Brilliant DIY Off-Grid Water Heater Using a Rocket Stove - No Propane!
This is a brilliant DIY hack for creating an off-grid water heater with just a simple handmade rocket stove, water barrel, and copper pipes! No pump! No propane!
It was built by a couple of incredible people we met last summer, Sebastien and Isabelle. They're passionate about reconnecting with the earth and finding sustainable ways to live. One of their hobbies is experimenting with rocket stoves and making them function as a cooktop, a heat source, and sometimes even as a hot water heater.
A rocket stove is a simple stove with 3 openings: the one at the bottom for building your fire, the middle one is to feed wood to the fire, and the one at the top is a chimney. By winding copper pipes inside the cob walls of the chimney, water in the pipes is heated up and circulated from the water barrel, around the rocket stove, and back into the barrel by a process called: thermosiphon.
According to Wikipedia, a thermo syphon "is a method of passive heat exchange, based on natural convection, which circulates a fluid without the necessity of a mechanical pump."
Our minds were blown when we learned about this passive heat exchange that didn't require electricity or propane!
This is their first prototype and they're hoping to refine the system this year. Now that they know it works, they're hoping to use an insulated hot water tank that will keep the water warm for longer (and avoid using a plastic barrel to heat water). This will eventually be an outdoor shower for them.
Sebastien and Isabelle from La Nature à l'État Pur are creating some incredible living spaces, and are offering opportunities for people to come relax in nature and to learn off-grid living techniques. Check out their website to find out more:
lebaston.wixsite.com/ecodome
And check out the video we created about their SuperAdobe Eco Dome Home here:
• Incredible Dome Home B...
Thanks for watching!
Mat & Danielle
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Music & Song Credits:
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What do you think of this off-grid water heater? Have you seen or used any propane-free off-grid water heaters? Thanks for watching!
Well i have mixed feelings. Any clue how long ive been trying to figure out how to do a portable heating system w out lp? Lmao of course KZhead to the rescue. Smh...lmao
It’s unclear what this stove is made of - is it concrete with extra sand? Or clay with grog (ground up pre-fired clay to avoid cracking)? I would be nervous to put the heated water back into a plastic tank in a cyclical system. A food grade steel barrel may be safer... is there an overflow valve and a pressure valve on the tank? Thanks for posting this. Interesting!
Micha EL can someone post the recipe for the insulated cement?
Exploring Alternatives; burning wood? Is not sustainable except for a very small group of users.
bb1111116 The rocket mass stove and heaters use a fraction of the wood used in traditional wood burning devices, including the new ones that are supposed to be more efficient. The bonus is that they also make good use of small pieces of wood...no logs required, so that means more sustainable as dead branches and brush are good. Fouch Family live in Idaho and heat a small home with RMH. They run a burn in the am and it keeps the house comfortable until the next morning. I would love to see if someone would do an experiment: shred and compress the waste matter that comes from crops...corn or other grain stalks, for example, do not really add much nutrients to soil, and do not make good fodder for animals.
I built this and it works amazing! It took me 3 days and i documented it for sharing. If you want to see it come down. Our water gets to 140f or 60c and stays hot for hours! This video inspired me. Thank you!
That's awesome! I got to ask, how often (and how) do you clean the copper? 🐱🌱
This has been used in New Zealand for at least 100 years and the coils are often built in to the back of a wood stove. The system is called a “wet back” water heater (not a slur) and it is important for the tank to be close to the fire. You can use a regular hot water tank with a relief valve and a set of cut off valves. In the summer the system is closed off and electricity can be used to heat the water. In the winter the power is turned off and the valves opened and the coil in the back of the wood stove fire box, or embedded coil in the fire masonry will heat the tank. Bullet proof system.
Stephen Lockie limited to rural properties now tho right?
Geenine44 looks like it's council specific. Some councils don't allow them unless rural
andrewford80 the system does produce more particles in the burn as the water does cool the process slightly, but highly efficient woodstoves are still within the limits set by many councils.
Are you thinking of coal range or cooking stoves Andrew? If they can be multi fuelled then yes it can only be used in rural areas. But many are now wood only with the perks and features of the range. Grew up using a coal range so was glad to come across the Pyroclassic Fires. May as well get as many uses out of the wood as possible now that I’m having to pay for it.
Just another gravity fed donkey ... nothing at all new about this concept & has been used in Australia since before God's dog died ... I've built a few ... www.google.com/search?q=donkey+hot+water+system+diagram&client=firefox-b&sa=X&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0ahUKEwj__7r18o3bAhWEybwKHYchC1YQsAQIKA&biw=1366&bih=611
My Dad made something like this, but on a much larger scale maybe 5 or more years ago. He learned about rocket stoves on KZhead and came up with a system of how to heat the water for our home. He also made sular pannels that heat our water with sunlight. I haven't had a cold shower in years.
Pictures or detail if you would be so kind.
That would be great to see in a video. Have you guys put your own video on youtube?
THAT IS TOO BAD cold shower is actually very good for you
I lived on a boat 40 years ago, and we heated the boat with this same principal. We had a small coal stove instead of the rocket stove, but essentially it worked the same way. Up on deck was the water tank and it gravity fed water down to the stove which heated the copper water pipes which then ran around the boat and back to the tank on the upper deck. It worked really well. I'm so glad to see this rocket stove. I'm going to build myself one!
I have always wanted to try the coil on my wood stove. Capturing thermal energy and storing it in water has lots of uses! That build is perfectly artistic. Great job.
Love the rocket stove! I’ve made a few off grid, log fired hot tubs and a few things I’ve noted to help the thermosiphon ( and maybe some people watching this video ) the bottom pipe taking the cold water to the fire wants to be running slightly down hill. The coil around the heat source wants to be going uphill continually, and the exit pipe wants to be going slightly uphill. You can add a small solar powered pump to speed it up even more. On my current set up, with the pump running i can heat 700l of water to 40c from 5c in around 2/3 hours.
Oh man. That sounds fabulous! Would you be able to send me in the right direction for building a decent log fired hot tub? I have a dead spar shell id love to hear up or a humble bath.
Do you put the pump at the cold input/ at the tank or does it matter?
This is almost IDENTICAL to a space heater I wanted to build. LOVE it.
Wonderful, thanks! It would be even greater to see the building process
Rocket Stove Institute is working on home heating systems as well! So exciting to see these experiments happening in different places around the world
This is such an amazing rocket stove! Sebastien and Isabelle are inspirational--true models for how to live simply and create a fulfilling life. Also, thank you for bringing innovative ideas to the general public.
Christina Elliott they are doing great things. I really enjoyed their earthbag build video.
You stirred my creativity.I have read somewhere and it is my favourite quote...If you stirrer your creativity,possibilities are endless.
What a great idea - love this concept. Great video and thanks for sharing.
Dude that is really cool! Thanks for sharing! Sending love to Kbek from Ontario!
Fantastic - just exactly what I've been looking for. I'm about to build a rocket stove in my front yard and this is a logical extension for hot water in winter.
are you brain dead? this is such a B S
What a beautiful place to live. Reminds me of all the camping and my younger years. great idea.
Inspirational, thanks for sharing the vid and giving a concise explanation of how it works. It would have been handy to see some temperature values but for a proof of concept it's great.
I really like the design and function of this rocket stove. Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely amazing. I'm gonna try this at our hunting camp in ohio. We usually just use baby wipes to clean up during our week long hunting trips. This would make it a whole lot more bearable. 4 to 5 guys in a small trailer gets a little funky at about day 3. Thanks for the great idea.
This is GREAT. Simple and efficient. Thank you for sharing!
What was really cool about the heater was the way it is multifunctional, cheap and energy saving! Great!
This was extremely interesting. Thoroughly enjoyed what you said. Also environmentally friendly.
interesting yes. educational, NO. Also not environmentally friendly; you need a real "rocket stove" for that. U-tube "Winiarski Rocket Stove" for learning.
Nothing is environmental friendly about burning stuff.
great idea!
We need more and more of this! Sustainability is the the only way! Closed loop systems are the best way!
Wish I would have thought of that. So simple. Thanks 4 posting.
This would be great for an outdoor shower! Thanks
No shower during winter, summer only.
You both are amazing people . We over here , admire you way so so much. You both are adding value to society, proud to share your ideas / your creativity/ and your beautiful vedio with others. Beautiful job :)
Thanks so much for the super positive vibes Nima :) :)
"We"? You have a mouse in your pocket?
When i was a kid back then we had the old back boiler coal fire down stairs boiler up stairs same idea and works very well nice to see the old ideas are still out there.
Wow that's different thanks for sharing
Really great idea they had there!
OMG CANADIAN PREPPER
Ever tried living with one. Prepper for disappointment.😗
@@jasonberry4504Raise the flue height, optimum is 6 meters, roughly 20ft.
This is so so cool! What an amazing idea. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this footage and thank the people who invented or braucht to live this this technique! Find this idea marvellous! :)
First time ever hearing or seeing AWESOME idea
Wow quelle idée géniale et c'est made in Québec! 😀👍🏻
I love it
So epic, thank you for sharing
WOW the things people come up with so flipping amazing
these people are so cool!!!!!
is it cool to misinform? or just not understand?
neither one is cool...not understanding is a form of ignorance and misinformation can be a form of deception or displaced innocence...
Need a video on how they made the rocket stove.
you are so right, the person should also put on youtube a video for building his rocket hot water heater.
@ I garden because I have to , know it's a fireproof clay sand cement mix of some sort, the top shape can be determined how you like for using the copper pipe/tubing as the form for shaping the clay to, so there's room for really improving on something like this one shown here. rectangular transitioning into a cone shape is my idea in mind at the moment, with one chunk of angle iron across in a V to blast the heat into the mass more directly and by conduct conduction both.
Yes.. the diameter of the main flue hole and feeder hole for comparison.
@Cerberus why does the top need to be constricted? I'm learning..
I made one. Hit my bubble.
Wonderful experiment i congratulate couple for this marvelous innovation and sacrifice and struggle they did meanwhile their research period
Great,I am going to build it at my friend's farm! Thanks!
Instead of using the blue container wake use an old water heater that would have better insulation to keep the hot water hotter longer and work off the same principle
The problem is this we got an old water heater? Where is the down side cause that sucker is flush how do I rise the heater
Google the definition of the word PROTOTYPE and that will answer your question
@@RebelMafia2.0 bill a platform fer it
Would have been nice to include a thermostat or thermometer to show how long it takes for it to reach optimal temperatures.
Smart Biz Web Media he said about two hours.
Amazing engineering thank you ♥️💯
Such an amazing idea! So creative and still very simple! Thank you! 🙏🤗🙌
Would be great to fully insulate the water tank and the copper pipes with adobe as well... even better to build a separate cooker and make the chimney 4 or 5 times taller (perhaps in stackable sections) to make the same amount of wood heat about 10 times more water.
Try lagging the pipes also try putting up heat gauge an pressure gauge also measure you flow an return pipe work to calculate heat loss and yes definitely insulate the you water drum aka cylinder
Wow what a simple and super clever good job 👍
Thanks for the video. I'm going to try that. Awesome idea thanks
I've seen a similar idea where they ran tubing through a composting pile and that naturally heated the water, plus the compost kept continually warming itself.
MarkBTW that is a great idea too I'm not sure how hot it would get but warm is better than cold at any rate.
Compost piles can easily run 180 degrees so it is possible for them to get very hot. More than a few compost piles have spontaneously combusted.
@@bobbyhempel1513 hot enough to burn your hand if you leave it in there lol Pile needs to be 20-25% fresh manure
is this in cold country as well?
Can the compost be dumped directly to the barrel inside, instead of running copper pipes?
Wow this is really brilliant. I'm going to do this :) Thank you so much guys :)
Thank you very much. Awesome invention!!!! GOD bless you folks.
One can really see how the rocket stove works with this compact design.
Since I intend to have a green house someday, I wanted to know your opinion on how well this would do for heating the greenhouse. I think it would be excellent. I've also considered a large compost heap in the center of the greenhouse. But I don't see any reason why I couldn't combine the two. Perhaps even using the compost heap as an insulator for the Barrel.
compost heap as insulator is actually a genius idea! love it
Ausome!! Small enough to be portable to some degree - able to give heat, cooking and hot water. Nicely done!!
Amaizing! Love it!
Four questions, which I invite anyone to answer: 1) Should the coils be set a certain distance into the cobb, to avoid melting the copper, even though it has water flowing through it? 2) What would be the best composition of the cobb, to prevent cracking; esp. if the coils are embedded into the cobb? 3) If the stack were coated with water glass, to reduce cracking, would that insulate the coils too much to be efficient? 4) What would be the needed cure time before this would be usable, during cool weather? I appreciate any constructive input I can get! I'm facing yet another winter without hot water; and, long hot soaks are the only relief I have to the chronic pain I live with. (I REFUSE to allow the medical mafia to turn me into one of their junkies!!!)
If they built this into part of their underfloor heating system it would work very well.
That implies it would be lower than the floor of the house however, and its a pretty small boiler system.
There's nothing I enjoy more on a cold winters morning than cooking soup and having a tepid shower outside..... Bravo Monsieur Bravo
Gracias por la idea. Felicitaciones que genial. Saludos desde Venezuela.
Would have been nice to see how it was constructed.
You saying you cant figure it out from this description? The stove is made from dirt and cob mixed with water to turn it into a putty then formed and left to dry. It takes some time to let each layer dry. The stove itself is a very simple design. The only original concept here is forming a coil with copper tubing for the top section of the stove. It might be a rocket stove but its not rocket science! Simple thermodynamics! Genius I love it and will be building my own! Eventually!
Yes, me and 7 others would have liked to have seen it actually being built. I have built other smaller rocket stoves but not like this. Sheesh!
2bczar4u: Youuu filthy mouth!
The Savage Method except cob will crack and decay under high heat. It can dissolve in water and rain. Different proportions work better than others. Do you need to feed it constantly? Just saying it is only an advert for the concept. A steam explosion is deadly so if you are going to play around with it you better have a damn good idea of how to play safe. Luckily other productions are more educational.
@Sharron Clark So "Brilliant" in the title is click bait ?
I feel like all these people need to visit the old soviet block homes and see how they build ovens. They're so efficient.
What a unique product. These videos are so helpful.
Brilliant concept.
That was interesting. Do you know what the temp of the water was coming off the stove and back into the tank. It looks like the hot water could lose some heat going back to the tank through the flexible hose. I suppose you could put pipe insulation on it to prevent that.
This prototype, which we were told was an unoptimized prototype, is not optimized yet.
Its only a PROTOTYPE & NOT THE FINISHED PERFECT PRODUCT
Love the concept, seems to me they could improve the idea by insulating the stove with wood ash and clay walls. Something like the Indian Tandori ovens only a smaller top opening, more coils would mean lessor heat times so a taller chimney would help.
Kelly Richardson It is like a tandoor -its made of daub
Thats cool! gonna experiment with that to heat water at my OTG camp! THanks!
very efficient and nice looking heating&cooking system. Great. I like it!
Superbe! Es-tu québécois d'origine ?
Oui
Paint the water barrel black and get free solar heating. :D
May allow bacteria growth, maybe with a clear top to let the UV sterilize it.
Or maybe if it isn't used for drinking you could chemically treat it.
It works well if you coil up black hose on the flat roof of a garage or something but be careful it can burn you too.
Freddy McIntire UV sterilization of certain microbes works, dude. Google Steripen.
@k johnson Canadian Winter disagrees with you...
Wow, wow, wow!!!! One worth share on Facebook!!👍🏾❤😍😀
Marina agregará algo pero no sé nada en inglés y veo el video por la imagen pero no entiendo nada porque es en inglés yo hablo español
@@lourdesabreu4107 Sorry I don't understand Spanish.
EXCELLENT .LIKED THAT THE STOVE IS MADE OF DAUB SO ITS ABSOLUTELY GREEN
I like this. No technique is "off grid" if you always have to keep buying fuel for it.
we have been using these in Australia since colonization. we call them Donkey heater
Back in the day all New Zealand homes had them, they called them boosters even homes with electricity still had a booster stove that you can heat hot water and cook on just in case your electricity went out. God knows why greenies want all of us to revert backwards.
It’s not reverting (backwards- redundant) it’s being ecologically responsible.
@@brucea550 Greenies can be eco-friendly for themselves, but when they force their ideas onto me..it changes from responsibility to dictatorship.
@@brucea550 Many rocket stoves can be fueled with twigs and limbs that have fallen off trees but, once you would have a much larger demand for fuel to burn then the greenies would be griping about deforestation from people cutting trees for cooking and heating their homes.
Doubt it. Wood is a renewable resource. Easy to plant new trees as fast or faster than you cut them down.
This is exactly what I was looking for!
Thanks very good God bless you I will try in my Farm
What type of clay/cob did they use to make this rocket stove?
Adobe?
Recommend those pipes are lagged or insulated and to use a stainless steel tank that’s also insulated if he wants to continue with this system. But why not invest in a wood burner that’s designed for this purpose? The wood used will do three jobs, water, cooking and heating a home with less fuel. A good appliance these days will also be clean burning with the right design.
Geenine44 nailed it.
This is great. In my home country we would use a broken boiler for many years with wood to heat up water.
Awesomely educational, gratitude for that!
This is a brilliant concept. How can I learn this and teach people in Nigeria where I live?
Some sort of engineering school would probably be your thing, then you could start teaching after that.
James, there are many different designs for rocket stoves on the internet that you can look at. And many of those go more into design and what you need to do (and type of materials you need) in order to build the rocket stove yourself. Then you need tubing that you can shape and can hold up to intense temperatures. So pretty much metal tubing to stand up to that heat. Copper tubing is often used because it's soft enough to bend yourself with minimal tools and has a very good resistance to rust, etc. The water flow is due to the thermosiphon that he mentioned. Wikipedia has a nice page on it with pictures and everything.
Get that crazy talk out of here.
its 2018, you should not have to teach them anything by now
Jabo ti bog thank you for calling me a dummy. God bless you. You don't know me and you didn't create me so you have no right to call me a dummy. Whoever taught you to speak and use the Internet never taught you properly.
We have this stove from decades in Indian 😆
Excellent! Heating copper piping up to warm the water is such a good idea. If ever I had a swimming pool built I would have the filter feed water through coiled copper piping on a roof so the water heats up in the sun.
Wow! That's incredible!
you have nothing in thermomass here my friend ... but the rest is good
@🌟༻🅹🅰🆈🅵🅰༺ ✓ • 5 years ago people make rocket stoves out of metal I'm pretty sure the thermal mass doesn't make it a rocket stove
I've seen the metal ones melt down and people having problems with those which is fixed by using better and thicker steel that can handle it. Metal radiates heat, masonry/ceramic stores heat. Ideally there'd be a bit of both.
@🌟༻🅹🅰🆈🅵🅰༺ ✓ • 5 years ago radiation conduction and convection it is basic physic
@🌟༻🅹🅰🆈🅵🅰༺ ✓ • 5 years ago are you kiding me, I teach you about simple thinks, what troll are you, come on...
Neat idea but directly heating the water is probably more efficient.
directly heating water via copper tubing in the flu....that's pretty darn direct heating.
:( water puts on the fire if you apply directly
I think the idea is creating a water heater where you then can have hot water when needed. It is a no-brainer to just heat water, that has been done for centuries.
Just change out the barrel to metal, then place it a foot or two above the rocket stove on a metal rack. You would get the heat through the exchanger and the heat from being directly over the fire too. But you better have a safety pop off valve or you may have an explosion due to the pressure
War Monger - are you thinking of a dual pipe design, where the water travels between the two pipes (sealed obviously) - similar to a kelly kettle?
I made something like this years ago but I used welded steel tubing instead of adobe. Very cool.
Thank you. Love it.
You call it a rocket stove, I call it a rocket bong.
Is it just me or does that thing look like a bong
Amazing I love the smooth concrete
That one is awesome. Need to build something like that. Greetings from Andreas on Off Grid Sweden
Stoners must drool at this video Look a giant bong
U a stoner?
1:06 when nerds talk dirty
Feed her hole and start fire in her bottom.. I did that and now she dont answer my calls
Clever design, beautiful finished product. Artisticly functional. 👍👍👍👍Four fumbsup!
Very cool. Great job
C'est simplement GÉNIAL..BRAVO.
Neat. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much for providing this beautiful Idea, it's very useful and I lived it.
How could anyone...NOT like this?
If someone's a head or part of a an energy company LOL 😅😝