[Stoves] Chimney Chula
Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
crispinpigott at gmail.com
Sun Aug 7 13:44:22 CDT 2011
Dear Friends
CR: in Malawi we build pedestals / steps out of conrete around the fixed
institutional stoves for the cooks to stand on and that works well. also in
combination of 2 or 4 stoves with a shared 'walking space'
between them.
As Christa notes, the use of the space between two institutional stoves is a
good way to overcome the height issue. In Swaziland where there are pairs of
Lion stoves built at many orphans and vulnerable children feeding stations
(which are community built and operated) there are height problems. The
cooking is often done by children, say, girls aged 12 -14. They are much
shorter than adults and have problems getting the food out, to say the
least. So between each pair of stoves there is a set of steps with a
platform1 step below the stove top. There is provision for putting down a
'delivery pot' into which the food is scooped for transport to the feeding
area.
This arrangement works well and has been adjusted locally to whatever suits
the cooks.
Xavier, before copying the vertical dimensions of the stove's design
formula, have a look to see if the flames are really needing all that extra
height. If the air flow is vigorous and the heat strong, it may well be that
the flames are substantially finished 200mm lower, for example. The fuel
type has a big effect on the needed height. If it is 'oily' it will take
longer to burn to completion.
By keeping the fire height low you may be able to cut 100 or 200mm off the
top height. One way to deal with the 'arm burns on the skirt' is to make the
skirt out of bricks which are poor heat conductors and pretty good heat
re-radiators (to the pot).
In all cases, it is necessary to get on top of large stoves to pull out the
pot from time to time to clean out the system below. Thus a staircase and
standing area is wise for large stoves.
Regards
Crispin
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