[Stoves] Stoves Digest, Vol 31, Issue 39

Fri Jan 30 11:42:35 CST 2009

Paal,
We worked in Gulu for a short spell with UNICEF in 2003/4:  I can  
sympathise. As to briquetties costing money, true enough. It is  
indeed normally designed for locations where there is a cash market  
for the alternative wood /charcoal /other solid fuel. The camps seem  
to pose additional layer as as well: Gulu and another camp I worked  
at in '94 Ndzaleka outside Lilongwe for UNHCR, posed the additional   
filters of donor subsidies and security . In the  Gulu Save the  
Children (GUSCO)camp the kids had been just rescued from the LRA.  
Some scarred up form panga wounds ak47 shots and most all  
psychologyically scarred. We were all excited about training as they  
seemed that they were all lit up over the briquette training and  
quickly mastered all teh bits. (I have lots of digital photos and  
mpeg clips to impress you!.) They were also making their own presses  
and thresher chopper devices..The local town market for wood and  
charcoal suggested a great potential for the anticipated cottage  
industries...then we hit a wall. Turns out that the camp staff would  
not allow them to sell the bqs in town because they were afraid of  
their exposure (and recapture--a very likely possibility frankly) and  
being good donor employees, the staff of course could not sulley  
thier own hands selling the briquettes for the kids...

In the latter case UNHCR was it later turned out, giving  a free  
ratio of kerosene to the displaced persons within. They brought us in  
to wean the refugees off kerosene --so that the latter  could now  
happily proceed to make briquettes. Bqs and our own team were not  
well recieved  and were quickly and hotly boycotted. One learns (read  
I but its safer to generalise here)the hard way, all too often...The  
tech has to have a local ownership and a viable market, because well  
after all the digital cameras  and the pajeros have left the scene,  
that is the real reality:

We are now reading about the Ethos conference perhaps some have heard  
of Rok Oblak who is working with Approvecho's long time member, Larry  
Winarski ,to adapt briquettees to their Rocket stove.. Lots of good  
ideas and inputs and quantitative data being generated but all of  
that effort  will mean nothing until the tech is adapted to existing  
stoves with existing local artisans in a real market basis ...I am  
very confident that this will soon happen given the shared design  
instincts and the wealth of on the ground experience of all concerned.

The gooey cross cultural part is critical and often frustrating to  
the technician, but its essential and fankly a real  joy to see the  
whole process working.
  We're soon leaving, for, more like, returning to  East africa  for  
a few months to join our colleagues there and do training of trainers  
and  some adaptive r&d with them o n the stove and other new techs  
ideas we both have, related to briquetting. if anybody is in the  
neighborhood welcome to the real reality show.

Badaye jamani

Richard Stanley
www.legacyfound.org
(Obamaland west)

.
On Jan 30, 2009, at 02:44, paal wendelbo wrote:

> Tom and other stovers
>
>            I have been working with this aspect for about 20 years  
> now and do have some miscellaneous experiences. Changes has to come  
> from the inside.
>
>            If we want to have some changes at the household-energy  
> sector, and that is really needed, we have to learn from the very  
> beginning. How were the three stove fireplace introduced, and later  
> the charcoal-stove? Not by marketing, not by Tupperware sales, not  
> by NGO's I suppose. I think all started with the fuel and from the  
> inside by training and failing. People had the fuel and they found  
> out how to utilize it, and then how to make it better. They found  
> charcoal was better than 3 stone, and did not worry about the  
> energy losses by production and the smoke, due to plenty of wood.  
> Now we can see the results; deforestation, smoke related deceases,  
> high cost fuel (half of it transport-costs) etc
>
>            !5 years ago we had the discussion at a UNHCR run  
> refugee camp in North of Uganda about mud/clay stoves or metal  
> sheet stoves to replace the 3 stone fireplace and the charcoal  
> stove. By satellite it was seen the forest were shrinking. It ended  
> up with the decision of the, that time strongest NGO, improved clay/ 
> mud stove .though the fuel consumption even was higher than by the  
> 3 stone. Now 15 years later it seems clay/mud stove still is  
> preferred like in Gulu and now in Peru. We do have the excellent  
> TLUD/ND and TLUD/FD and some others which provable will reduce the  
> fuel consumption and are burning free of smoke and soot, but we  
> still have some problem with the fuel; Pellettizing and briquetting  
> will also demand energy, will pellets and briquettes be cheaper  
> than firewood and charcoal?
>
>            Household energy is this days more a political and  
> environment task than cultural and practical. A huge amount of  
> people are depending on charcoal production, transport and sales.  
> More are depending on bio fuel for cooking. We know production of  
> charcoal reduce the energy-content in wood with about 70%.
>
>             A stove project: should start at the schools with  
> energy and environment problems
>
> The first question will be: Is there a need of changes of the  
> existing situation? The second will be: What is the fuel? Will  
> there be enough fuel? And fuel to what price? When you have the  
> fuel it is easy to produce the right stove. For communities in  
> developing countries it is also socio-economical question. Who will  
> be the loser? Will that be the charcoal producers and dealers? The  
> winner will at least be the consumers, the forests and the fuel  
> producer.
>
> Probably also the local tinsmiths will win some..
>
> With regards Paal W  paaw at online.no
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com>
> To: "'Discussion of biomass cooking stoves'"  
> <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 11:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Stoves Digest, Vol 31, Issue 39
>
>
>>
>>> Given the two contributions below, I am wondering if there are any
>> marketing, sociology or tech transfer studies on stove adoption  
>> and use (as
>> designed).
>>
>> Two studies come to mind. One is an MA thesis from the  
>> Netherlands," A
>> Realistic Evaluation of Stove Design Process," that I will soon  
>> receive from
>> Jed Guinto in the Philippines. Another is a dissertation in  
>> progress by Nate
>> Johnson at Iowa State University. You may know Nate from his MA  
>> thesis work
>> on Stoves Safety.
>> http://www.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/782/4
>> http://www.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/606
>>
>>
>> Others I am sure are available at the HEDON website based on  
>> evaluation of
>> programs in Africa sponsored by programs like DFID (UK) and GTZ  
>> (Germany and
>> the Netherlands).
>>
>> Tom Miles
>> www.bioenergylists.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
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