Home Heating and Cooking

We live in a four season climate in Missouri so we get some hot weather in the summer and some cold weather in the winter. For the summer heat we jump in the pond and keep ourselves cool with fans and well insulated buildings with good thermal mass. For the winter we mostly heat with waste wood from local sawmills (often called slab wood) and a furniture factory. By heating without using electricity or natural gas we are contributing less to global warming.

For cooking we have yet to find the ideal solution that provides both convenience and a sustainable fuel source. Our goal is to eventually avoid fossil fuel use for cooking but for now we allow the use of propane until we have viable alternatives in place. Many people at DR do cook on wood, either in traditional woodstoves or in homemade rocket stoves (which apply the fire directly to the cookware for high heat transfer efficiency). Some folks also use alcohol stoves and solar-powered microwaves.

We have also learned ways to minimize cooking energy needed. For instance some of use a device called a haybox (simply an insulated box). Once you have brought something like rice to a boil you can put it in the haybox and apply no more heat at all. In an hour or two it will be done to perfection.

We hope some day in the future to develop systems for producing hydrogen gas and/or methane as a replacement for the convenience of propane.