Ten years after this book was first published, it’s really remarkable that this stove not only caught on in Oregon in cob buildings but also in Japan, Australia, throughout Europe and the internet and in all kinds of buildings, with all kinds of adaptations. Some people building Rocket Mass Heaters have never even heard of this book. But more remarkable to me is that in spite of the many innovations others are experimenting with, the simple $100 stove described in the First Edition is still the one this book is about. Ianto has lived with it for 25 years. “Why,” he asks in his precise Welsh accent, “improve on perfection?”
Compiling these Case Studies has been an adventure, beginning with a visit to Alaska in late March to the off-grid home of Lasse Holmes, who kept this Californian alive and fascinated. Using dogsled, snowshoe, and even climbing ropes to get from the road to his cozy home, I got to experience first-hand the real need for heat, and the real comfort of a well-built Rocket Mass Heater. Then at an opposite extreme, Art Ludwig and I wrote both his case study and Fire! Fire! chapter hip-to-hip in his hammock in Santa Barbara after a night of drumming on the beach under a full moon.
By publishing Rocket Stoves to Heat Cob Buildings in 2004, Ianto and I invited many inventive tinkerers to play in the context of their own conditions, climates, and materials. Some are casting their own “high-test” bricks, for example, and others achieving 100% combustion under tight laboratory-like circumstances. There have been so many innovations in fact, that the basic model in this book is now called “the Evans.” (Sounds like a dance move.) Here you can find out about the Holmes, the Donkey, and the Peterberg, too. They’re built by a hand-picked group of folks, most of whom Ianto directly taught. Some of these stoves stray pretty far from the original recipe we provide, and others stick to it and are perfectly satisfying. We know that even those stovers who stray from the recipe have already built the recipe model and applied the dictates of their conditions, climates, and materials. They know the major risks and they build heaters, not hot-rods. Most of them live with their Rocket Mass Heater and many have for several years.
For a brief intro to each, hover your mouse over “Case Studies” in the Navbar, and then scroll down to the stover of your choice.