Emergency need for dummies-level brick stove that burns charcoal

Hi all,

The Gambia, where I live, has been completely cut off from its normal supply of bottled cooking gas.

Most people will use their heat-wasting small charcoal braziers instead. There's gotta be a better way.

I'm looking to build a demo of an absolute beginner brick rocket stove that burns charcoal, not wood. Something like this:    

I have no power tools at my disposal. Neither do most people here. Assume that people here have no money to buy anything except hardwood charcoal and MAYBE some bricks.

There are good supplies of hardwood charcoal, bricks, and material for metal grates. Since it's the rainy season, you can't really gather dry firewood, and most people can't afford to buy it.

Will the model whose YouTube link I posted above work with charcoal? I have heard that you don't get the nice updrafts with charcoal that you do with kindling.

That lady makes it sound super easy.  Do you have bricks at your available?

I did some research and apparently if you can get the coals up on a grate, and get the pots close to the coals, it should still work with charcoal. Big issue is reducing leaky areas to no more than a finger width or two between the top of the stove and the pot bottom (need to leave some space, but not too much) and also creating a windbreak for the stove, if necessary.
So the stove in the video, I think I would consider doing something like that but cutting out a level or two (first level for air intake, grate on top of that, next layer top for resting the pot.

I'm not sure if clay/mud is a resource that's widely available, but if you have access to that you could probably shape a stove that would work exactly the way you want it to.

I've been thinking about this post since yesterday and wish you the best. We had a gas shortage here (Brazil) a few years ago and it was devastating. Keep us posted.

Hi Rabi,   The lady on YouTube built a very nice grill.
As Tereza mentioned, if your charcoal is up on a grate, it will burn better, and your pots need to be closer to the charcoal.
Using clay mud to seal air leaks will also improve performance.

Having said that, I do feel the need to point out that this design is not a rocket stove at all.
This is a charcoal/ wood fire grill made out of bricks, not much better than the brasier, although the bricks will hold some heat.
A true rocket stove burns wood horizontally; it has a distinctive shape with a vertical feed tube, a horizontal burn tunnel, and finally a riser that you cook over.
Designed to produce a smoke-free, super-quick heating fire to cook on.
Once those bricks are heated up, then charcoal can be used to maintain cooking temps.

I agree, the pot would have to be close to the charcoal without smothering it. Any sort of enclosure, even three sided, would help block the wind and concentrate the heat on the pot.

Charcoal (like coal) needs a lot of air to burn hot. It also tends to choke off its own airflow with ash as it burns. I think there would have to be an opening at the side of the grate (as well as below) for extra air and to allow the user to stir the charcoal. A two-grate system may be better, with a coarse grate above for the big pieces and a fine grate slightly below to catch small burning charcoal bits but let fine ash fall through.

To add extra air, some charcoal stoves incorporate a bellows or a tiny battery powered fan.

I am trying to learn more about this, since charcoal is not a normal fuel for us (in an emergency we'd be burning wood or cardboard).

I came across two resources that made me think about design for charcoal-
this research paper (which has some great pictures of charcoal stoves and research done on them) https://scielo.org.za/pdf/jesa/v24n2/01.pdf and this set of plans for a stove type thing made of sheet metal https://www.instructables.com/Portable-12-inch-Charcoal-Stove/ . I wonder if this sort of design can be translated into something useful.

It also is possible to dry wet wood by placing it near an appropriate stove to drive the moisture out: https://permies.com/w/green-wood-heat

Hi Rabi’a
The lorena stove was designed for just such situations.  It has been in use in Central America for decades.  After “inventing “ this, Ianto Evans went on to develop the rocket stove

https://www.appropedia.org/Lorena_Cookstove

This is the best resource I could find.  The text says it is made of rammed earth, but it doesn’t have to be.  It can be brick or cob or adobe.  I spent a month in Senegal, in a Pu’ular village where I stayed in a “mud hut” with thatched roof.  Such an unfortunate name for such a perfect structure.

My book with photographs and diagrams  of the Lorena stove is unavailable else I would post photos directions and diagrams.

Here’s my best:  you need an enclosed chamber for the fire. The front needs an opening to add wood or charcoal. (Or you can add fuel through the cooking hole, but you will need to provide air for the fire.) The top can have a round hole for a cooking vessel or a grate.  Behind the cooking hole there needs to be a hole for smoke to escape.  It’s better to build it outside so the smoke isn’t caught in the building.  If you have or can fashion a stove pipe, the smoke will be drawn off and the fire will burn better.

Do you in The Gambia build similar buildings?  The wall material would do fine for a Lorena stove.

Think of building a box around where your fire will be.  You want to be able to place your cooking vessel above the fire.  You want the pathway of air through the box to be simple one way.  Make the fuel and air opening at the front, and the smoke exit at the opposite end.  The whole thing will burn best if there is a smoke stack or pipe or riser to draw the smoke and exhaust up and out of the box.

If you already have the bricks, you could try stacking them in different ways to find the best possible proportions.

Jam tun

If I can find my books I will post again

Good luck, best wishes,  Aissoutou Dzialo