[Stoves] Broken Brick Mixed with Charcoal

[ken goyer]

Dear friends, Somehow this email to me from Dan Wolf escaped being posted,
 so I have resent it. 
The most interesting part is about charcoal conservation by mixing brick
 scraps with the charcoal. I try and avoid charcoal experimentation but 
maybe I should start. Does anyone have any ideas about this?
Best regards,  Ken

Hey Ken,

Greetings from Lira.  Just emailing to let you know of some really
 great
developments here.

After about a year and a half of ups and downs, our stove program has
finally turned the corner.  About three and one half months ago, Brian
Martin (who you have met) arrived here and, since that time, he has
 helped
whip the stove team into shape.  The result is that we now have about
50,000 bricks on the ground and are producing stoves at a record pace
(e.g., in a single day, our team molded 11,000 bricks).

All of our bricks are now made from a woodless kiln that uses rice husk
 as
a fuel source.  We are burning about 10,000 bricks per kiln and could
 do
even more if we wished.  The bricks are burning very evenly and we lose
only about 3% per kiln.

The last few days we have had two especially remarkable developments. 
First, this past friday, some 500 women spontaneously showed up at our
brick production site!  They all walked 6 to 8 km (12 to 16 km round
 trip)
because they had heard about the stove and wanted to see if they could
 get
one.  None of us (Mathew, Brian or I) could believe it when we heard
 and
so we went to the kiln site to see for ourselves, where we found that
several thousand of our bricks had, in fact, been picked up.  There are
some indications that something similar will happen in the days ahead.

The other development is even more promising.  A few days ago, I
 learned
at a distribution that some villagers have been using broken rocket
 brick
pieces as a fuel additive when cooking with the rocket stove.  Light
bulbs went off in my head.  I then talked to Mary, Bonita (our new
 trainer
and Patrick (another stove team member) about it and they have all been
using rocket "briquettes" themselves with their "charcoal-burning"
rocket stoves.

It turns out that the rocket briquettes greatly increase the efficiency
 of
the fuel source (whether wood or charcoal).  For instance, it normally
takes about 50 pieces of charcoal to cook beans with a conventional
 coal
stove and about 35 pieces with a modified rocket stove.  But if you
 cook
with rocket briquettes, you need only 15 pieces! Moreover, the
 briquettes
stay hot long after the coal/wood stops burning, so if you cook during
 the
day and leave your pot on the the stove, your food will stay hot at
night.  Last night, we experimented with the briquettes.  After a
 while,
they were burning red hot and were indistinguishable from the charcoal.
The implications are far-reaching to say the least.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you this update.  I do hope you will be
 able
to visit our program the next time you are in Uganda, as I know you can
provide invaluable advice.  I hope all is well with you and look
 forward
to talking with you in the near future.

Warmest regards,

Dan