[Stoves] Institutional stoves height
Xavier Brandao
xvr.brandao at gmail.com
Mon Aug 8 13:32:07 CDT 2011
Hello everyone and many thanks for your answers,
George said "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."
Yes, sometimes what seems a detail to us prevent users from adopting a new
product. In our case, I have the feeling the benefits of the stove outnumber
its flaws, and in the end, they take it even if it is not perfect. Actually,
today again, the tall guys from the military camp made the remark they'd
prefer smaller stoves ... Still, we were told the kitchen was now a paradise
(!!). THAT is the kind of things one likes to hear :) Perfection is not
accessible but we must try to make the stove as acceptable as possible.
"Is it at all possible to make the user taller instead of the stove lower?"
Yes I thought we could give them growth hormones :) It seems to be a good
idea, actually the women from the university talked about the pedestals,
perhaps they would accept such a device. But it increases the stove price.
Christa said "in Malawi we build pedestals / steps out of concrete 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."
I think I saw some pictures of them. But our stoves are movable, they won't
be anymore if we make a pedestal from hard material. Since the stove is all
metal and clay, is made in a workshop and then transported, we would need
new material and also to work on site.
The more we produce stoves, the more I find mass production in a workshop
and transport of complete institutional stoves convenient, rather than to
have to go on every location to build them. So perhaps some movable wood
pedestal, something large enough to prevent from falling and light enough to
be movable? To be investigated. That could be an optional accessory for the
tallest stoves and people who asked for it.
Crispin said " 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."
I got the feeling on the stoves I saw in operation the flames were going
pretty high, almost reaching the pot, whatever the size of the stove. But
I'll investigate that.
"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)."
I'm afraid we must use a metal skirt. I don't see how can bricks be fixed on
the metal plate under the pot. Normally, the metal skirt is welded on the
plate. Even if the inside of the skirt was made of brick or ceramic, I think
it would need the two metal sheets around it to be resistant.
"You can build the stove to one side and pipe the hot gases into the side
and under the pot, exiting on the other side into a chimney. This, in
essence, is what the modified Mongolian coal stoves do when heating water
(for space heating)."
I didn't think about that. Then it means separating combustion and
conduction of the gases to the pot. The stove would have a quite different
look. I'll keep that in mind.
I think that is more work for stove classification. Now we have the
wood-efficient tall stoves and wood-efficient short stoves. Another criteria
for choice.
"The JIKO is not as short as it could be - it only needs a small amount of
space for ash and air under the grate."
Yes that's what I was thinking also. I guess customers need to have the
feeling they pay for something consistent.
Larry said: "Sometimes , where they have dirt floor, I sink part of the
institutional rocket stove into the ground and use a sloped feed or
vertical feed ."
Users also thought about that. That is also a good idea, but it is more
difficult on cement or concrete ground. We'll see the easiest and cheapest
option, case by case.
Cheers,
Xavier
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