Improving Cookstoves and Kitchens

• use of improved stoves,
• improved lighting, air circulation and smoke extraction
• arranging the interior of the kitchen for ergonomic- efficiency of cooking activities,
• storage and preservation of food and spices,
• storage of utensils, plates, fuel and water.

It also implies:

• kitchen management,
• kitchen waste management,
• use of safe drinking water,
• safety from food contamination etc.

Kitchen is the pivot for family harmony. Kitchen improvement is based on promoting energy efficiency but also on improved education, health, hygiene, housing, gender empowerment, environment and women's income generation.

Examples of Energy Solutions applied to Kitchen Improvement

Anagi Stove Construction in Sri Lanka
" Anagi" is two pot single-piece clay stove designed to meet the cooking needs of a 6 people family. It can accommodate medium-size hard or soft wood and other loose biomass residues such as coconut shells, fronds and leaves. The stove design has been carefully developed to suit the cooking habits and the types of food cooked in Sri Lanka and to be energy efficient.

The life-time of the stove is about 3 years if it is used with insulation (normally insulation consist of clay/mud cover). In general a skilled potter and 3 assistants could produce about 1000 stoves a month. The potter needs to be skilled in traditional pottery making technology for selection to be trained in stove making. The overall construction process lasts around ten days.

Stove-making needs a special training to avoid excessive breakages in the construction and standardise the stove dimensions. The guide lines for this special training is given in a training manual titled " How to make Sri Lanka 's Anagi Stove".

This training manual is the work of ITDG and IDEA. The manual provides detailed illustrations and description for all the steps of the construction process. It also gives a list of all the tools, moulds and templates required and how you can make it.

Contact:
The "Anagi" stove production manual is available from IDEA, Integrated Development Association (IDEA), Galmaduwawatte Rd, Nattarampotna, Kundasale, Sri Lanka, Phone: +94 81-2423396, Fax: +94 81-4470649, Email: idea@sltnet.lk

Read more about Anagi's contruction process ( 168 kB pdf)
Read more about the success story of "Anagi" efficient stoves ( 133 kB pdf)

Read more on Improved Kitchen in Sri Lanka:
Article: "Great "No-smoke" kitchen in Sri Lanka"
Article's author is Zareen Myles (WAFD), India. The article was published in Sustainable Energy News, December 2007, on page 9, issue number 59.
Full article: 4 pages, (142kB pdf file) and the shorter edited version published:1 page, (426 KB pdf file),

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Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) Program in Nepal
General background
The general objective of this program is to establish a sustainable framework and strategy to make available technically and socially appropriate ICS in rural communities based on local capacity building and income generation. This program has been currently promoting ICS in 33 mid-hill districts of the country.
The type of ICS promoted is made up of 3-part mud/earth, 2 parts straw/husk and 1 part animal dung. The whole structure is plastered smooth with the same mud mortar. ICS has two fire openings for cooking pots, one behind the other. There is no need to blow the fire as it utilizes the heat, generated by burning fuelwood.

ICS can even be used for space heating by adding a cast iron/mild steel plate put tight over the pot holes for the pots or by putting a metal pipe around the space/room to make the hot air pass around the room through the pipe before going out through the chimney. Nowadays, use of ICS for water heating by attaching a back boiler on the side or around the chimney pipe is increasing in the midhills and mountain regions of Nepal.

The materials required for the construction of ICS are locally available and includes stones/bricks, mud/earth, straw/rice husk, iron plates/ rebar/sheet, animal dung.

Benefits of the ICS
In Nepal, women are mainly responsible for cooking activities and collecting firewood.. Studies have shown that ICS has efficiency of 15-25% and fuelwood saving is 30-35% thus favoring the drudgery reduction of women as ICS cuts down their cooking time and hardship in collection of scarce fuelwood. The majority of thewomen using ICS have responded that they had asthma and eye burning due to traditional stoves but also that the situation has improved after installation of ICS and they don't suffer from burning eyes and breathing problems.
Studies have shown that with the use of ICS human exposure to pollutants in the kitchen environment has been reduced by an average of 69% carbon monoxide concentration, 53% Total Suspended Particle (TSP) Concentration and 63% HCHO (Formaldehyde) Concentration.

Contact:
Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal (CRT/N)
Tripureshwor, Kathmandu, PO Box 3628, Nepal.
Phone : 977 1-4260165/-4256819, F: 977 1 4257922
info@crtnepal.org, www.crtnepal.org

Read more about:

- ICS program in Nepal. (16kb pdf)

- INFORSE-South Asia Energy Solutions to Reduce Poverty Manual.