Rocket

Construcción de la Estufa Justa (English and Spanish)
Jim Wilmes, Una-Familia, Trees Water and People

Step By Step Instructions for building a Justa stove by Jim Wilmes, Unafamilia, volunteer for Aprovicho and Trees Water and People

Jim Wilmes, Volunteer for Aprovecho Research Center and Trees Water People

Dean Still, June, 2005

download the Insulated Rocket Stove for Charcoal pdf
Preliminary Fuel Use and Emissions Test Results:

    Wood Stove
Benchmark
Charcoal
Rocket
(Without
Skirt)
Ghana
Charcoal
Stove
WFP Wood
Rocket
(with Skirt)
Time to Boil min - 22 29 22
Fuel to Cook g 850 604 675 733
Energy to Cook kJ 15,000 23,983 26,089 12,579
CO to Cook g 20 12 74 15
PM to Cook mg 1500 81 85 1289

Juan Carlos Guzmán, Proleña Bolivia, July 7, 2004

News from the alliance "Energy for the People" launched by Energética and ProLeña - Bolivia

Dean Still, Lanny Hensen, Peter Scott June 2002

Dean Still and Brad van Appel, Aprovecho Research Center, January 1, 2002

The Effect of Material Choice on the Combustion Chamber of a Rocket Cooking Stove: Adobe, Common Brick, Vernacular Insulative Ceramic, and Guatemalan Floor Tile (Baldosa)

The Search for Vernacular Refractory Materials

Multiple tests of the Lorena stove beginning in 1983 at the Aprovecho Research Center have shown that placing thermal mass near the fire has a negative effect on the responsiveness and fuel efficiency of a cooking stove. In 1996, Leoni Mvungi built a Rocket stove from earth, sand, and clay that was a replica of a low mass Rocket consisting of metal chimney parts. His version weighed hundreds of pounds even though the Rocket internal chimney was only eleven inches high. Tests of a low mass sheet metal version scored around 30% fuel efficiency. But the best result achieved by the Mvungi stove was around 15%.

Building Rocket stoves from sand and clay showed little promise of improving on the three stone fire which was scoring around 18% in repeated boiling tests performed by Jim Kness and Dean Still (1994). Unfortunately, metal stove parts also have a major drawback in that the high heat in the combustion chamber quickly destroys thin metal. Consultants were in agreement that a good stove should last for years without requiring maintenance. Replacing metal parts as they wear out was not considered a viable solution.

A women's co-operative in Honduras (Nueva Esperansa) makes ceramic stove parts that have a reputation for working well in stoves. Aprovecho consultants Mike Hatfield and Peter Scott contracted with this group to produce combustion chambers for the Dona Justa plancha stoves that they helped to design. This material seemed to work well and, in fact, the Rocket elbow made by Nueva Esperansa has been successful in Honduras and Nicaragua. It is difficult, however, to deliver the fragile combustion chambers without breaking them. Also they are relatively expensive, costing about eight dollars each.

Don O'Neal (HELPS International) and Dr. Larry Winiarski have shown that cast iron combustion chambers, which do last, also have problems. Tests showed that the very conductive cast iron made the fire hard to start. In fact, a group of indigenous Guatemalan women stove testers living in Santa Avelina were unhappy with the expensive cast iron combustion chamber and asked for it to be replaced. They wanted a more responsive stove that started quickly, and quickly cooked food in the morning. Don and Larry eventually found an alternative material: an inexpensive Guatemalan ceramic floor tile (called a baldosa in Spanish) which seemed to function well when cut up to make the walls of the Rocket combustion chamber. The baldosa was about an inch thick so the combustion chamber only weighed eighteen and a half pounds. Like all Rocket combustion chambers it is surrounded by insulation, either wood ash or pumice rock.

The baldosa tile has done well in test stoves. It seems to be durable, lasting a year so far, and the group of testers from Santa Avelina reported that their stoves are much improved. The ceramic material made the stove much quicker to heat up. The women approved the improved stove for general dissemination to neighbors and other villages. The HELPS molded griddle stove now uses a preformed ceramic combustion chamber made by a local baldosa manufacturer. Unfortunately, all baldosa are not equally resistant to heat and it's important to test tiles before using them in stoves.

Appreciating that ceramic seemed a promising material for Rocket combustion chambers, Ken Goyer, an Aprovecho Board Member and consultant, spent a year, 2000-2001, testing ceramic mixes. His research resulted in a vernacular insulative ceramic material (VIC) that is refractory, insulative and can be home made. Six bricks made from this material combine to make a complete Rocket combustion chamber. Making the chamber from separate bricks has resulted in a greatly reduced tendency to crack. The bricks have held up so far in durability tests and they seem to create a very active fire.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of experiments involving same sized brick combustion chambers made from adobe, the insulative ceramic mix and common ceramic brick material. All bricks shared the same dimensions. Six bricks (11 ½" high by 2 ½" thick) made up a hexagonal cylinder surrounding a four inch in diameter chimney. Sticks of wood entered the bottom of the chimney through a hole sawn in the bricks. A combustion chamber made to similar dimensions was constructed using baldosa tile bought in Guatemala. Vermiculite filled in around the baldosa creating a combustion chamber with approximately the same dimensions as the brick stoves.

Protocols for Standard Stove Tests Using PICO Software

Fuel Efficient Stove Programs in IDP Settings - Summary Evaluation Report, Darfur
Academy for Educational Development for USAID, December 2008

1. INTRODUCTION: EVALUATION OBJECTIVES
Around the world, conflict and natural disasters have displaced millions of people. Displaced populations fleeing to settlement camps and seeking safety in host villages often put great stress on natural resources, leading to environmental degradation and conflict with local populations. One of the greatest needs of people affected by crisis, be they displaced, settled, or on the move, is firewood or some other type of fuel to cook their food, heat their homes, and treat water for drinking and food preparation. The risks endured (especially by women and children) collecting scarce wood resources constitute some of the most challenging and serious protection concerns both in IDP camps and in villages where conflict over resources is high.

AVAN STOVE - WOODGAS AND ROCKET STOVE PRINCIPLES
N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy,GEO GEOECOLOGY ENERGY ORGANISATION, December 30, 2007
Avan (Earth) StoveAvan (Earth) Stove
Avan (Earth) Stove http://e-avanstove.blogspot.com/ has the features of both Rocket stove and Woodgas stove. It is made up of 25 nos of ordinary bricks, four bricks with slits, one piece of flat tile, one steel grate 7x7 inches and Clay mixed with cow dung. The approximate cost of construction is $ 2 (USD). All types of biomass can be used as fuel (Sticks / twigs / chips of wood / dry leaves / grass / saw dust / cow dung cakes / paddy husk etc.) and advantage of gravity is used for easy and semi-automatic feeding. Designed by Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy, GEO -Geoecology Energy Organisation http://www.e-geo.org declared as Creative Commons.

Ecocina Stove in Guayabo, San Lorenzo, Honduras
Larry Winiarski, Gustavo Pena, Ken Goyer, Don Steely, Stove Team International, December 23, 2007

Ecocina Stove, HondurasEcocina Stove, Honduras

Fuel Efficient Stove Programs in IDP Settings - Summary Evaluation Report, Uganda
Academy for Educational Development for USAID, September 2007

Introduction: Evaluation Objectives

Around the world, conflict and natural disasters have displaced millions of people. Displaced populations fleeing to settlement camps and seeking safety in host villages often put great stress on natural resources, leading to environmental degradation and conflict with local populations. One of the greatest needs of all people affected by crisis, be they displaced, settled or on the move, is firewood or other types of fuel to heat their homes, cook their food, and treat water for drinking and food preparation. The risks endured (especially by women and children) collecting sometimes scarce wood resources constitute some of the most challenging and serious protection concerns both in IDP camps and in villages where the conflict over resources is high.

USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) has been one of the key US Government funders of humanitarian agencies implementing fuel-efficient stove (FES) programs in IDP settings. The FES programs are intended to help the agencies accomplish various goals, such as improve food security or decrease deforestation, by reducing fuel consumption. However, the large number of implementers, their varying motives and degrees of expertise, and differing conditions within and among IDP communities have made it difficult for OFDA to determine the relative efficacy of the FES interventions and provide guidelines for USAID-funded entities working in IDP settings.

Therefore, OFDA enlisted the assistance of the USAID Energy Team to undertake a multi-phase evaluation in order to derive “best practices” for future FES interventions. While the primary purpose of this evaluation is to provide guidance to USAID-funded organizations, USAID hopes to inform the broader humanitarian community by sharing the results of the evaluation with them as well. Eventually, the best practices will be developed into a series of recommendations and toolkits for use by NGOs, donors, and other groups operating FES programs in IDP settings.

Solar Cookers, Efficient Stoves Help Rural Families Worldwide
Better technology and user marketing attracts help from aid agencies
Cheryl Pellerin, USINFO Staff Writer, September 12, 2007
Solar CookerSolar Cooker
A shopkeeper in Nyakach, Kenya, stands by a solar cooker used for food preparation. (Photo courtesy of Solar Cookers International)

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