Effect of Thermal Mass on Fuel Consumption of Solid Biomass Cooking Stoves

The use of rudimentary cooking stoves has harmful consequences not only for the health of users but also for the environment. Faced with these problems, studies are being carried out to develop more efficient stoves. The materials used for the construction and/or design of cooker range from heavy materials to light materials. However, cookers built from heavy materials accumulate a portion of the heat produced in their walls. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the influence of thermal mass on the fuel consumption of cookers. The study concerns not only a set of stoves taken from the literature but also a set of stoves that we tested. The two sets of stoves differ in terms of their characteristics: Single-pot wood stove without chimney or skirt, Single-pot wood stove without chimney with skirt, Multi-pot wood stove with chimney, Single-pot charcoal stove without chimney or skirt, etc. The adapted approach consists of classifying all stoves by category. Then, for each category, the mass of the cookers as well as the quantity of fuel necessary for the same cooking task will be compared. It appears that for all the stoves taken from the literature and all the stoves submitted to the test, in each of the categories, the higher the mass of the stove, the more fuel it consumes for the same cooking task.