[Stoves] Why is it still so difficult to design cookstoves for3 billion people?

[kgharris]

Crispin,

Thank you for the well organized and to the point response.  Your points are clear and understandable and you put some effort into organizing them.  I have difficulty piecing together long submissions with disparate thoughts.

Thank you,

Kirk H.


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott 
  To: 'Discussion of biomass cooking stoves' 
  Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2016 1:22 PM
  Subject: Re: [Stoves] Why is it still so difficult to design cookstoves for3 billion people?


  Dear Kirk and All

   

  Well said, Xavier. There are different forms of negation. One that the stove community in general should accept is that the evaluations made about what constitutes 'better' has been wonky for a long time. This goes beyond the technical errors and misconceptions that underlie the 'advantages' of various stoves. One of the reason why we do not have a chorus of sociologists and anthropologists telling is how we keep getting the design process backwards, is because we don't listen to that kind of feedback. So they go somewhere else to have the conversation. This should be reversed. We should invite their input.

    a.. there still exists a gap between the efforts in the stove sector and the user adoption
  This is sort of true, in that there is a formal stove sector and they are doing fine, thank you very much. It is the crowd dealing with the poor and mostly forgotten that is having trouble getting their ideas (inventions, fantasies) adopted. There are good reasons why BP and Shell and Philips came into the stove sector. It represents a large commercial opportunity.

    a.. this gap is due, I believe, to putting the focus on the clean aspects of the technology at the detriment of the usability of the stoves, that users value most. I am not saying that making clean stoves is not important, because it is capital, but usability shouldn't be forgotten in the process.
  This is where the missing participants is most keenly felt. I once commented at an ETHOS meeting that there were no marketing people in the room, none. Marketing people tell us that thing won't sell because of a, b and c. We know that if we just get a chance to show off the technology people will beat a path to our door(s). Stove dissemination needs a dose of reality provided by the professional marketers.

  >'There is no success so far so stop already' seems to be a strong sympathy

  There have been a lot of successes so far and for the strangest of reasons, many of them are not talked about. We talk about fads like gasifiers and charcoal making stoves most of the time.  Believe it or not, most cooks don't give a hoot about either and don't even want to learn the terms. They are tired of two things, mainly: stoves that can't cook because they are not powerful enough and stoves that require more fuel processing time or effort. It is rare that a new owner accepts to do more work in fuel preparation. I have a great example of it being accepted and will send it in under a separate subject. The benefit has to be really large to overcome the laziness quotient (is that fair?)

  >As I said, what is happening now is really exciting, and the above conclusions should only galvanize us and make us intensify efforts.

  Agreed. The spark of truth comes from the clash of differing opinions.

  Crispin

   



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