• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Rocket Heater For Heating Homes/GreenHouse

garden-ed

New member
Hello

Heating and cooking are taken for granted when it comes to an emergency/survival situation. When the shtf there will be no electricity and limited if any deliveries will be made. Trees will dissapear rapidly which will cause a shortage of fuel supply. Rocket Heaters use 75% less wood than any traditional wood burning heater on the market. They produce zero smoke and very little ash. They can be made using firebricks or there are companies that manufacture rocket heater cores. There is a company out of Houston Texas that manufactures Dragon Heater cores. Here is there link http://www.dragonheaters.com They have great concepts for heating and cooking during emergency situations. You tube has lots of videos of different rocket heater builds as well but most of them fall apart with heavy usage (trust me i have built many)

cheers

ed
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
WOW those are outrageously expensive.

Given that you can build a dozen (maybe 2 dozen) rocket heaters for the price of one of those it seems like that concept is destined to fail.
 

garden-ed

New member
Thanks for the reply but so far it has out performed any rocket heater that i have built or any that I have seen online.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Thanks for the reply but so far it has out performed any rocket heater that i have built or any that I have seen online.

OK, so what?

It still is outrageously expensive, well beyond its value when compared to a rocket heater. Rocket heaters can literally be made out of scrap, wet clay & rocks or spare bricks and bits of other building supplies. FREE or nearly free.

Both a rocket heater and a dragon heater use the same fuel. Dragon may be slightly more efficient in its burn, but again, so what? Fuel is free for most of us rural dwellers and virtually unlimited in supply. So while I don't want to waste fuel of any type, a rocket heater is vastly more efficient than a campfire, a dragon gives me only marginally better heating.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Since you can make a rocket stove out of scrap or found materials why would you want to lug it with you?

Second, I have no plans to bug out. I will hunker down and bug in.

Third, looking at the history of the world, there are very few examples where people actually bug out. Some did during WWII and lived in the woods, but they were the exception. Other massive wars had similar tiny % of the populations that attempted bugging out, with some limited success.
 
I'd like to set up a wood fired water heater that could do "hot tub" volume. In winter, snow country. How long to raise 500 gals. 70 degrees fahrenheit with your dragon?
 

Jim_S

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
So what about being portable if you need to bug out?


In your environment an air conditioner would be more useful most of the year.

You still have swarms of black bugs plastering your windshield every summer?

Jim
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I'd like to set up a wood fired water heater that could do "hot tub" volume. In winter, snow country. How long to raise 500 gals. 70 degrees fahrenheit with your dragon?

For something permanent, why not use the North Carolina still heater design used by bootleggers and moonshiners for 100+ years? It works.

Its basically a rocket stove with a chamber just like this dragon stove. They are usually made out of rocks and clay. The still sits on to the top of the exhaust end. Basically it looks just like the dragon stove, but its built in place with materails from the earth. High heat, very low smoke, efficient burn.

Stills can hold 100+ gallons so it is a design that obviously works.
 

garden-ed

New member
Not sure I am not part of the company. You can contact them and they would be more than happy to answer any questions. I know when I spoke to them on the phone they were hitting temps around 850 deg in 30 minutes using only a bucket of wood. You tube Dragon heaters they have a channel with a couple of videos. If you call ask for Sandy
 
I think the design that'll work the best will be a thermosiphon. Draw water from bottom of tub, heat it and return it at the top. I'll google the NC design - not familiar with it.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I think the design that'll work the best will be a thermosiphon. Draw water from bottom of tub, heat it and return it at the top. I'll google the NC design - not familiar with it.

There is a Documentary called THE LAST RUN or THE LAST RUN OF POPCORN SUTTON. He was a legend in the Moonshing world and got caught. A couple years after he got caught he was worried that the Moonshining way of life would be lost forever and got together with a film maker and did a documentary on how to build and run a still.

Look it up, he used Tennessee clay and rocks.
 
Top