rocket ovens kickstarter

Ryan Skinner wrote:not positive of the DVD content but is there a version that still has the griddle on the side. I would love to implement this for more than baking.

Checking to see what the video footage looks like.  

There are some projects that are super cool, but the video quality just isn't there.

We have now blown past $15,000!

New stretch goals!

The J tube looks like the Matt Walker ceramic fiber board style. Is there a reason the burn tunnel is so much shorter?
Would the design he has plans for work for one of these ovens? https://walkerstoves.com/super-hot-ceramic-fiber-cores.html

The wood feed for a j-tube is 1/3 the height of the riser.   If you try to make the wood feed taller without making the riser taller, then you get smoke back issues.  If you make the riser taller on a portable rocket oven, then the oven goes up higher.  I think that julia's rocket oven has a taller wood feed, but it is a permanent installation - so the burn tunnel went into the ground.

Thanks for replying Paul, and congrats on your success!!

Those dimensions make sense, a 16” high wood feed would require a 48” high heat riser. I’m just wondering- the burn tunnel, connecting the wood feed to the heat riser, looks much shorter on yours compared to the Matt Walker one. (I’m talking the one featured in your kickstarter video, I haven’t seen Julia’s).

I’m sure this is all explained in the documentary- I’m just itchin’ to get started on some of these components! And the core seems like a good place to start.

I like the idea of a longer burn tunnel for a few reasons - but the shorter burn tunnel does make this more portable.

That makes sense. Thanks!

This note is going out to the plotskateers right now.  If anybody else wants to help with this, now is a great time.  

oday's devious plot is to learn what makes stuff "popular" on kickstarter.  If we can be on the "popular" list, we can infect more brains with permaculture goodness, and, who knows, maybe a few of those folks will support the kickstarter too.

It is my impression that the "popular" list is determined entirely by the number of people supporting a kickstarter in a 24 hour period.  So 500 people supporting a kickstarter for $1 each would ring the bell by one person supporting the kickstarter would not.   It is entirely about the number of supporters and not the total money brought in.  At least, I am pretty sure that is what it is.  

The support for the kickstarter has slowed down to a trickle, so now is a great time to do this test!

Right now, for everything on kickstarter, the rocket ovens kickstarter is on page 12 for "popular" and page 30 for "magic" (I have no idea how that one is measured, but it is the current default for kickstarter now).  

So this test would be to see if support for any amount (including just $1) makes any difference.  And, along the way, maybe we can collectively infect a few thousand more brains with permaculture stuff.  

At this time if you support at just $1 you get

  - Rocket Ovens Cooking Microdoc as HD Streaming
  - Rocket Ovens Tools, Materials and Safety Microdoc as HD Streaming
  - Your most creative name listed in both of the two new microdocs
  - Hugelkultur Microdoc as HD Streaming
  - Care and Feeding of a rocket mass heater Microdoc as HD Streaming
  - Justin Rhodes Basecamp Microdoc as HD Streaming
  - full report on 2014 rocket oven build
  - cool public thanks

and if we hit our next stretch goal, $1 supporters would also receive

  - microdoc of the complete build of the cooking grate

I put a mountain of goodies at the $1 level in the hopes that we might get onto the big lists at kickstarter and infect brains with permaculture.  I think we started to touch on those lists a little bit on the first two days.  But just a little.  We now have 388 backers.  I am hoping that 500 of you will do this experiment today and MAKE BIG CHANGE!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/rocket-ovens-feature-length-documentary?ref=2y3za6

And then I am directing the plotskateers to this post in case they have things to say.

As per Paul's world domination request.... I just did 2 $1 kickstarter donations at different email addresses.
As soon as the rest of my family gets here I'll have them do the same.  bwah hahahaha

Right now, for everything on kickstarter, the rocket ovens kickstarter is on page 12 for "popular"  

Now on page 10!  It's working!

lee Cannon wrote:As per Paul's world domination request.... I just did 2 $1 kickstarter donations at different email addresses.
As soon as the rest of my family gets here I'll have them do the same.  bwah hahahaha

I had never thought of that!  Spiffy!

$19,033!

Hey Paul, I pledged already and  I can manage my pledge but it does not look like I can pledge again and add to your count.  

$20,088!

Samantha Lewis wrote:Hey Paul, I pledged already and  I can manage my pledge but it does not look like I can pledge again and add to your count.  

Thanks for supporting my kickstarter Samantha!

I think that to do a whole different pledge, you might need a whole different email address and a whole different credit card.  If you are missing either of these ingredients then you cannot pull it off - but you do have my appreciation for trying!  

The experiment is working!  We have moved from page 12 to page 9!

You only need a new email address and you don't have to register either.  You can use the same credit/debit card! Did 3 on a debit card and used a credit card for the 4th.  (Only did that because I don't want the bank program to freak out thinking I'm pinging a stolen card.)  
It takes less than 2 minutes to pledge and 3 pledges costs less than a stupid fancy coffee.

paul wheaton wrote:I spent two and a half hours on the phone with Dan yesterday.  So much to talk about and we tried really, really hard to focus on stretch goals.  

At the end, here is what we committed to:


$15,000 stretch goal:  complete review of the 2014 build

In the DVD there is about a minute and a half of review of the 2014 build.  But there is a lot more that we cut out for time.  But we can dig all of it out, spiff it up a bit and make it available to all kickstarter supporters as HD streaming.  This would be something like another "microdoc".


$20,000 stretch goal:  complete build of a cooking grate

In 2016 a grate was built to sit on top of one of the portable j-tube "rocket engines".   We have quite a bit of footage of that.  So we can cobble it all together into another microdoc.  So viewers would be able to pull the "engine" out of the rocket oven and then use it for a frying pan or a pot.  If we meet this stretch goal, this video would be made available to ALL kickstarter supporters as HD streaming.


$25,000 stretch goal:  how to weld

During the Appropriate Technology Course, everybody is taught welding.  There is classroom time and then hands on experience.  So this covers the basic introduction.  About 45 to 50 minutes of HD Streaming for all kickstarter supporters that support at the $15 level or higher.

We blew past the $15,000 stretch goal super fast!

And now we hit $20,000.

So we added this stretch goal a couple of days ago:

$30,000 stretch goal:  easy bake coffin

This a hybrid between a crockpot and a haybox cooker.  In the end, you can cook ten times more food at once with about a tenth of the energy.  This will be a microdoc of the build and use of the "easy bake coffin" provided to everybody that supported the kickstarter at $15 or more.

I had a chat with Dan and we are now adding this stretch goal:


$35,000 stretch goal:  solar food dehydrator

We have constructed a magnificently massive and powerful solar food dehydrator.  And we videoed the whole thing.  So if we reach this stretch goal, we will create a microdoc showing the design, construction and use for this magnificent tool.  It will be provided to every that supports the kickstarter at $15 or more.

paul wheaton wrote:The experiment is working!  We have moved from page 12 to page 9!

Now on page 8!

Right now, for everything on kickstarter, the rocket ovens kickstarter is on page 12 for "popular" and page 30 for "magic" (I have no idea how that one is measured, but it is the current default for kickstarter now).  

I don't understand what the "magic" sort is, but somehow, we, as a community, must have some "magic" because we went from page 30 to page 8!

I made three more pledges and I'll ask a few other folks to chip in . . .

*EDIT*

I just had a thought . . . Since Paul is giving away so many goodies, this is a great opportunity to do a "Permaculture Pay-it-Forward"

Think of someone you want to share Permaculture with that doesn't know that much about it and make a $1 donation on their behalf . . . help bump the campaign up the Kickstarter ranks and spread the word at the same time!

I got a question via email:

Would putting in another dollar count as an additional person in the ranking?

I cannot say for sure, but I think to rank better on "popularity" it is something like the total number of new people in the last 24 hours (or maybe 72 hours).  But I have to say that I am not totally sure about any of this, although I think it has everything to do with the number of people and not the total dollars raised.

The new, spiffy stretch goal image from tracy ...

I was able to do a $1 on another account with the same card too...workin the system!

And another $1 on another email, same card.  Bwahaahaa

$21,143!

I sent the $5 reward to a friend who was curious about my rocket oven.  Then I quick sent him an email explaining it, so he wouldn't freak out about getting notices from Kickstarter for no reason.

paul wheaton wrote: I suppose we could explore offering an upgrade path to folks for the other products - so they could upgrade to download after they get their kickstarter stuff.

This may be a dumb idea or already been done and I just haven't come across it. But it would be cool to be able to create a rocket stove removable insert that fits into existing wood stoves or fireplaces.

Wow I go away for a little bit due to sickness and homesteading work and this thing goes from not live to funded in 18 hours! So awesome to see - very happy this is going so well! I made a pledge to help keep this going - plus I always love to add to my collection of candy from Paul's kickstarters!

Gail Gardner wrote:This may be a dumb idea or already been done and I just haven't come across it. But it would be cool to be able to create a rocket stove removable insert that fits into existing wood stoves or fireplaces.

I think that sounds like a great idea!  

paul wheaton wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:The experiment is working!  We have moved from page 12 to page 9!

Now on page 8!

We are still on page 8.  I checked yesterday about six times since posting this and we never did better than page 8.

The big winner of the day was a deck of cards.  3577 backers yesterday.   We had 93 backers.

On the bright side:  93 backers in one day!  And we are now 251% funded!  Woohoo!   I just went and looked at the kickstarters that are wrapping up in the next few hours - a lot of those are unfunded.  So we are really doing GREAT!  (especially considering how I was super worried that this project might end up being not funded at all)


Looking at a project that is at the bottom of page 1 ....    59 backers yesterday.   ??   Wait ... what ?  but they got $26,000 yesterday.  Wow.  And they had 595 comments yesterday.  But their current total number of backers is 5926.

One that is ranked slightly higher had 187 backers yesterday, raising $73,000 - 7 comments.  3188 all time backers.


So that is a really big league sort of thing.  Part of me thinks "yup, we will never get close to that."  and another part of me thinks "wouldn't it be cool if we were up there?  We would be infecting a lot of brains!"


So I kinda wonder if it is a bunch of different things.  

I wonder if comments plays a role?  Anybody feel the urge to leave a lot of comments?  

$22,050!

18 new backers already today, and it's not even 8am on the West Coast.  Maybe that's East Coast folks opening their email at work?

magic: page 27
popular: page 9

you're the second video when I go video-popular.  

getting there.  

$23,037!

for "popular" we have now slipped to page 11.

$24,004!