We’ve talked about hot water coils (water jackets) for wood stoves in a previous blog post. This video by Geoff Lawton of Permaculture fame does a great job of showing his water heater design. See below for the link to his article with more details.
“Geoff Lawton explains the benefits of using a rocket stove to heat your hot water. Very little timber is used he says, in fact only one fifth the timber is needed to harness the energy used in traditional stove hot water systems.”
Comments from YouTube:
– A coppiced tree is a tree cut at the base for a crop of sticks.
– You should check out an old book called Handmade Hot Water Systems on amazon.com. It’s got all kinds of ways to do this same thing from a cook stove, fire place, wood stove, etc. I’d highly recommend it.
– Check out Permies.com. They have long threads about rocket stoves. Someone on there will be quick to help you out
– Great idea another way is to wrap the copper tubing around the burn chamber before insulating it. Or even better if you could manufacture the tubing as part of the burn chambre!
– What about a solar pre heater, something as simple as a black barrel?
– sorry man but thats the ugliest water heater I’ve ever seen…loose the 55gal barrel..double wall the stack and copper coil in the double stack..lean and mean..not the Eco Blob..
– It would be a LOT more efficient if you simply fed the hot gases through the vent of a normal, gas, water heater. Newer water heaters are extremely efficient and have convoluted gas paths that extract most of the combustion heat.
Article with plans and instructions for Jeff’s water heater.
Note: Counter-opinions are shown to spark ideas for possible improvements. No disrespect to Geoff, who we all know is world-class.
Related video:
Endless Hot Water Without Power