Hi everyone,
This post is about making a rocket heater (with possibly a little mass) from
locally available, cheap materials, that poor
people can buy and make
heaters with.
Location is Lebanon in the Middle East. Most people (about 90%) are now poor (some info on this at the end of the post). People use diesel and
wood to heat their homes in little cheap stoves. And the poorest burn plastic, black motor oil, shoes, clothing etc. Imagine the cost for health and environment...
I would love to build a prototype rocket heater, with a little mass, that is built from cheap local resources that will save people money and health.
Limitations
A further limitation is the size of exhaust pipes: Most houses have exhaust pipes in the walls of apartment buildings of 10 cm / 4 inch.
Hence the little mass, otherwise the draft would become a problem.
O, and people live either in houses that are not insulated, or in tents.
Minimum temperature in our house gets to be 4 degrees Celsius (39 F) in the morning, regardless if we heated our house the night before:).
Also we have to open the windows at night: they build the houses so bad that all our walls and ceiling are wet.
Local resources
Resources in Lebanon seem to be: red fire brick (weighs heavy and used in chimneys and
pizza ovens), clay (red, contains iron), ‘fire earth’ (looks like coarse sand, brownish and used also for building chimneys and pizza ovens). Maybe the latter is some type of fireproof mortar. They mix it with sand and
water.
And finally I’m checking out what they use for pottery as this is an old craft in Lebanon.
Technical information about what temperatures etc. are completely unavailable so far. It’s Lebanon…
Your experience can help me!
So…I’d love to hear from people having experience with 4 inch/ 10 cm rocket heaters with little or no mass that DO have that second burn.
And possible insulating materials besides ceramic wool, vermiculite and scoria. Perlite is maybe available as Turkey is close and a big producer. But haven’t found that one yet either.
Last question would be: what is the hottest it will get in a 4 inch system?
Info on Lebanon for those who like to know:)
Known widely for being little Switzerland (banking sector, mountains, beautiful) and for it’s medical sector, Lebanon has deteriorated in a third world country in a few years. Years of corruption,
political deadlock, bankruptcy and an influx of Syrian refugees have devastated the country. Since the revolution of 2019 this has accelerated and now basic commodities like gas, water, bread and electricity are sometimes suddenly unavailable or scarce. There is little to no hope the situation will improve in the near future.