Take the good with the smoky

And other lessons being learned in the stove project. We are in the monitoring and evaluation phase doing a final round of surveys to try to quantify fuel savings after a few months with the efficient wood-burning stoves. Since the families typically only buy wood once or twice a year, we switched to measuring wood […]

How to build a combustion chamber

The trickiest portion of the efficient cookstove construction process is assembling the internal combustion chamber. It isn’t difficult, but requires a few sets of hands and understanding how the interior pieces fit together. Two women hold the pieces in place while a third filled in around them with the sand/gravel mixture. This was the fourth […]

Before and After

The stove installations are actually almost all done. I saw 4 yesterday and 1 today, and I look forward to going back and taking all the “before” and “after” pictures. The installation is a quick process, except for configuring the chimney. The women typically have to drill holes in the walls of their kitchens or […]

Burning, burning wood

But now so much less wood. The first few efficient wood-burning stoves from our USAID Small Project Assistance grant have been installed. They seem awesome, and the woman are reporting excellent results. The reduction in wood usage is immediately apparent, but I will wait to take measurements until all the stoves are installed and they […]

Ready to Rock ‘n Roll

Apparently one way that development work can start is with a wad of cash. This is Micha and me making the transfer of funds for the efficient wood-burning cookstove project. Ah, nothing like getting a few thousand dollars in denominations of $5’s, $10’s and $50’s, or their peso equivalents. Pretty exciting and a bit scary, […]