Rocket Stove...low cost & high efficiency.

[Fledermaus]

The Rocket Stove
The Rocket Stove is a wood combusting stove for all kitchens that rely on biomass fuels - from family sized cooking to cooking for big institutions such as orphanages, prisons, tea estates and staff compounds. Due to its special design incorporating an insulated combustion chamber, it burns wood highly efficiently and guards the flame so the user cannot get burnt. The stove is also produced from high quality materials which also contributes to its efficiency - the stove uses far less wood and there is no smoke emission.

Rocket stoves have been rolled out succesfully in Malawi and have been found to use between 50% and 90% less wood than traditional technology. At Lauderdale tea esate in Mulanje, large amounts of nsima (maize porridge) are cooked for tea pickers every day. Oil drums that have been cut in half are used as pots. The switch to using the Rocket stove has reduced their usage of wood per pot of nsima from 170kg to 14kg of wood. Likewise, the introduction of the Rocket stove into Maula prison in Malawi at the end of 2004 minimised wood consumption - it used 12,5% of the wood consumption of the open fire that was used before.

Based on user surveys undertaken in Botswana, it was established that the main advantages of a Rocket stove are that it uses less wood, it is easy and cheap to use, cooking time is faster and therefore gives time to work on other duties. It was also praised for being able to be used as a heater and for being durable. From an environmental perspective, it minimised the usage of wood and hence cuts back on deforestation.

Since the stove emits less smoke, indoor air pollution is substantially cut down, as are its associated respiratory problems. (Indoor air pollution causes the deaths of 1,6 million people annually - thus killing more people than malaria does.)

http://www.probec.org/displaysection.php?czacc=&zSelectedSectionID=sec1203365406

[Statistical]

1. Very cool.

In third world lots of small projects can make a huge difference.

Like drilling a well and powering a pump (with manual backup) by solar power can save thousands of man (well technically woman) hours of walking miles to get water. A relatively tiny amount of money in micro-loan projects can increase productivity and prosperity by massive amounts.

[FedUpWithIt All]

2. Rocket stoves can be hand made from easy to access materials too.

Cob, bricks, and recycled metal cans are common materials.