[Stoves] Chimneys, rice husks

[rbtvl at aol.com]

The public health folks, from harvard, Berkeley and the CDC, I have talked to, being only a physicist myself, have all agreed to the need for chimneys in indoor, poorly ventilated wood burning settings like we find with the Maasai.   To prevent burns when touched and thatch fires the chimney must be not be  too hot until it is clear above the roof.   So our Maasai women installation teams make a brick chimney.   Our present best brick maker uses rice husks to fire the bricks.  He is in Mto wa Mbu where rice is grown and marketed in the rift valley and gets the husks cheaply. We can get 16 pretty good bricks for a dollar.  The husks work well.  Chimneys have to be designed well so that they get the smoke out without throwing away too much energy of course.  Ben Franklin is our guide.  But also I think a reasonably good chimney helps when stoves don't work quite right or start to deteriorate or aren't used optimally.  I know lots of stoves don't easily accommodate chimneys and that should give pause to introducing them in poorly ventilated homes no matter how cheap or efficient at boiling water.    Bob Lange. Maasai Stoves and Solar. 
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