The famous ‘Lorena stove’, designed by Ianto Evans in Guatemala after the 1976 earthquake was one of the pioneers of fuel saving cooks stoves. In the early 1980’s, no matter what other project Peace Corps volunteers were to work with, we were trained to construct and promote these stoves.
Over the years many, many new designs, devolopement workers and agencies worked on the important effort to save cooking fuel, fuel costs, reduce smoke contamination and to try to convince people to use these stoves.
In the 1990’s the ‘rocket stoves’ appeared, and the same Ianto Evans returned to Gautemala, invited by the minister of agriculture, to design an ‘appropriate’ rocket stove.
I’ve watched fuel efficient stoves being designed and promoted for 40 years and have yet to see any ‘catch on’ and revolutionize the way cooking is done. Maybe somewhere they have, but not here. I’ve talked with devolopement workers from other parts of the world, and the common story seems to be great designs and significant investments with abandoned, unused stoves.
The only successes I have seen have been where the stove promoter/designer actually uses the stove in his or her own home every day, year in year out, as their preferred cooking method. Do you cook with corn cobs, dung, tiny sticks? It doesn’t work to go home to your gas or electric stove. The stove you use for your own family is the stove you are truely promoting.
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