do the work yourself instead of hiring a pro.
We are so accustomed to buying our technical toys mass-produced in China, we are always surprised what skilled labor will cost in the USA.
(And too, we don't have as many jobs, so we can't always afford to pay for skilled labor, either!)

-Erica

Actually, Sherri, I think Peter van den Berg's Fat Rabbit has some potential for what you want.
You could do a very simple stone hearth behind it (or tile, or what you like), and then have more of the mass INSIDE the round stove body, and a glass viewing door on the front of the batch box.

Peter's would be a version for a small space, like a cabin.
I will ask him about including this as a "teeny tiny mass heater plan," it has good potential for that purpose.

For a larger space, you might end up with something like our Cabin 8", but with a taller "layer cake" of stone, and the glass viewing option.

I myself want a larger bench on the Cabin 8" - I have to curl up to nap on it - and I love the comfort of the full-body heating pad.
You would lose that "personal sauna" function with this tower hearth idea, it would become more like a conventional fireplace or tile stove.

But it could be pretty. And perhaps a better fit for tight spaces, or for people who love the modern stove-hearth layout and resist the idea of a built-in masonry bench.

We would be happy to pay for a design and for the skills of a talented rmh welder in North Carolina. We are looking at many future years in saving labor on cutting wood and loading a fire.

I also think, however, as wood stoves are already mainstream, that RMH's could easily ride on their coattails to become mainstream. "Labor saving wood stove".

Sherri Lynn wrote:We would be happy to pay for a design and for the skills of a talented rmh welder in North Carolina. We are looking at many future years in saving labor on cutting wood and loading a fire.

I also think, however, as wood stoves are already mainstream, that RMH's could easily ride on their coattails to become mainstream. "Labor saving wood stove".

That's how I got hooked on permaculture: a class advertised for "No-Work Gardening." Labor-saving has a nice modern sound to it.

The weight of the mass puts RMHs in a different category, regulatory-wise, however.
Wood stoves get lab tested and shipped around (like metal stovepipe and other appliances); masonry heaters get site-built under code (like masonry walls and chimneys).
If you don't use the mass, a lot of the efficiency goes away, and you are back to the same problem of people wanting the fire to burn "slower" to get steady heat (which makes smoke).

I think that's why Paul loves the idea of the shippable core: you could get a sort of "wood stove" thing that you connect to DIY masonry or heat-storage mass.
But the masonry is simple and cheap(er), so it could be more like putting in a woodstove or hearth insert.

As an absolute rank amateur I would like to see one sure-fire bulletproof design guaranteed to keep my long-suffering wife from divorcing me after I fire it up for the first time. With success under my belt, I would then feel free to add bells and whistles and build on my success.

That's what the standard design covered in this book is. As long as you build it to spec, and connect it to a good chimney in a site that doesn't have some fatal disadvantage for any woodburner, it will work. Obviously, since Ernie and Erica can't control all the installation variables, a guarantee can never be possible.

The closest you can get is to replace a well-drafting woodstove with a RMH; then you know the chimney and outer site conditions are favorable.

Erica asks: "Do we focus on one buildable prototype, or give a tour of many promising, multi-functional designs?"

It seems to me that option B gives you more subsequent room to stretch, either during this funding phase or in a subsequent one. You could offer the promising multi-functional tour now, and then later offer a buildable prototype of the most popular of the tour stops. You could stage a contest where other rocket enthusiasts prototype your designs and win stuff. You could stage a virtual RMH Hackathon wherein many designs are prototyped many times by many people, with you and Erinie acting as advisors, a role somewhere between generous forum participation and paid one-on-one consulting.

[On the Table: This post now represents our $50,000 Stretch Goal, to document 12 stunningly gorgeous rocket kitchens, mass heaters, and other super-efficient wood burning stoves.
Rocket Wood Cook Stoves and Heaters: The Cleanest, Greenest, Leanest, Most Elegant Wood Burning Stoves in the World. Many of these will be professionally-finished projects, subject to their builder's permission to use photos and willingness to divulge their trade secrets, but we'll get as much of the inside scoop as we can manage, and we'll include some DIY-friendly details on the accessible projects.]

So Paul, you really got me looking for indoor kitchen stuff.
And there is a LOT of it.

So maybe the "Wood Cook Stove" stretch is, I will track down as much detail as I can about these projects.
And introduce you to the builders, from all over the world.
(Shall we say I report back by Christmas? I may need the extra time for translation.)

-Erica


(Satamax retrofit rocket range-top and mass heater/black oven: https://permies.com/t/35569/rocket-stoves/Range-retrofit)


(Hendrik soapstone batch box range: www.ecologieforum.eu/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4610 - first attached is also from this source)


(a Brazilian kitchen island with a pair of L-tubes done up in style, from https://permies.com/t/22550/rocket-stoves/find-polished-rocket-stove)

like these: http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/stovesdoc/Miranda/Ecostove/Ecostove.html
or these: http://www.treeswaterpeople.org/programs/clean_cookstoves/justa_cookstove.html
(folks accustomed to mod cons sometimes say these are hard to feed)


(mysterious black box tagged with Flemming Abrahamsson's name, by Francis Jonkheere http://www.flickriver.com/photos/onyone/4149423745/


Lasse's cooktop sidewinder box demo (with small warming oven) from our time in Montana 2015


(not a cookstove, a sauna, but I like it! and these folks LIKE the control of "adjusting the wood placement" - though our J's smoke like crazy if you stuff the fuel down their throat further instead of letting the whole firebox do its job.)



-Erica

We know of the many stories of freak shows of flaming death. So if there was a parade of a dozen rocket wood cook stoves complete with your critique of each then I think a lot of people would be greatly comforted by that. They would then know what are the good things to try and what are the changes that would need to be made to fit within your comfort zone... Hell, maybe each of the Builders has ideas on what they would have done better.

Hal Hurst wrote:As an absolute rank amateur I would like to see one sure-fire bulletproof design guaranteed to keep my long-suffering wife from divorcing me after I fire it up for the first time. With success under my belt, I would then feel free to add bells and whistles and build on my success.

As Glen said, the book focuses on our most popular, most DIY-friendly design.
It shows how variations on this design fit into different buildings.

I can't speak for your wife, but I have been living with heaters of this general model of stove for 9 years. (One with 6" chimney for 4 years in a coastal valley, and now an 8" model for five years in a colder, inland, mountain climate).
I would have a hard time giving up the warm bench, quick evening heat, steady overnight warmth, and super-low fuel consumption.

We have also had reports from a nature education center that their bench had dangerous aphrodisiac properties (3 pregnancies on staff the first winter after it was installed).
And there's always this shot of a lovely mama enjoying warm cob in Montana in October. https://permies.com/t/33160/a/34510/Wofati-cob-katelin.jpg
Warning: NSFW (Nude, Not Safe For Work, and possibly Not Safe For Wife.)
Please apologize on my behalf, if your wife just got upset about you seeing that.
As a girl, I am allowed to look at these things.

As for the building process, and novice-friendly approach:
We kept the experimental stuff in the appendix, not the main chapters.
That means the batch box (with its dimensional tables) which has proven out wonderfully well over the past few years, and a pellet-hopper (which had a bad feed-jam fire a few years later, noted in the project description), and some other experiments like pebble-style and outside-air-feed where there's still some discussion of how well they're working and how safe they may be.

The J-style model has been owner-built in thousands of places since Ianto started developing it in the 1970's, and we know quite a bit about how to make it work.
If you use the seating-bench or floor versions of the design, it is probably THE most efficient, affordable, and comfortable way you can heat with wood.

To impress the missus with your smooth and timely execution, I'd do a complete practice lay-up and parts check out back, before I started hauling mud into the living room.
You might even build one in a greenhouse or sauna, and give it a test-drive together.

OK, this is getting a little messy. I am going to put "Already Happening" in front of all the stretch goals we have knocked off, and "On the Table" for goals that are currently listed (but not achieved).
It's fine to vote on other ideas, but those votes are "advisory" rather than compelling me to create something new.

It's fine to vote more than once, especially if you would be equally happy to see those ideas become real.
The idea with the most votes on April 12 become the Permanent PIE by Popular Demand special deal offer.

Already Happening: The Shrimp - 1-loaf oven, 4-slice range, compact rocket wood cook stove.
Prototype to be built and tested in AT course in June, complete project report to all backers,
plus expands the Teeny Tiny Mass Heaters choices to include "all of the above."
- The Shrimp
- Kiko's Masonry Heater Hat
- The Nymph/Water-Bug
and an inside look at Peter's Minnie Mouse and Fat Rabbit, buildable plans on those subject to his cooperation.

I wish I had the $166 to reach the $45K stretch goal but I don't (I already extended my budget to get to $52) - Hopefully you guys will get there in the last 2 hours

Are you going to round up on the stretch goal, since it is so close?

Erica Wisner wrote:

The voting for our special perennial gift to Permies.com has closed.

It looked close between Mysterious Manifolds and All-Star Rocket Kitchen... until I added up all the DIFFERENT posts that favored kitchen stuff, as I said I would.
So now Kitchen Stuff appears to be the clear winner.

The Rocket Wood Cook Stoves / All Star Kitchens eBook (once I get it written) will be made permanently available as a low-cost digital download, via a special coupon for PIE participants. (PIE slices are awarded for supporting Permies.com in various ways.)

Thank you, everyone, your votes and feedback were great creative motivation. All these ideas will be in the back of our minds as we continue to prototype and write up new rocket options.

If you have new ideas, feel free to keep adding them.
And if you find great examples of anything mentioned here, please share photos, links, or tip us off to the creators for an interview!
This thread is now open to become a conversation, not just a voting booth.

Many thanks,
Erica W

How about a wood cook stove that will fit in the current footprint of a 30" range space?  Question, when you are using a wood cookstove, how do you keep it from heating up the house in the summer?

I am going to be trying one of those when I build my garage/kitchen expansion this summer (though it may end up a bit wider than 30", and will surely be deeper than 24", maybe as much as 30").

The big thing would be high-grade insulation on the sides and back, along with airspaces, to keep adjacent cabinets from overheating. This would also reduce summer space heating somewhat. I think an exhaust fan to draw heated air as well as fumes outside would be very beneficial.

Maybe there could be a baffle in the exhaust vent that you could choose to direct the heat to some kind of mass in the winter, or directly outside in the summer.