[Stoves] VERY interesting article in LOW-TECH MAGAZINE: Well-Tended Fires Outperform Modern Cooking Stoves

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Paul

 

That article has conclusions that really have to be taken with a grain of
salt. When it was published there was a flurry of notes passed around.

 

1.       It leaves out the most efficient stoves

2.       It cites sources that use different methods of calculating the
'efficiency'. It mixes the system efficiency and the heat transfer
efficiency, two very different numbers, and treats them as the same thing
(by not examining the sources).

3.       It advocates using 'advanced' stoves but compares them with
technologies that are aged, meaning the assumption is there are no advanced
electric or other systems.

 

So I too recommend the article. For cooking the bottom line claims are a bit
fishy and 'yeah, well, if we correct for this and that error'..

 

But for space heating the concept is spot-on. It is much more system
efficient to create primary heat locally. It also can produce less total
emissions of anything you care to mention.

 

It is a good article to challenge yourself on whether the comparisons are
made fairly or not. If you compare the energy in the total fuel consumed in
one system with the energy in the heat transferred to the pot in another,
how do you know if one is better than the other?

 

Thanks for the link.

Crispin

 

 

Stovers,

I highly recommend everyone see this article on 

Well-Tended Fires Outperform Modern Cooking Stoves

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2014/06/thermal-efficiency-cooking-stoves.htm
l 

Very well done, with references, and providing some awesome quotations for
future 
articles by others.  
 
1.

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. 

 
2.

Improved biomass stoves have double or triple the thermal efficiency of
modern 

electric or gas cooking stoves.

 
3.   Best thermal efficiency (out of 9 stove types) is 45% accomplished by
Woodgas stove. (on chart).
 
4.  It is disappointing that the article repeats data from a 2008 report
that is now superceeded, and 
cites the 2012 PCIA report of data collected by Aprovecho 7 to 8 years
earlier (but publication delayed). 
 
I hope that many Stovers will read this article from Low-Tech Magazine and
make comments.
 
I am sending a separate message (with different Subject line) about delays
in finding this 
article (almost one year after publication) so that the two Subjects have
different threads of discussion.
 
Paul
Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD  
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu <mailto:psanders at ilstu.edu>    
Skype: paultlud      Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com <http://www.drtlud.com> 

 

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