[Stoves] Systematic cheating in car emissions and fuel efficiency tests

Thu Mar 14 11:21:32 CDT 2013

Dear Christina

I intend to reply to your message because there are several points which really should be expanded upon. I will invite Cecil Cook (stove anthropologist) to contribute as well. We are a bit overloaded at the moment but the point is taken: we need the social acceptability test methods reviewed, the test conducted (to see that it is relevant to the social circumstances) and the processing steps to see that the calculated result (the rating) is what we intend it to be.

There are many people involved in the application of test results to policy and where there is not much agreement on what should be measured, there is even less on how reviews of the evaluations should be conducted.

What I am saying is that there are several conversations that should be taking place. The first is the one where we establish what is conceptually a valid, typical task in the target market. The second is the selection of appropriate metrics relevant to that task. The third is the design of an experiment (or set of experiments for different stove types) that provides the measured values, be they performance, durability or safety. The fourth is to describe method to processing those measured quantities into relevant and valid outputs that reliably inform policy makers. The fifth is the review by others skilled in the art to check that the whole process is scientifically and socially valid.

I felt that you raised the fifth. That is fine, but we need to have the first discussion before we take too much time checking to see if 8 was correctly added to 5. Maybe it should have been 6 and 10 that we were should be concerned about.

Best regards

Crispin

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Christina Espinosa
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 11:06 PM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Systematic cheating in car emissions and fuel efficiency tests

This is another great point Crispin. Maybe a fund needs to be created for an independent party to test and create the kind of report I mentioned in my earlier email. 

Best,

Christina

On Mar 14, 2013, at 8:57 AM, Josh Kearns <yeah.yeah.right.on at gmail.com <mailto:yeah.yeah.right.on at gmail.com> > wrote:

"In reality, some models emit 50% more CO2 than the official figures claim, while others emit some 15% more than claimed." .... 

Fascinating. 

An article linked in that piece also specified that several efficiency models, according to the manufacturers, "deliver between 70mpg and 75mpg, while the [independent] test figures ranged from 46mpg to 53mpg."

Do you think there is enough "real world" data on mileage and emissions to calculate a "correction factor" that could be applied to manufacturers' published claims? 

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at gmail.com <mailto:crispinpigott at gmail.com> > wrote:

Dear Stovers

This is interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21759258

As the money gets bigger and there is more focus on these metrics, the temptation to cut corners, figuratively and literally, is strong.

The idea of independent validation of claims is sound.

Regards

Crispin

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University of Colorado-Boulder

Visiting Researcher, North Carolina State University

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Aqueous Solutions 

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