[Stoves] TLUD stove for NW Peru (coastal)

Tue Feb 4 15:43:03 CST 2014

Dear Samantha

Do the people you are working with require space heating part of the year?

Thanks
Crispin

Hi Paul, 

What an encouraging email, thanks for getting back to me. We are based out
of the town of Batan Grande, which is  around 80m, but we work with
communities throughout the watershed of Rio La Leche. One of the communities
of greatest interest due to their proximity to Andean (Spectacled) bear
habitat is probably around 1,500 ft, so still well below 3,000m. 

We have not done any work with TLUD stoves. We are in the process of trying
the Cocina Mejorada (a fuel efficient wood burning stove made of adobe and
aluminum and tin) with about 10 families and decided to start with this
stove because it is familiar in Peru and relatively easy to build. Many
women also cook inside or in a semi-enclosed area and the Cocinas have a
chimney. Removing smoke from the dwelling is an important factor for us.
This is what we have funding for at the moment. 

As I'm sure you're aware, some important things to consider are familiarity,
ease of construction, ease of use, and locally available materials. We are
concerned with introducing something too foreign, complicated, or expensive.
It is a very poor area, with relatively recent immigrants from the Andes and
elsewhere in Peru. 

I imagine it will be possible to find metal workers, I'll have to check with
my collaborators. I work with a great team of locals whose full time job it
is to study a population of bears and also assist with community-based
conservation initiatives. 

In a perfect world, we'd like the community to move away from wood, since it
is becoming scarce in this Dry Forest environment and includes many
endangered tree species. However, we understand this will take time and some
will always choose wood for cooking because of flavor. 

In terms of ag residues, corn is the most common crop you'll find at lower
elevations. Many women use corn cobs to supplement their open fire stoves
already, and you often see corn husks burning on the side of the road, or
being fed to cows. There are lots of cows, chickens, pigs, and some donkeys
and I'm not sure what they do with their feces, if anything at all. Rice
becomes the primary crop as you move up in elevation. There are also lots of
beans. Other things that grow there are sugar cane, avocados, mangoes,
watermelon, bananas, passion fruit. I don't know if you can do anything with
trash, but there's lots of that! Mostly plastic, of course. 

We are constantly seeking funding for the project (it is all grant funded),
so at the moment we do not have funding to build or distribute any
significant amount of TLUD stoves. However, I'm happy to start writing
grants that fit this idea and we can certainly start exploring. I'll be
traveling to Peru mid-March and hope to check up on the alternative cooking
initiative, among other things (this is one of many initiatives in the
region). I'm not sure what your situation is, but you are always welcome to
join me in Peru to explore the feasibility of TLUD stoves in the region. Or,
I'd be happy to collect any additional information you might need while I'm
there. I travel to Peru about twice a year and the project is ongoing for
the foreseeable future. 

Let me know your thoughts! I'm excited to see what may come of this. 

Cheers, 

Samantha 

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