Rocket Stove

I have a design concept for a Rocket Stove that I have been working on. It is a little different than others I have seen. It has a small footprint (~36" diameter), clean-out, secondary air & mixing, added radiating surfaces, and mass heat storage features. It requires 2 concrete casting bits and a plasma cutting table to make.

1. I am looking for someone local to me (Meaford, Ontario) that would be interested in working with me to build and test it out.
2. I am looking for ways to make money (like everyone else). So, I am wondering is anyone has suggestions about what the best way to do so are. Alternatives I have considered:
- selling plans
- selling the concrete inserts
- selling selling a kit (concrete & cut steel)
- selling complete stove (bit more complicated if people want to install in legal/insured homes as I have to get UL / CSA approval
- putting a Kickstarter project up and raising funds for the development and certification - Not sure what the perks would be though

I, Eric, welcome any comments / suggestions others have to offer!

Hi Eric!
I'm afraid I don't have a shop to recommend in your area (I would say, check both for laser and for waterjet, since sometimes one is close and the other isn't).

But I logged in to note that most of the detailed technical innovation in rocket stoves happens at http://donkey32.proboards.com. There's lots of overlap between participants - Matt Walker and Erik Weaver check in at Permies often, Peter van den Berg and Kirk Mobert occasionally- but the way it seems to have played out is, Permies is the place where we evangelize rocket stoves to the permies, and Donkey's forum is where we talk about the effect of adding CFMs here and subtracting CSA there.
Does that make sense?
So don't leave us here, but go register at Donkey's as well. When you're prototyping and you have technical questions, that's where the high-level answers will be.

As far as making money, frankly I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Your market is an infinitesimal subset of homeowners who are enthusiastic about building themselves a [i] money-saving] device. Ernie and Erica Wisner are making a living on rocket stoves, I gather. They've been at it a heckuva long time, are extremely dedicated, and have contributed an awful lot to the state of the art. (Erica will probably read this, so Erica, correct me if I'm wrong here: ) they make the majority of their living from traveling around and teaching/consulting/building, and a large minority of their income from publishing.

I don't see any room in this picture for a new entrant to jump right in. There's not a shortage of teachers or builders or even publishers. There's no line of homeowners with cash in hand going, "If only I could get someone to build me a rocket stove/teach me about stoves/sell me a book!"

In other words, my advice is, keep your head down, become one of the generous experimenters discussing their results on Donkey's forum, and in a few years when you've built tons of stoves, contributed new knowledge to the community, and earned a reputation as an expert, THEN look around and see if there's a way to make a buck.
Science now, money later.

Best of luck!
Mike

Eric Wilson wrote:
- selling selling a kit (concrete & cut steel)
- selling complete stove (bit more complicated if people want to install in legal/insured homes as I have to get UL / CSA approval

That's where the money is. Insurable and shippable.
My insurance company's first question when I called to update our homeowner's insurance after adding a wood stove was: did a professional installer do the work? Actually, the first thing was a groan, then the question. There are a lot of sketchy aftermarket installations in rural areas that make the fire marshalls cringe.
On the other hand, as I said in a different thread, our neighbors put a HeatKit masonry heater together themselves and got insured, so I don't think DIY is necessarily a problem.
But few people with the kinds of piles of money you want to tap into are going to be willing to do a project that makes them uninsurable. Sure there are outliers, but they aren't enough to make a viable market, or we'd already have it.

DH and I are planning our new super-efficient solar blah blah house and I'd love to add a RMH as back-up. But I won't because of insurance. Not money.

Eric Wilson : I'm trying to give you another direction to search in - A Quick google search found a listing of the Maker Spaces -also called Hacker Spaces,
or Fab Labs -that might have the equipment you need to get started ! I would also look at the "Meet-up'' ( .com? .org?) and their local calendars .

For modeling Your concepts the new 3 D printers are often very valuable - A note of Caution - There are often two divergent pricing scales . Members and
all others . A scaled model is a very powerful tool much more so seemingly than just a set of drawings no matter how precisely rendered.

I have no Idea how 'intellectual property rights' work in Ontario / Canada but very important is a daily log of your progress - even a note of lack of progress
gives validity to Your future claims.

Just a reminder any Concrete parts made from portland Cement must be used away from high temp exposure to prevent Failure/ Collapse !

Link below to 'most' of the Markerspaces in your area -Good Luck ! Bon Chance !! And Share What You can !

For the good of the Crafts ! Big AL


http://www.thingtanklab.com/makerpassport/canadian-maker-spaces/

Thanks everyone ... Valuable feedback!

Lots to mull over!