http://ellisbenus.com/ellis-benus/build-a-rocket-stove/ ?

Lifehacker.com introduced me to IWillTry.org and the article about Building a Rocket Stove for Home Heating.

I was looking into propane heaters to heat my garage this winter for around $100.

Propane was going to be my preference based on Kerosene & Diesel heaters being far more harmful to breath in, and the idea of being able to easily remove the fuel source from the heater (just unhook the propane tank) versus having to leave kerosene or diesel inside the heater seemed far safer.

However, after seeing a pretty cool video How To Build a Rocket Stove, I think I can tackle building one.

My Requirements:

1. An inexpensive heater to warm my 2 car garage
2. An inexpensive and easily available fuel source
3. A portable heater to allow me to move it around the garage, or even outside

My Plan:

1. Build a very simple Rocket Stove based on the design in the video above
2. Use firebricks I can find instead of making my own like the video suggests (I don’t have a kiln!)
3. Wrap the bricks in regular sheet metal like the video shows
4. Light a fire in it and see if it burns correctly with just the bricks

If this all works, and the firebricks will serve the purpose then:

1. Fill the sheet metal surround with Cob (a mixture of sawdust and clay that is used as insulation by a lot of these Rocket Stove people)
2. Fabricate an exhaust system that will heat the cob and exhaust like the IWillTry.org design
3. Build a base with rollers and/or handles to make it easily movable

My Point:

The necessity of the cob is that the rocket stove will heat up very quickly, but also cool down very quickly.

The cob absorbs, traps, and holds the heat very well which allows the rocket stove to warm it up, and then the cob radiates heat for quite a while even after the fire has gone out.

IWillTry.org points out that his room heats up fast and cools down fast because of the lack of an insulator on his Rocket Stove.

If this works I will have a dirt cheap heater for keeping me warm in my garage so I can work on my truck year round. If it burns clean enough then I might even be able to open the door to the house and heat it a little as well.

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” -Milton Berle

“The person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

I Hate Shoes! People used to think barefoot was bad for you. We lived thousands of years without shoes!

Test the “$50 Rustoleum” paint job.

If you missed the announcement Google made that it was killing Goog 411, the free information service, then you have not yet had a chance to grieve.

The good news is two fold.

First, you can still text GOOGLE (466459) and get business information back.

Second, I seriously doubt Google will ever kill Google Voice.

Think about this, unless you’re talking to someone in person, Google will know everything going on in your life. Email, Voicemail (which is now transcribed into text thanks to Google Voice), Text Messages, Phone Conversations (surely they are saving these as text as well), etc… Google will know everything.

If they eventually add voice monitoring to register the pitch, cadence, and tone of your voices as well (if they haven’t already) then Google might be able to know things before you do based on stress, excitement or just biology…

Couldn’t you foresee your stress levels going up, or a woman’s voice changing due to hormones, and Google sends them an ad before the person even knows something has changed…? Wicked!

Google CEO Eric Schmidt even told the Mobile World Congress in a keynote address: “We can literally know everything if we want to.”

Luckily their company slogan is “Don’t Be Evil” and they have stood up to that so far.

In a hilarious hkcd cartoon, you can even seen that Google has almost no reason to turn evil…

Men, it’s time to start being men! Anything that happens in your household is your responsibility.

My favorite company in the world is building my favorite thing in the world: A car that drives itself.

Since I’m just posting images today, I’m going to post two.

This awesome slam on IE and the Who Do I Punch? comic.

Internet Explorer: The Number one Browser for downloading a Better Browser.