[Stoves] Billion Stoves Program

[Paul S. Anderson]

David and all,

A billion stoves does NOT mean a billion households, and does NOT mean 
that all
the people are poor.

You can count between 8 and 15 heat-generating-related-to-food devices in an
average American home.  Stove (1 to 4 burners), oven, broiler (those 3 can be
in one device), tea-water heater, toaster, hotplate, microwave, crockpot, LPG
outdoor BBQ (maybe 2 different ones), waffle iron, warming tray, and 
more!! NOTE that not a single one of those units uses renewable fuels 
(unless you have
a charcoal grill, in which case making the char is wasteful of the pyrolysis
gases)

There is no reason that a biomass-fueled clean-burning cooking device 
could not
be added to that list for the affluent people.  Maybe even a small one and a
larger one.  If making and selling those to affluent people can assist 
to bring
down the costs (R&D and production and marketing) for helping the financially
poor people, then those biomass units in affluent societies (and to affluent
people who live in the "Third World") should be counted in the billion. 
  If you
want to see a biomass grill that is for sale now in America using biomass
gasification technology, one was shown at ETHOS this past January by Chip
Energy.  See it at   www.chipenergy.com

And who is to say that some "poor" person does not deserve to have 2 or 3 or
more of the biomass stove devices?  After all, if you look in the homes with
smokey 3-stone fires you can probably find one or more other cooking devices,
such as a "sawdust burner" or a charcoal burner or maybe an LPG unit for when
the weather is really bad and the fuels are wet.   And some even have electric
cooking devices already, but do not want to use them because of the 
costs.  And
what about a solar cooker?  Who says the poor only get one stove?  
Certainly the
financially poor do not say that.

And in some societies, biomass fuels are seasonal and require different stoves
for the different fuels.

I believe that the alcohol burners (one of my projects) will be a nice 
addition
to many many homes for small cooking, or for a booster for solar cooking or
Integrative Cooking.  And the markets will be in both the developed and
developing societies.  And it would not be the only stove in the house.

When the "counting of the stoves" is done today by the NGOs, nobody is 
checking
if that person has another "improved cookstove ICS" or had one and has
discarded it for a better ICS.

I estimate that about half of the billion will go to "first-time with ICS"
households, and the other half will go to "multiple-times with ICS" and to the
people in affluent societies.

So, I like the "Billion Stoves" concept and name.

Paul


-- 
Paul S. Anderson, Ph.D., Geography professor - Emeritus
Telephone:  USA-309-452-7072 (residence and office)
Internet site:  www.ilstu.edu/~psanders
For my gasifier stoves info, go to:
http://bioenergylists.org/contributors#Paul_Anderson


Quoting "David G. LeVine" <dlevine at speakeasy.net>:

> I am going to throw a wet blanket on this name.
>
> The "Million Man March" was ridiculed because there were many fewer
> than a million men.
>
> The Billion Stoves Program is unlikely to make half its target
> assuming 1) the world population is about 6 billion and 2) there are
> about 6 people per family unit in poorer communities.
>
> Since there are a lot of affluent people in the world, expecting to
> sell them stoves is silly.  For example, the USA has an average
> family of four or fewer and 1/4 billion people, if memory serves
> me.  Europe and Russia are big population centers.  There will be
> other stoves which are made.
>
> Rather than being the brunt of jokes like "Them <offensive term>
> can't <offensive term> count!", maybe a different name would be in order.
>
> It is generally better to succeed beyond your published expectations
> than to fail to reach your goals, even if the absolute numbers are identical.
>
> David G. LeVine
> Nashua, NH  03060
>
>
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