Here’s a chance to support a upcoming rocket stove mass heater production.
Calen Kennett of Village Video and Ernie & Erica teamed up to produce an instructional video. This DVD video teaches you how to build a thermal mass rocket stove- a highly efficient, clean, affordable, wood-burning heater. Calen is looking for support to finish post production of the DVD.
Help them make it a reality at via the kickstarter campaign.
I tried my hand at cement based plastering this year. It is very different than working with adobe mud, that’s for sure. Everything is store bought: paper, staples, wire, cement, additives, etc. All the steps after the mesh are the same as far as plastering goes; scratch coat, brown ( or infill ) coat and finish. Though the cementous material itself has completely different properties. Having only worked with earthen plaster I needed some instruction.
That’s where Kirk Giordano Plastering came in. He is to stucco plastering what Bob Ross is to painting. He takes the time to explain what tools, mixes, treatment and finishes they use. A good resource for learning the conventional plastering trade.
Matt Remine love’s to tool on rocket stoves. You can tell, look at the Rocket Mass Heater Half Barrel System video. Matt shares some ideas like: front loading batch configuration, windows!, reducing costs while using ubiquitous 55 gallon barrels as structure. I can imagine many outdoor star-gazing parties on this toasty rocket!
Look for more of Matt and his innovations building rockets.
While the season gives way to Fall I’ve been constructing a sauna to keep me warm through the winter. The health benefits are many and nothing like being extra cozy in the long cold winter.
Some of the requirements of the project, were I to endeavor on another ( I’m crazy - there’s already enough to do! ), were speed in construction, low cost, quick-hot-heat and high insulation value. Straw bale came to mind, but lately I wouldn’t call straw bales cheap, at least not in these parts. I decided to build with salvaged materials that I had laying around and see how far I could get. I happened to have a lot of aspen laying around from last years wood excursions. So I decided to cordwood ( cobwood ) the wall system.
Rob Roy’s The Sauna book teaches building with cordwood, among other methods. This book has been a welcome companion along the way. I took a little different approach to cordwood. I stacked aspen, a layer of light clay between as a mortar. Aspen is a pretty fluffy wood, so I’d imagine it would be a good insulator. The wall building went pretty fast using the aspen as the building blocks with in a wood lattice. Earthen plaster inside and out, except for a few choice spots to reveal the wood pattern. Since I already had a Vogelzang barrel stove kit, I opted to use it. A barrel and an afternoon of fabrication and whalla – a stove. Of course I wanted to build a rocket stove, but alas this will do for now!
I’ll be posting more photos as the project progresses… stay tuned!
Scott Howard of Earthen Hand has been sculpting, building and offering workshops for a decade. All along employing natural building techniques and appropriate technology to yield beautiful resonant spaces.
The new initiative is researching and developing their own flavor of a ecological, low-cost, self-sufficient home, called The Regenerative Home. Some of the key featured of this design are: passive solar design, PAHS or passive annual heat storage, earthbag building, adobe Nubian vault, low energy appliances and integrated garden space. All with in a 500 round foot design that will cost 15K in materials.
The idea is to incorporate cutting edge green technologies into a affordable, replicable, and tested design. This project is being built at The Wirikutu Peace Fellowship, near La Garita, Colorado, which plans to become an eco-village and buddhist retreat center. Besides the building of the prototype, open source plans, test results, and a documentary will be available in the future.
They need your support to make this a reality…
Learn more about The Regenerative Home project and donate »
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