[Stoves] Engineering view

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear David

 

The current cost of a cheap charcoal stove in Lusaka is $1.50 and the most
money people can save for a new stove is about $2.50. After accumulating
that much, it starts leaking out of the pocket.

 

It is good to see some realistic numbers on what people really can afford to
pay for a product. Stove programmes with subsidies are expensive to monitor
if abuse is to be avoided and in some countries, nearly impossible to
guarantee. For this reason the funding of development and creating capacity
is seen as a better mechanism than subsidising products. Paying for
marketing to launch is a good way to 'invest' in a new stove that is cheap.
There was a publicity campaign mounted in Ulaanbaatar to teach people how to
light, run and particularly, to refuel the stove being rolled out by MCA/MCC
which is a TLUD coal stove. It costs $1m just for that publicity and it was
very effective at changing traditional behaviour. It was money well spent as
the stove, correctly operated, can reduce PM emissions more than 98%.

 

Regards

Crispin

 

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