What Are the Advantages of Improved Stove

Updated on February 27, 2023

An inexpensive and frequently used method for increasing biomass combustion efficiency and decreasing indoor pollution is the adoption of improved cook stoves (ICS), notably mud-brick ICS with or without a chimney.

It is possible to save forests by cutting down on the amount of fuel wood used, reduce the amount of time that women spend doing menial tasks, reduce indoor air pollution, and prevent fires by using ICS.

Traditional Nepalese stoves are made of clay, stone, or metal tripods, and are simple in design. Because of inadequate airflow and insulation, these stoves are inefficient. Thus, they use a large amount of biomass and generate substantial amounts of indoor air pollution.

Since its introduction in the 1950s, ICS has remained significant in Nepal. At least 63 districts in Nepal have been equipped with upgraded cookstoves, thanks to a collaboration between AEPC/NRREP, other government and non-governmental organisations as well as private businesses.

What Are the Advantages of Improved Stove

Greater indoor air quality, shorter cooking time, improved aesthetics and a rise in social status are only some of the advantages of installing an ICS system. There are also environmental advantages to society, such as a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions and a reduction in deforestation.

There is a lot of dispute over the health benefits of newer stoves. Morbidity (Morb) and mortality (Mort) reductions due to reduced incidence of acute respiratory illness (ARI) and reduced prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are only included in our model because the evidence for reductions in other diseases, such as asthma, visual impairment, lung cancer, or cardiovascular diseases, is less compelling. Cost of illness per case is multiplied by the projected monthly number of cases per home, which is a multiplicative function of disease incidence (IARI), stove efficacy (iARI), and household size (hhsize).

For example, COI includes: a) private and public expenditures for diagnostic, treatment and hospitalisation; b) extra costs borne by patients, such as transportation to hospitals; and c) productivity losses for sick patients and caregivers, during the period of illness and recovery.

We must be aware of how COI can be used to estimate the economic advantages of reduced morbidity.

The most important of these is that these benefits will be erroneous if individuals are able to take actions that reduce their chance of sickness in advance, so that the sample of sick individuals for whom COI is known may not be representative of all affected persons. Another issue is that COI does not take into account the disutility of illness-related non-pecuniary suffering.

 Models:

With help from Kathmandu University, BESP has promoted three pot-hole metallic stoves that include a water tank. This type was developed with high-altitude ICS cooking and heating in mind. Water tanks in particular are employed to extract heat from the MICS body. It has also been discovered that there are various MICS models, which have been modified with user feedback, manufacturers, installers and other stakeholders in mind.

At the moment AEPC is promoting three models of MICS as following:

• a water tank in each of the three holes
• ash receptacle and grate for three pot holes
• Ashes are collected in the two-hole grate.

Rocket Stoves

Introduction

This type of cooking stove uses small diameter wood fuel, which is burned in a basic high-temperature combustion chamber with an insulated vertical chimney that enables complete combustion before the flames reach the cooking surface, making this type of burner ideal for camping and backpacking.

An efficient combustion of fuel at high temperatures is achieved by providing good air flow into the fire, controlled usage of fuel, complete combustion of volatiles and the efficient utilisation of the generated heat in a rocket stove. For cooking and heating purposes, it has been employed in many energy-poor areas.

To meet the needs of Terai slum dwellers, BESC has created a line of lightweight, portable, mud rocket stoves. Only those who cook both inside and outside their homes can benefit from this design.

Aside from the brick kilns of Kathmandu Valley and Jhapa area, BESC has distributed these newly constructed portable mud rocket stoves in the Veneer Industry in the Jhapa district.

Benefits

• Low cost
• Fuel efficient
• Easy to transport
• Locally builtable
• Accepted technology, particularly in Terai

What Is Meant by Improved Chulo