[Stoves] Very small stoves and reheating food

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Paul

Good point. Charcoal has a bad name re the lighting speed because most people do not know how to light it quickly. In the case of a Sarai it is ignited with a piece of paper and burns well in a tiny chimney. 

With a 'toy Jiko' like the Senegal tea stove it is pretty slow but that is the point. It heats one cup of water and keeps it hot. 

It would be nice if Peter Coughlin commented on this. He reads the list. He has been promoting a conical accelerator over a standard load in the POCA. It reduces ignition time from 20 minutes to 2 and saves a bit of fuel to boot. 

The cone dimensions are relevant to the diameter of he fuel pile. The one Peter makes is 500mm high, 125mm diameter at the bottom and 75 at the top. 

Light the tinder and place the cone on. It is less than a minute to get flames out the top after 2 minutes is I'd properly lit. 

In Zambia people use a tube not a cone which is much less effective. Maybe 50 dia. 

The cone saves enough to pay for itself. 

There is a general rule about high carbon fuels which is that they need draft to get going as the Hydrogen found in biomass is not available (easy, high heat). 

Regards
Crispin
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Anderson <psanders at ilstu.edu>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:19:29 
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves<stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Cc: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott<crispinpigott at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Very small stoves and reheating food

Crispin and all,

Please correct or confirm my impressions that charcoal would not be very 
good for a short 5 to 10 minute heating job.  Charcoal is relatively 
slow to start.     (But it could be fine for food warming or tea during 
a night-guard's many hours in the cool/cold of the night).

And the Sarai cooker uses little fuel but is for cooking multiple foods 
in vertical containers and is not associated with short-term cooking.

If you have experience, please comment about charcoal and short-term 
fire needs.

Paul

Paul S. Anderson, PhD  aka "Dr TLUD"
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu   Skype: paultlud  Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 10/22/2012 1:24 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:
>
> Dear Friends
>
> Very small fires for warming food (in developing countries) are often 
> made using charcoal. A Senegalese night guard's tea making stove is a 
> good example. Food warming can be done using waste charcoal. A samovar 
> uses charcoal because it is indoors. The Sarai stove uses about 100 g 
> of processed charcoal dust. There seems to be consumer and market 
> agreement that this works.
>
> Regards
>
> Crispin
>
> [Joyce]
>
> I lived in a tropical country and had an employer-provided fridge and 
> freezer but no electricity for about six months. (I did store food 
> supplies in both, as they kept insects out of the cornflakes etc.)  
> Since I was working as well as my husband, I got into the
>
>
>
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