[Stoves] Key differences of performance test protocols for household biomass cookstoves

Tue Jul 1 13:42:12 CDT 2014

I skimmed through the references of the article after I saw the numbers they cited, and recognized a lot of the references as pretty old.  Like Crispin said, there has been a lot of progress made in the last few years.

Kind regards,

Erin Rasmussen

erin at trmiles.com

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Cookswell Jikos
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2014 7:40 AM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Key differences of performance test protocols for household biomass cookstoves

Dear Crispin - thank you for sharing this, 

Have you (or anyone else) by any chance read this article http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2014/06/thermal-efficiency-cooking-stoves.html 

It a real mind turner to say the least.... I would be very interested to hear some of your thoughts on this matter. To quote one of the opening paragraphs - 

''In fact, an electric cooking stove is only half as efficient as a well-tended open fire, while a gas hob is only half as effective as a biomass rocket stove. And even though indoor air pollution is less of an issue with modern cooking stoves, research indicates that pollution levels in western kitchens can be surprisingly high.'' 

The author then follows that article up with this one - http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2014/07/cooking-pot-insulation-key-to-sustainable-cooking.html

What do you think? I think I need to double my forestry efforts. 

Kind Regards, 

Teddy 

Cookswell Jikos
www.cookswell.co.ke

www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos

www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com

Mobile: +254 700 380 009 

Mobile: +254 700 905 913

P.O. Box 1433, Nairobi 00606, Kenya

  <https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mFnK50B4oS8/UUrgJle8z9I/AAAAAAAAB_o/OUjLd7wrKPg/s133/Cookswell+Logo.PNG> 

Save trees - think twice before printing.

On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 12:27 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:

Dear Testers

Please see the paper “Key differences of performance test protocols for household biomass cookstoves” by Zhang, Y et al at

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp= <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6827753&queryText%3DKey+differences> &arnumber=6827753&queryText%3DKey+differences

Abstract

“In this study, different ways of testing household biomass cooking stoves are compared and analyzed. The differences between test methods relate to the stove operation and data analysis methods, the fueling procedure, the end point selection, the choice of metrics and others factors. The influences of these differences were analyzed by using an induction heater. The results show the use of a pot lid or not, and the selection of the end point of the test have the greatest influence on the rated performance. Consequently test results provided by laboratories using different test methods will place the same stove-plus-fuel combination on significantly different performance ‘tiers’. Also the results show some metrics in popular tests should be reviewed. Some recommendations are provided for improving the accuracy and repeatability of test procedures and select metrics are defined for greater clarity.”

The comment “some metrics in popular tests should be reviewed” is a polite way of saying they are not valid. This is a major issue when making performance comparisons. If the metric itself is not valid then the comparisons of it between products is not meaningful. One cannot trade money or products on the result.

>From the conclusions:

b)       Some metrics still need to be revisited, even if they are generally agreed within the “stove enthusiast” community. National or international compulsory regulation of stove products as envisaged by ISO TC 285 must be based on credible science. The point of testing is to provide useful information. Selected indicators that meet specific needs must first be agreed and validated, and then a test method or methods developed to collect the information necessary to deliver product ratings that can be widely compared and accepted by the public.

The paper is accessible free through academic services. 

Regards

Crispin

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