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Th
e F
arm
ers'
Han
db
ook
- "
Insi
de T
he H
ou
se"
, C
hap
ter
4 -
Im
pro
ved
Sto
ve
What is an
Improved Stove ?Improved Stove ?
Mrs Chitramaya Gharti-Magar's improved stove,Surkhet district, Nepal
The stove is theheart of the household.The stove turns ourhard-earned farmingproduce into tasty andwholesome food. Awell managed stovehelps in other workalso. If the stove isn'tgood, smoke in thekitchen will causehealth problems and alot of firewood will be used. In this chapter, a usefulmethod is given to help solve these problems, which canbring big improvements in the kitchen, and from there tothe household.
This method is called the improved stove. The im-proved stove can be cheaply made from local resources,and helps to remove smoke from the kitchen, while usingless firewood.
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove
make anImproved Stove ?
Differences between traditional and improved stoves
Traditional Stove or Tripod Improved Stove
1. Uses a lot of firewood
4. Cost of tripod
5. Smoke stays in kitchen
6. Smoke damages health
7. Makes kitchen utensilsdirty with soot
8. Small children can fall inthe fire
9. Cooking makes the potsblack with soot
10. Wind can make the fire jump
11. Can't make tripod fromlocal resources
12. Food cools quickly
3. Can only cook one itemat a time
2. Food cooks quickly2. Food cooks slowly
1. Uses less firewood
3. Can cook 2 items at atime
4. Don't need tripod
5. Smoke goes outside
6. No harm to health
7. Doesn't make kitchendirty
8. No fear of small childrenfalling in fire
9. Pots kept cleaner duringcooking
10. Stove not affected by wind
11. Stove made from localresources
12. Food stays hot longer
2 3
There are some disadvantages of the improved stove. These are :-
1. Large pieces of firewood can't be used;
3. The stove needs good maintenance, and fromtime to time you need to let the smoke into thekitchen (see page 22 for more information).
2. The stove gives less light and direct heat in the kitchen;
Other methods to reduce firewood use
While cooking, keeping the lid on potshelps to reduce firewood use. This alsohelps to conserve nutrients in the food.
Another method of conserving fuelwood is called the"Haybox". This can be made in a basket or box filled with tightlypacked straw, as in the picture below, As soon as food (rice, pulses,vegetables, etc.) is brought to the boil on a normal stove, the pan isremoved and placed in the hay box, and covered well. Here, thereis no fire, but the food slowly keeps cooking, due to the conservedheat in the box. This takes 20-30 minutes longer than on a stove.After a while, take out the pan and the food is ready to eat.
covered by a lidstraw
clothlid of the pot
food inside (just boiled)
strawbasket or box
WhyWhy
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove4 5
HowHow To make animproved stove ?
Things to consider when making animproved stove
• get all the materials and tools ready first;• map out the height of the kitchen's wall;• map out the stove according to the needs of the family;• allow for a place to clean the stove;• the hole to allow smoke out should be out of the wind.
Materials needed to make an improved stove
bowl
string
diggingtools
soil
stones
brick makingform (see p.8)
cookingpans
straw orhusk
This Chapter's Author:Mr Laxman RanaCommunity Service Group,Dahachaur 4, Surkhet, Nepal
Making the Improved Stove
An improved stove uses a chimney to pass the smokeout of the kitchen. There are 2 ways of making a chimney todo this :-
1. Making bricks using mud "pancakes"2. Making bricks using a wooden form or mould
On this stoveunleavened flat
bread can be madeover the mouth ofthe firebox, as well
as smoke goingoutside
1. Making bricks using mud "pancakes"In this method only clay, straw or rice husk, water and a
small bowl are needed.First mix the clay and the husk, or straw cut into 2 inch
lengths, with water to make a stiff texture, like dough.see the pictures on the next page
soil
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove
1
4
2
3
6 7
Making bricks from clay "pancakes"Making bricks from clay "pancakes"
The pancakes should be8 inches in diameter
8 inches
The bowl should be 4 inchesin diameter
Place thebowl upside
down on the pan-cake and pressdown, like this
The up-turned bowl
will cut the clay
make 30-35 pan-cakes like this
This willmake a hole
the same shapeand size as thebowl
5
2. Making a chimney using a wooden formor mould
Materials needed to make the form
One 3-inch nail
Eighteen 2inch nails
measuring tape
hammer
roundpiece ofwood
saw
timber
length 4-5 feet, width 7 inches,thickness half to one inch
Cut the timberinto pieces asshown here len
gth7 i
nches
width7 inches
onepiece
2 pieces of length 7 inchesand width 4 inches
2 pieces of length 7 inchesand width 4 inches
One village will need only one of these forms
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove8 9
Join the 3 pieces of woodwith nails, like this
Saw 2 pieces of woodas shown below
length 15 inches,width 4 inches
Join the pieceswith nails, asshown here
Now put the round pieceof wood in the form
diameter4 inches
length3 inches
On the undersideof the form make
an 'X' betweenthe 4 corners tofind the centre
Holding the roundpiece of wood on
the other side, nailin the long
nail tohold it in
place
Making bricks in the Form
• mix the clay, husk or straw and water• wash the form well• scatter a little husk or straw in the form so it sticks to
the wet wood
Now put the claymix into the Form
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove10 11
Scrape off the excessclay to make level
Turn the formupside down and
tap gently
Leaving theclay brick onthe ground,gently lift theform off
To make thechimney,12-13 brickslike this areneeded
Make 1 brick without a holefor the top of the chimney
Make 2 brickslooking like this
The formused to
make thechimney
Rice husk, orchopped straw
Husk orstraw mixed
to a thickpaste
1
2
3
Let's seeLet's see How to make animproved stoveHow to make animproved stove
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove
;fpnf;fpnf;fpnf;fpnf;fpnf
12 13
4
8
7
6
5
Cleaning the Form
Pressing theclay/straw mixinto the form
12-13 ofthese bricks
2 brickslike this
1 brickwithout ahole
Chimney brick afterremoving from the form
Starting tobuild the
stove
Bridgingstone overthe fire-box hole
Smokeleaves here
Build up thestove, leavingholes for potsand a path for smoke
Bridgingstones
Red arrowsshow pathwayfor smoke
Yellow linesshow emptyspaces left in-side the stove
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove14 15
11
10
9Holes for pots Hole for smoke
Cookingarea
prepared
Put firewood here
Now start to buildthe chimney withbricks made withthe form (or clay
pancakes)
After plastering,the stove is al-
lowed to dry outand can then be
used
In the below pictures is the processof building the stove in drawings
First, estimatethe best place for
the stove, andmap out with thetypes of pots tobe used and achimney brick
If using the clay pancakes for thechimney, use them to measure
Mark out ac-cording to themeasurements
Mark out theareas and path-
ways for firewood,fire and smoke
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove16 17
Start to build thewalls according to the
measurements
Iron rod
Use an iron rod if available. This sitsinside the pot's hole and allows
smaller pots to rest on it
Continueto buildup thewalls
Cooking areafinished
Inside the stovelooks like this
Below the sec-ond pot-hole asmall hump is
made. Thissends the
flames right upto the base of
the pot
This shows theinside when afire is burning
Between thehump and baseof the pot a 1.5
inch gapsmoke going
out
fire burning inthe stove
clay hump
Note: the pots should sit down in the hole (see page 22)
smoke goingout
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove18 19
Now use a string tomeasure the hole
going outside
Firstchimney
brick
Place thechimney
bricks likethis
If using the clay pancakebricks they look like this
After placing 12-13 of these bricks
the level of thehole is reached
This isthe waythe top 3
bricksare
placed(see
p.20)
After placing thetop 3 bricks, the
hole from thechimney and thehole going out-side should fit
exactly
1
3
2
1
3
2
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove20 21
The method to place the top 3 bricks is shown below
Brick 1 seenclose up
Brick 1
Brick 2 seenclose up
Brick 2
Hole to the outside
Brick 3 seenclose up
Brick 3
Finally, plaster thestove, and allow itto dry out. Then it
is ready to use
The Farmers' Handbook, "Inside The House" Chapter 4 - Improved Stove22 23
Things to pay attention towhen using the stove
In this picture the stove is beingused correctly - the pot islow in the hole wheremore flames reach thebase, and smoke can escape.
In this picture the stove is notused well - because the potdoes not sit low in the hole,the flames do not reachclose. In this way foodcooks slowly. This is due to using the wrongsize pots for the hole.
If the pots are the wrong size for thehole then, as in the diagram, put 3small stones under the pot todraw the flames up wherethey heat the base of thepot. But this allows moresmoke into the kitchen.
stones or clay
A well made stove, used correctly, will not let smoke outinto the kitchen. But this can cause another problem in thatthe smoke helps to control various pests which otherwise candamage timber, stored grain and seed. Smoke, protects thetimbers from these pests. Therefore, every few days smoke needs to be let into the house.
Cleaning the Improved Stove
• watch if smoke is passing or not• watch if food is cooking fast or slow• clean the chimney every week or 2 (see below)• plaster the stove daily (do not use dung)• measure how much firewood is used
Once every 2 weeks wrapcloth on the end of a stick to
clean the chimney
43
1
2
stickwithcloth
Open the stove to removethe dirt and soot
Clean from theoutside also
Re -plaster
Gri
hast
hi C
omm
unic
atio
ns
æ
Æ
Farmers'ExperienceFarmers'Experience
Mrs ChitramayaGharti Magar
Mrs ChitramayaGharti Magar
From Nepal, Surkhet district,Dahachaur - 4, and member of"Ritu Laligurans" and"Hariyali" women's group MrsChitramaya Gharti Magar hasmade an improved stove. Nowlet's read about what she says.
Because smoke affects ourhealth it's important to make thesmoke go outside. In the im-proved stove less firewood is alsoused, so time is saved collectingfuel as well as helping to protectthe forest. To make this stove stone, clay, rice husk and aform to make the chimney is all that's needed. We didn'thave a form in our village, so I used a bowl to make 35-36clay pancakes. The form also uses more clay. Making thepancakes needs less clay and you don't need the form, so Imade up this method. There's no smoke from my stove, andit uses less firewood. Once cooked, the food stays warm along time left on the stove. There are no flies and thefood can't burn. Also, the pans don't get so black withsoot. Now, I want teach others in the village howto make the stove.
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