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Efficiency of Heavy Mud StovesDean Still from the Aprovecho Research Center writes:"Just surrounding the fire with heavy earthen materials does not raise combustion temperatures. The mass actually lowers combustion temperatures for hours until the stove body has come up to temperature itself. The heat is diverted from its intended purpose: to cook food. Why heat up hundreds of pounds of stove body when cooking five - ten pounds of food? A three stone fire can be quicker, smokes less, uses less fuel. Clay/sand is not insulation. This was the mistake made by the inventors of these types of stoves, including Aprovecho. Earthen material was thought to insulate around the fire but we later realized that good insulation is pockets of air in a lightweight, low conducting material. Naturally available sources include pumice rock, perlite, vermiculite, wood ash, etc. See the how-to on making insulated clay combustion chambers. To improve on the properly operated three stone fire requires an insulated combustion chamber which can be made from locally available materials as well. Forcing the heat to scrape against the sides of the pot is the true advantage of the good cook stove, improved heat transfer can help to save large percentages of wood. To do this without first cleaning up combustion in an insulated combustion chamber can create more harmful emissions, however. Both hotter, cleaner combustion and improved heat transfer can easily be designed into a modern, improved ceramic cook stove." See the Aprovecho Design Principles of Energy Efficient Stoves for more stove design guidance. Take a look at an article by Dean here Christa Roth has pointed out that the clay stove (see the how-to guide here) has an average fuel saving in use of approximately 60 %. She writes: "We have done public demonstrations in 185 villages and of about 130 villages I have useful and credible reports, the other reports I discarded. In those public demonstrations we cook with the same type of pot the same quantities of the same dish on the two stoves and we give both stoves 10 sticks of firewood to start with. Those sticks are publicly counted. After the cooking the remaining sticks are counted publicly again. Normally the 3-stone-stove uses 7-10 sticks, the clay stove only 3." Related topics
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Page created:
17 November 2003; Last edited:
18 November 2003; Version: 2 | |
Pagename: EfficiencyOfHeavyMudStoves @HEDON: NHAA | |
