Uganda Efficient Wood Cook Stoves

Carbon offset funds enabled the dissemination of efficient wood burning cook stoves to institutions and families in and around Kampala, Uganda.

HOW IT WORKS
More than 95% of Ugandans rely on fuel wood for cooking, typically charcoal or wood for urban households and wood for those in rural areas. The current stoves used for cooking have low efficiencies, increasing the amount of fuel wood required to prepare a meal. These new stoves use a proven “rocket” technology that consists of an insulated elbow-jointed combustion chamber that increases combustion efficiency and retains heat while raising the cooking pot to the hottest point above the flame. The rocket stove further increases heat transfer by having the cooking pot rest within a skirt.

CARBON OFFSETS MADE IT HAPPEN
Without offset funds this project would not have been viable. The new stove is too expensive for most families and institutions. However, the traditional and cheaper stoves found within the market have much lower efficiencies. The aim of the project is to reduce the stove price to an affordable level, to promote it for widespread dissemination and to improve the technology through continuous research and development. Field tests have shown this new stove to reduce fuel wood consumption by more than 50% when compared to the traditional technology.

OTHER BENEFITS OF THE INSTALLATION
Particulate matter (in addition to greenhouse gas emissions) are released into the atmosphere during fuel wood burning leading to indoor air pollution. UN studies show that worldwide indoor air pollution from cooking stoves causes around 1.5 million premature deaths per year while causing debilitating illness for tens of millions more.