[Stoves] Chimney Chula

[George Riegg Gambia]

Hi Xavier,

I guess no matter how great your stove is if they don't like it they won't 
use it - changing customs and habits is the biggest challenge any of us on 
the ground are facing.

Is it at all possible to make the user taller instead of the stove lower?  I 
don't know where you have your wood and air feeds but if the front of the 
stove is not used by either of them (both feeds from the side) maybe a 
simple platform of sorts to elevate the working height (=lowering the stove 
height) could work?

Cheers
George from the jungle

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Xavier Brandao" <xvr.brandao at gmail.com>
To: <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2011 12:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Chimney Chula


> Crispin and stovers,
>
> "An advantage (for India) is the very low cooking height": I think it is 
> not
> only for India, we are facing this question at the moment in Benin. We 
> made
> an institutional rocket stove for the restaurant of the main university.
> They are testing it at the moment, if they like it, all universities in
> Benin could have these stoves. The first thing the cooks said when they 
> saw
> the stove was : "it is too high". Men and women in South-Benin are rather
> short-sized. The stoves they use traditionally are very short. They can
> stand up, using a big spoon with a long handle.
> We got this remark from other places, but people accepted, liked and used
> the stoves anyway. But it is the first time we get such "strong" 
> criticism,
> almost opposition. I said they would have to try it for a week or more, 
> and
> then give us their remarks. End-users of the equipment often fear they 
> will
> be imposed decision by people working above them and sitting in office.
>
> The rocket stove combustion chamber grows with the pot size. So does the 
> pot
> skirt. In the restaurant, they use only 50 kilos round pots, the biggest
> ones I have ever seen. The stove we made had to be tall : perhaps 1.10 -
> 1.20 meter high. It was one of the tallest we ever made. The women said 
> they
> would burn their arms on the hot skirt, and on the top of the pot, when 
> they
> will reach food in the bottom of the pot.
> They asked us to reduce the size, we said we couldn't since it was due to
> the technology, and that a shorter stove would be less clean and 
> efficient.
> We'll see in one week how they liked the stoves.
>
> Traditional stoves are convenient to use, but as you said they make "not
> enough flame space to complete the combustion well."
> All the institutional stoves I know (rocket, Lion stove, Esperanza stove,
> LEGO stove) and some other wood stove (Justa stove, Lorena stove) seem all
> to be working on the same principle: a combustion chamber tall enough for
> the fire to burn properly, then the shape can vary. If the pot is big, so
> must be the stove.
>
> Do you know any stove or any way to build a stove which would be small, 
> even
> if it needs to deliver high power to cook on big pots? Have you faced user
> acceptance issues because of the stove size ?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Xavier