An Experiment in Home Heating

I think it's fair to say that we all have extra junk mail laying around.  If you are like us, you probably feel awful just throwing it away, and burning it doesn't make you feel much better.  Sure, you avoid putting it in the trash, but it's just as wasteful to burn it out back.

Watching "Doomsday Preppers" we saw a family making firebricks out of shredded paper using a pvc pipe mold.  Looked interesting.  So we looked it up and realized there is a small culture of paper brick users out there! 

Now, let me start by saying that we realize you can't heat with JUST paper bricks.  They burn toi fast and you would need tons of them even to heat in the South.  Our intention with this project is to take something unusable and recycle into something that is.  If nothing else, these firebricks should be great fire starters and help extend our wood pile.

So the very first thing you should do is acquire a mold.  According to sites I found online, some hardware stores carry these.  They don't around here, but they are plentiful online.  You can get a single brick maker, or the one that makes four at a time like we did.  I found it on Amazon for about $40.  We thought the time and wear and tear savings made this a better model, as most of the single brick makers started about $25.

The next step is to prepare your paper.  We ripped ours into strips before soaking in water.  For us, we found the paper ripping stage to take almost longer than make the actual bricks, and for this reason I think we may invest in a economical paper shredder.  Anyway, just shred your paper and dump it in a clean container, then cover with water.  Let it set for at least overnight.  A new 32 gallon trashcan is cheap, clean and a great place to store your shredded paper between brick making sessions.

So the next day, grab your brick maker and find a spot to press bricks.  You'll get a lot of water and a lot of ink run off (depending on your paper), so find a spot that will be easy to rinse clean.  Also, expect some paper pulp to press out as well.

Once you've found a good place, scoop up some wet paper and start filling your mold.  My husband found that 3/4 of the way full worked best for him, but experiment and see what works for you. 

Depending on your model, once the mold is full you'll put on the pressing plate.

Next, cross the handles.

And SQUEEZE!  The excess water will run out through the sides and bottom.

Don't be afraid to really put some weight into it.  The more water you get out now, the faster your bricks will dry. 

Furthermore, the tighter the bricks the longer they will burn.

Once you've pressed out as much water as you can, remove the pressing plate.

Remove your bricks and put them somewhere to dry.  Again, getting them out will vary depending on your mold model.  My husband has a great time with these odd DIY projects!



A row of completed bricks!  We'll definitely try using a paper shredder next time, and see if we can't make a much tighter brick.  These will take quite awhile to dry through, so we'll have to keep them somewhere with good air flow.

Our first brick making attempt was a success and yielded 15 bricks in 30 minutes.  If they last as long as mentioned on the Internet, (burn rate of 15 minutes per brick), that's over 3 hours of heating!  Of course, we'll update our blog once we've had a chance to use them.  This far south that may not be until October!  :-)