[Stoves] Why is it still so difficult to design cookstoves for 3 billion people?

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

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.

*	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.

*	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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