Welcome to the Rocket Stove Institute
Home of the SR100 Rocket StoveChanging the way we heat our homes
using the principles of science.
Principles of Combustion
Rocket Stove Principles are so profound and powerful that they could bring humanity into a new age of personal energy independence.
To this end, working with Dr. Larry Winiarski, the inventor of the rocket stove and author of the Ten Principles of Combustion, I have designed, built and demonstrated the rugged forge-like SR100 Rocket Stove–Thermal Battery System which provides continuous heat and keeps people warm in their homes, heats greenhouses and work spaces, and heats hot water for kitchen, showers and bath.
John Robert Zielinski
Founder
Rocket Stove Institute
Please note that this website is under construction now as the Rocket Stove Institute application is being submitted to the North West Permaculture Convergence on September 27th to 29th, 2019. Much of the information is already here on the website but it is not laid out as well as we wish at this time. Please check back in a day or two. Please enter your name and email in the form on the upper right of this page and you will receive updates from the Rocket Stove Institute. Thank you for visiting the Rocket Stove Institute website and we hope to see you return soon.
The video on the top of this page is from the Beloved Festival 2018 showing the SR100 rocket stove heating water in a pot to do dishes for 3,000 people for four days.
After the Beloved Festival 2018 we made a major system design change and began to use a taller chimney with a long inner copper coil directly in contact with the flames from the combustion chamber. We configured this coil to have more surface area than the surface of the pot and therefore more heat transfer. We also decided to store the heat into an insulated water tank which serves as a “thermal battery” to store the heat from the combustion for later use in radiant space heating or directly as hot water for the kitchen, showers or hot tub.
The above video shows the SR100 rocket stove configuration with a 72 inch chimney and a long copper coil inside the chimney directly in contact with the flames. This configuration includes the SR100 Rocket Stove with three 24 inch sections of double layer stainless steel insulated 8 inch ID chimney sections, a coil in the chimney in direct contact with the chimney heat. The coil is made from 60 feet of 3/8 inch ID copper tubing bent into a 48 inch long coil to fit into the chimney. The pump is mounted at the bottom of the tank and pumps the water through high heat PEX tubing up into the top of the coil winding to the bottom of the coil and then straight up to the top of the chimney and then returning to the tank.
Performance: This coil configuration was able to heat a 125 gallon tank to 155 degrees F in 2.5 hours and we reproduced this rate of heating water in several different monitored burns. We were able to heat water at a consistent rate of 39,000 btu per hour and we feel we can double this rate with the improvements we are making.
This is the video of the burning SR100 Rocket Stove with long chimney and copper coil. Notice the speed of the flames.
Turn the volume up and listen carefully to the rocket-like sound that the rocket stove is making as it draws air into the combustion chamber directly into the fire and get a kinesthetic feeling for the intensity of the burning process.
Notice the heat level.
The SR100 with its forge-designed combustion chamber is designed to burn at this rate continuously 24 hours per day for six months
Contact email: contact@RocketStoveInstitute.Org
About the SR100 Rocket Stove:
History:
The creation of the SR100 rocket stove was inspired by the courage of those in the Standing Rock 2016 effort to safeguard the purity of our water. The purpose of the SR100 rocket stove is to provide continuous heat to keep people warm in their homes, to heat greenhouses and workspaces, and provide hot water for the kitchen and showers and bath, in winters that last up to six months with temperatures down to minus 17 degrees.
“SR100” is a rocket stove engineering specification:
“SR100” refers to a techinical engineering specification for the rocket stove combustion chamber and chimney which states:
“The SR100 Rocket Stove shall be capable of producing 100,000 btu of heat per hour 24 hours a day, seven days a week, continuously for six months without failure, and cost less than $300”.
The “SR100” specification was written by, and the working prototype SR100 rocket stove as seen in these videos, was designed and built by John Robert Zielinski under the mentorship of Dr. Larry Winiarski, ten year best friend and inventor of the rocket stove and author of the “Ten Principles of Combustion”. Nick Moses, formerly of the Instove Corporation, rendered the SR100 design in Autocad and CNC cut and formed the stainless steel exoskeleton to hold the firebricks to create a combustion chamber similar to a forge. After the Beloved Festival the pot was replaced by a long chimney with an inner copper coil. Several measured burns confirmed that the SR100 is capable of heating a large tank of water, from 500 to 1,000+ gallons, at a rate of over 39,000 btu per hour. The tank stores the heat, and the water can be pumped to heat a house, a greenhouse, a workshop and a hot tub, thereby demonstrating that the SR100 can function as a central component of a homestead allowing more sustainable off-grid living.
Special thanks to the staff at the Oregon Country Fair Ritz Sauna for guidance in choosing to develop the copper coil technology which can be designed with more surface area to be several times more effective than using a pot. We also understand that a coil may be more effective than a pot with the same surface area and plan to test this.
The Rocket Stove Institute is in the process of refining the design and finalizing a real-time demonstration system for a launch at the North West Permaculture Convergence. We are creating an crowd funding campaign to be launched in late summer 2019 with a second video showing the full potential of the SR100 with new features that will include:
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- A hopper that will burn wood pellets or locally-made chips, for a fire burning continuously for up to four hours or longer with one filling
- a pioneering new method to create water tank/thermal batteries, made quickly and inexpensively and affordably insulated with straw or cellular cement.
- A new technique to manufacture stoves quickly by casting them out of a cellular refractory we are developing which would bring the costs drastically lower.
- Multiple rocket stoves to heat the thermal battery faster just as a car engine has multiple pistons to provide more power.
- A microprocessor controller run by solar energy which will maintain the proper ratio of air-to-fuel for the cleanest and hottest burn
This size of a rocket stove has been laboratory tested to emit 90% less pollution and use up to 90% less wood (biomass) than an open fire.
Stainless Exoskeleton and Firebrick Construction of the SR100 Rocket Stove.
These videos were independently produced by the Rocket Stove Institute.
All interested parties, people who want to help the world, and lovers of the rocket stove are invited to contact us for more information, apprenticeships, employment, product sales, franchise-like opportunities to make and sell and install SR100 rocket stoves in your community, and to be part of our team.
Stay tuned for the launch of our crowdfunding campaign.