[Stoves] End of an era, start of a new?

[Tom Miles]

Teddy,

 

Good quote. Boiling Point was indeed a great publication. It looks like the HEDON network has gone into the sunset after many good years. Are Grant and the E Co Ltd. Team still engaged in household energy in Southern Africa?   

 

Tom

 

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Cookswell Jikos
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2017 3:26 AM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>; board at hedon.info
Subject: [Stoves] End of an era, start of a new?

 

It was quite sad to read about the end of the Hedon Boiling Point publication (http://hedon.info/BP:Latest+Issue) I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them for many years. Hats off to all of the Boiling Point team for all your hard work over years and thank you very much. I hope it is indeed the start to a new era though and someone can find a way to keep it going. 

 

 

One section caught my eye given some of the recent topics on this listserve;

 

''In regards to the stove itself, there continues to be a somewhat unresolved trade-off between the technical quality of cookstoves and their acceptance and usability by cooks. As Crewe (1997:67) has previously argued, “cooks have not usually been involved in the development of the stove, except to test its ‘acceptability’ after a bout of technical work was complete” suggesting that there is still an unequal focus on the technocratic elements of ICS.

At the same time, the technical concerns (such as efficiency, emissions and safety) prioritised by donors and implementers of stove programmes are not necessarily shared by intended beneficiaries (Tronsco et al. 2007). Indeed, this continues to fuel the one-size fits all approach and in fact what you end up with is a technology that tries to do everything and is stripped of the functions that matter most to the cooks that use it (Figure 3).

However, there is growing acceptance in the literature to explore the ‘why’ questions that ultimately lend themselves back to end-user preferences (Beyene and Koch 2013; Kohlin et al. 2011). One such example can be taken from the Ashden Award winner: Greenway Grameen in India whereby they compromised on aspects of the technology that would have given lower emissions as it was not compatible with user’s needs. 
(Ray et al. n.d.).

At the same time, the market based approach prides itself on growing technological sophistication and as a result there is emphasis on testing ICS in order to harmonise quality standards and regulation in the sector''  There is an excellent cartoon next to it as well (link here <https://www.facebook.com/EastAfricanBiomassEnergyPortal/videos/1884080061921173/> ) 

 

I will miss reading this publication as I have learned much from it over the years but I wish the best to all who were involved. 

 

Teddy 

 

 

 




Teddy Kinyanjui

Sustainability Director

 

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