Free Heat for Life With Paper Briquettes

Supplies

Step 1: Preparing the Paper

First what you need to do is take some paper or sawdust. Take this and place it in a big bucket. Fill it up with water to about the same level as the paper.

Step 2:

Now rip the paper into small pieces until mixture is like mush.

Step 3: Mold

Take a mold, I bought mine off eBay for $20 but you could make a homemade one out of pvc pipe, and squish the mush into a block.

Step 4: Finished

Let these dry and now you have an unlimited source of fire bricks to burn using just water and paper. Congrats on your free heat for your household.

Comments

[NutzDad]

Instead of ripping the paper by hand, I suggest using a paint blender attachment on a handheld drill. blends much faster and finely.

[TioFrio]

that is a good tip.

[ThatGuyDuncan]

I found almost identical instructions / title on YouTube three years ago. Are you perhaps forgetting to cite your sources?

My paper came from junk mail (hence "free", for those who don't know where we get the paper), which included lots of coloured pages (coloured ink, I mean). Newsprint with black ink was in lesser supply when I tried this.

Leaving the paper in the bucket for a few days (instead of hours) meant that I could use a drill for mixing -- no hand-ripping required.

I made my briquettes using the PVC-pipe-in-a-caulking-gun trick you allude to. I let the briquettes dry for three or four days next to a dehumidifier.

Lighting / burning them was simple BUT the stench was hideous. Did you experience that? At the time I had not yet built a rocket-stove -- perhaps a rocket-stove or gasifier burns hot enough to break down the stink. I dunno.

[parisusa]

I assume you are using paper you would normally recycle. Obviously not reams of printer paper! (Come on, people!) But my questions are: do you have to sort the paper to avoid glossy of colored ink because of dangerous fumes? What kind of papers are you using? Junk mail? Kids' old homework? Newspaper? Cereal/tissue boxes? Used gift wrap? Thank you!

[GrantR1]

You could use any paper really newspaper kids homework it all fine the only thing you have to worry about is what kind of sawdust you use if you are going to use that.

[Grunambulax]

I'd be concerned about creosote buildup.

[parisusa]

A note on sawdust: my brother is a professional cabinet maker and only uses wood without chemicals. He gives a local dairy farmer his sawdust for her cows (bedding). Ask your local woodworking shops for free sawdust BUT not if they are using pressure treated wood (example: wood for decks) or pallets (often toxic wood). Keep your family safe. Free wood doesn't guarantee Safety!

[karlmaskos]

Another alternative? I take my sawdust on compact it into my waxed milk cartons. Easily starts the fire burns well and its free! As both items wood have been discarded.

[87_camino_SS]

I do not understand how this is "free" paper where I am from is not free. And wouldn't it be more eco-friendly to burn hardwood logs rather than pressed paper, due to there heing more embodied energy of producing paper than there is sawing and chopping wood. And by burning the paper, one could say you are recycling but in my eyes the paper you burned possesses no more recyclable features, but if you had recycled the paper properly, it could then have been turned into another paper good.

[Mr Durham]

Camino, you are correct. only way this sustainable (ecologically & $wise) is if it is waste paper. if you don't live near wooded areas , however, this option is possibly better for the environment because you do not run the risk of transferring woodborne disease (tree diseases / parasites, not people ones).

folks transporting felled wood across distances has proved a real problem in NC--it spreads disease-- and the NC forestry service asks folks to not do it. the other benefit of paper bricks is that it is light, compared to wood; also -- great solution for wet car camping less weight, lighter, won't spread tree disease.

I like the idea, BUT not from new paper stock