[Stoves] A proposal regarding WBT past and future

[Nikhil Desai]

Friends:

Some debates on efficiency are still pending, but let's keep the metrics
debate separate from those on stove testing protocols.

There will be more on Xavier's thread on WBT as well, but for now I offer
the following proposition for consideration, revision, negotiation, and
hopefully ratification by individual votes in this community:

"Various types of Water Boiling Tests have been developed over the decades,
primarily for research into fuel efficiency and emission rates. There is no
official basis for the WBT identified in the IWA or subsequently applied by
any organizations for purposes other than technical research. Given the
conceptual, measurement, computational problems of WBTs, repeated failures
in reliable predictions and irrelevance of hourly emission rates to
identifiable disease risks or risk prevention, we hereby agree to forswear
the use of WBT. We also undertake to ignore the history of all WBT
measurements, and from here on, to emphasize contextually relevant stove
testing protocols for different geographies and seasons, fuel varieties,
cooking practices, and cuisines. We also suggest that any such stove
testing results be submitted for re-validation after year 1, 5, and 10 for
the same contexts."



Nobody has to defend anything in past errors and mischiefs. Just offer
empirical reasons why this is not a peaceful resolution of decades-long
arguments, now that Ranyee says (or implies) that we are all past WBTs
anyway.

In my piece on getting past "improved woodstoves", I had introduced some
qualitative aspects of cooks' desires.

These are "beyond science", but that is not a problem. Cooking is an art.
Chef Jose Andres will readily agree. (Now that I am back, I would be happy
to go taste his food, if someone pays for it.)


Nikhil
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Nikhil Desai
(US +1) 202 568 5831
*Skype: nikhildesai888*
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