To Heat! or Not To Heat! Is that the question?

In this weeks episode of how to survive an Zombie Apocalypse we dwell on how to cook your friends food. We all know that the normal supply of power will be disabled, be it electricty, gas, solar well maybe not solar, but we won't be able to cook as we are used to. And so I have researched and found a fun way to make stuff hot.

This method is called a Rocket Stove. The Rocket Stove was invented around 399 b.c.  by the great king Emperor Stove. He liked to cook food and do so fast. This just in it was actually invented like 30 years ago and not by some king, who knew?  Well so the main thing is that you have an L shaped chamber where in the heat is pulled up the chimney part of the L and sucks in fresh air from the lower opening and as it gets hotter it pulls in faster and thus gets hotter, and also only burns the ends of the fuel thus more efficiently produces heat.

First step in making this design is to gather some materials, I used 1 #10 can and 4 soup type cans. You need 3 of the cans to make the L the #10 can to contain it and the 4th can for a shelf.

You want to make a whole to put a can through for inserting fuel.

 I traced it with a marker and assalted the big can with some hand tools.

 There are easier and better ways to do this and I recomend them.

 My way worked but not the purtiest.

 You need to make a whole in one of the smaller cans like the big can for similar reasons.

 See, it goes together nicely, oh, and go back a couple steps and remove the bottom of the horizontal can.

 And while you are doing that, do similar to a third can and then mangle it up so it will slip in the bottom small verticle can with a whole in the side, this will make the chimney heat rocket part of the stove. And then take the Top of the #10 can that you saved when opening the can and cut a whole that will fit the top of the chimney.

 This should fit over the chimney see, but wait...

 We want to put some insulation in this thing, more for getting the chamber hotter than keeping the outside cooler, I used some ashes from our grill, there is stuff call vermiculite and perlite, that come in the gardening departments that work well, I didn't have any on hand and so.

 Now put on the top again, and I should remind you that the chimney should be lower than the top of the big can to allow the fire to move and not be suffocated  and I also notched some tabs in the top to allow some breathing room.

 Now you were probably thinking I know he said to have another can handy, this one you want to flatten down, and mangle it into a T type shape. This will be a shelf in which you can place fuel on top and fresh air can flow under thus rocketing your stove to be a success.

I also tested out the stove and will include video of such tests, I can't believe I didn't take pictures of it going but:

you will see dry fuel works better.