Rocket Stove - version #1

So, I've been getting into alternative ways of doing things to save energy and money around my house.  I'm exploring things such as solar for electricity and for passive water heating, and wind energy for electricity.  I'm sure some of my projects dealing with these subjects will be featured in this blog in the future.  In the spirit of saving energy, I thought it would be cool to cook off the grid on a regular basis. With it finally being summer and the weather being nice, I enjoy firing up the BBQ and cooking outside as much as possible.  But that takes either a tank of expensive propane or a bag of expensive charcoal.  I've seen a few videos about rocket stoves online and thought I'd give making one a try to see if I could actually cook with it outside.  The idea behind a rocket stove is that it gets really hot with a very small amount of fuel.  Small sticks are used for fuel which I have plenty of around my wooded lot.  Sounds great! So off I went cutting cans like a mad man until I had a version #1 of my rocket stove.

I used three soup cans and a one gallon empty paint bucket.  You make a sort of "L" shape out of the three soup cans and fit that into the paint can with both ends of the "L" sticking out of the larger paint can.  When the soup cans are in place you fill the paint can around them with an insulator.  I used regular play sand, but some people use vermiculite because it is much lighter than sand and if you plan on taking your stove camping or on the road the lighter the better. You feed fuel or small sticks into the bottom of the "L" and the angle area of the "L" becomes a combustion chamber as the stack of the "L" creates a vacuum and pulls clean air in through the bottom creating a "Rocket" effect and lots of heat.

My first version worked ok, but never got hot enough to boil water.  I'd later figured out that my stack on top was not tall enough and wasn't creating a strong enough vacuum to stoke the fire below.  So I added another can to the stack.  It created a better vacuum, but in the process of adding a new can I bent the one below.  Now the air doesn't know what to do and it is still very inefficient.

So, I think for version #2 I'll be using steel tubing rather than soup cans to see if I can make a more permanent one that can be welded and will actually work.  Sick of cutting my knuckles on empty soup cans...lol.

-Jacob