[Stoves] Energy poverty and shack fires (Crispin Pemberton-Pigott)

Thu May 11 11:35:00 CDT 2017

Cecil:

You ask, "Have the WB economists and stove engineers forgotten that in all
viable local economies the customer is king.?"

*** Have you forgotten that "viable local economies" is a piece of romantic
fiction? Even Gandhi could come down and I will take him around to show
that only by breaking the boundaries can local economies widen and become
more resilient, less vulnerable. ***

"Remove the complex layers of professional false consciousness from the
center of the stove assessment process .."

*** But why does such a pompous centralized "assessment process" of the TC
285 exist in the first place? It is meant to service "the complex layers of
professional false consciousness." ***

".. empower the cooks and stove tenders and buyers ..."

*** Yeah, right. Boy scouts carry the old lady across the street but in the
wrong side. Who asked to be empowered? The professoriat? ***

"Environmental pollution, global warming, energy poverty and gender equity
are ideological abstractions in the minds and hearts of first world urban
residents who are "slum-ing" in the 3rd & 4th worlds. Apply those politics
and abstract ideologies in NYC at the UN or in DC at the WB or USAID or
London and Paris and Bonn & Berlin."

*** Now, now. Never imagined it would fall upon me to advocate optimism and
drop cynicism! The poor see this all the time in all other areas - food and
agriculture, education, electricity, because in a decade or two, some
solutions start being implemented. Biomass stoves still struggle to get
credibility, so let's thank Hillary for making them a credible enterprise.
Or a credulous one. ***

"Stove users of the BOP unite, you have nothing to fear from the stove
funding agents and stove experts but their arrogant and will financed
presupposition that because they are experts they know best! Please
liberate us from the Lords of Poverty. Is such a liberation possible? Or
does it require a complicated escape plan to break out of prison??"

*** Don't worry. The poor get rich and find their means. Those who burn
wood and their souls don't particularly look up to the charlatans after
what the have seen go "Up in Smoke". Those who know how to work and what to
do are going on, while the rest lord over and push WBT. ***

Crispin:

I endorse your statements: "Matching people to technologies by creating new
products requires a trained middleman. Inventors rarely have a clue what
people will want and buy. They invent!  Good for them. Turning an invention
into a viable product is not a behaviour reserved for everything that is
not a stove.

Small scale combustion science it devilishly complex, even for a simple
fuel like ethanol or methanol. For solid fuels it is much worse for all the
well-discussed reasons."

Ever tried to bring in Makers? I am beginning to learn about them.

Nikhil

>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 9 May 2017 19:51:52 +0000
> From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com>
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
>         <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Energy poverty and shack fires
> Message-ID:
>         <DM5PR2201MB1499499B39ECD9F320D2821CB1EF0 at DM5PR2201MB1499.na
> mprd22.prod.outlook.com>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Dear Cecil
>
> "Study the customers and stove science becomes so simple."
>
> Stove science is complicated, actually.  I rephrase this as:
>
> "Study the customers and industrial design becomes so simple."
>
> Matching people to technologies by creating new products requires a
> trained middleman. Inventors rarely have a clue what people will want and
> buy. They invent!  Good for them. Turning an invention into a viable
> product is not a behaviour reserved for everything that is not a stove.
>
> Small scale combustion science it devilishly complex, even for a simple
> fuel like ethanol or methanol. For solid fuels it is much worse for all the
> well-discussed reasons.
>
> Re a contest: I understand that Kirk Smith has issued a challenge for
> biomass stove builders. Anyone able to put a finger on that?
>
> Regards
> Crispin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear CPP?,
>
> Thanks for the heads up. Helps us to "keep it real" as Les McCann ?- the
> jazz pianist - liked to shout out in his up tempo song: "Compared to What"
> (from the Vietnam War era & worth a listen on youtube).
>
> When we start our stove discovery process near the bottom of the
> socio-economic pryamid ?(BOP) and focus on the cooks, stove operators, the
> fuels, the fuel suppliers, the kitchens and housing, the cuisines, and the
> various cultures that guide and give meaning to stove technologies and
> choices, we end up with an appreciation of the full context in which
> cooking & heating stoves are presently designed, fabricated and bought &
> sold by the people and households at the BOP.?
>
> Rather than waste time and money on stove tests and intricate performance
> standards I recommend we promote stove races where stove innovators
> ?demonstrate and offer to sell their stoves to a representative cross
> section of the stove users in communities of stove users. The different
> stove using publics and constituencies will very quickly decide what are
> their prefered stove models and why??
>
> Remove the complex layers of professional false consciousness from the
> center of the stove assessment process and empower the cooks and stove
> tenders and buyers by teaching them how to operate new stoves and how much
> they will really cost and stand back; the stove using public will quickly
> decide about their preferred stoves and the designers and fabricators can
> pay attention to what their primary customers? want in their stoves.?
>
> Have the WB economists? and stove engineers forgotten that in all viable
> local economies the customer is king. Study the customers and stove science
> becomes so simple.?
>
> Environmental pollution, global warming, energy poverty and gender equity
> ?are ideological abstractions in the minds and hearts of first world urban
> residents who are "slum-ing" in the 3rd & 4th worlds. Apply those politics
> and abstract ideologies in NYC at the UN or in DC at the WB or USAID or
> London and Paris and Bonn & Berlin.?
>
> In Alex township in Gauteng (Johannesburg) ?the biomass and coal burning
> stove customers know more than enough to educate stove designers and
> fabricators about the technologies they prefer and that they are willing to
> try out and then actually purchase with there own scarce cash flow.
>
> Forgive me for repeating myself: let the stove races begin and let the
> stove users and customers decide!
>
> Stove users of the BOP unite, you have nothing to fear from the stove
> funding agents and stove experts but their arrogant and will financed
> presupposition that because they are experts they know best! Please
> liberate us from the Lords of Poverty. Is such a liberation possible? Or
> does it require a complicated escape plan to break out of prison??
>
> I vote for stove races!
>
> In search,
> Cecil Cook
> Techno Share
>
> Sent?from?my?BlackBerry?10?smartphone.
> ? Original Message
> From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
> Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 10:36 AM
> To: 'Stoves (stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org)'
> Reply To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> Subject: [Stoves] Energy poverty and shack fires
>
> Dear Friends
>
> Dr David Kimemia has published an article with Ashley Van Niekerk
>
> Energy poverty, shack fires and childhood burns Abstract Burn injuries are
> a persisting challenge in South Africa. Energy poverty, prevalent in
> under-resourced communities, is a key contributor to the problem. The
> energy-poor rely on solid fuels and flammable hydrocarbons, such as
> paraffin, for energy services. The fuels are burnt in inefficient, leaky
> and unstable appliances, leading to health losses from pollutant emissions,
> burns, and conflagrations. Within cramped informal home settings, using
> flammable fuels and risky combustion technologies, the situation can become
> devastating, especially for young children. Those who survive fiery
> incidents have to contend with trauma and property losses that may lead to
> further impoverishment. Proactive intervention strategies are required and
> should include the broadening of access to safe and sustainable energy. We
> advocate greater enforcement of home appliance standards and targeted
> support for the distribution of proven alternative energy technologies,
> such as liquefied petroleum gas and solar power. Support and advocacy from
> professional and citizen groups would be necessary to ensure that
> government prioritises the safe energy requirements of poor citizens.
>
> (c) 2017, South African Medical Association. All rights reserved.
>
> Full text is available<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315903220
> _Energy_poverty_shack_fires_and_childhood_burns> on request.
>
> Regards
> Crispin
>
>
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 11:10:38 +0000
> From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com>
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
>         <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] News photo: Clean cooking for China's urban poor
> Message-ID:
>         <DM5PR2201MB1499C6B69DD284EC10FF2549B1EC0 at DM5PR2201MB1499.na
> mprd22.prod.outlook.com>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Dear Nikhil
>
> I saw a photo taken by Ulan the Engineer that shows a working traditional
> stove with an electric hot plate sitting on it. The reason for this is that
> the stove was unable to boil water. When they wanted to make tea etc they
> would use the hotplate.
>
> In China there is a LOT of cooking and heating done with biomass. There is
> an organisation called CAREI which is an industry organisation that
> produces the biomass stove standard.
>
> Fuels include agricultural residues, a lot of it, wood, pellets,
> briquettes and torrefied biomass. The current plan is to produce 150m tons
> of pellets per year. That has proven to be a major technical challenge on
> the equipment side.
>
> Regards
> Crispin
>
>
> Crispin, List:
>
> Below a picture from today's WSJ.
>
> How much of urban China's cooking and heating is taken up by electricity
> already?
>
> I start with 20%, and some 70% of the increment 1990-2015.
>
> And by clean coal? 0.000025% of the increment? Clean biomass a hundredth
> of that?
>
> Electricity also keeps the beer cold.
>
> N
>
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-rest-for-old-wang-1494408303
>
>
> Mr. Wang and his co-workers made food on an electric cooker in their
> dormitory room furnished with metal bunks and threadbare linen. CHUN ...
>
>
>
>
> [Inline image 2]
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Nikhil Desai
> (India +91) 909 995 2080
> Skype: nikhildesai888
>
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