[Stoves] clay mortar versus cement mortar in stoves

[Christa Roth]

Crispin already explained the origin of the name 'Esperanza' being the name of an estate, which is 10 km from the Mozambican border in Malawi, it might als have Portuguese roots transscribed into english.  As some of us do speak spanish, we deliberately used the name also for the double meaning, because we really see this as a ray of hope (until proven otherwise), let's see what the waterboiling and controlled cooking tests say. Yesterday we started a slow fire to dry the stove built with the cement mortar and cement finishing (because the tea company wants some quality appearance in their staff house kitchens). Then we should be able to get some tests in within the next 3 weeks,  though jeopardised by travelling plans by myself and Andi Michel.  As the Spanish verb 'esperar' also means 'to wait', well, we'll do just that: wait and hope...
Once we are back from our tavels, we intend to build another version of the stove with anthill soil mortar, maybe adding some phosphate to the mortar directly in the firechamber in order to achieve a chemical bond at lower temperatures. maybe it works?

We'll keep you posted.

Saludos desde Malawi, continuamos esperando

Christa Roth
GTZ ProBEC (Malawi-Tanzania-Zambia)
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: CEDESOL Foundation lists 
  To: Christa Roth ; Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 
  Cc: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott 
  Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 10:23 PM
  Subject: Re: [Stoves] clay mortar versus cement mortar in stoves


  Christa Roth wrote:
  > Dear Crispin and other stovers, 
  >
  > we are wondering in Malawi what would be more beneficial to use as mortar in a household size brick stove like the 'Esperanza stove' we just developped:
  >   
  Hi Christa,
  Do they speak Spanish in Malawi?  How did the name esperanza (hope in 
  English) come about?

  Keeping busy myself with the GTZ here in Bolivia.

  un abrazo
  David

  -- 
  "We make a living by what we get... we make a life by what we give." - unknown author

  David Whitfield V.
  Executive Director
  CEDESOL Foundation

  Alternative Education, Renewable Energy, Social Equality 

  http://www.cedesol.org

  SKYPE - solar1bol