At RSP we get asked to do a lot of rocket stove trainings. When working with partner organizations and consulting with local farmer groups rocket stoves are at the top of everyone's list.
To give you an idea why these stoves are so popular we're going to give you more information than you ever thought you'd need to know, starting with this diagram that Benjamin uses for our trainings.
The model shown above gives a basic understanding of the design.
The rocket stoves that we build in communities are constructed from basic cobb, a mixture of clay, sand and straw. The major draw of this technology is its accessibility to rural farmers. The stoves are totally free to build as long as they have the desire and know how. This website gives a great summary of some of the other benefits such as efficiency and power.
One benefit of these stoves that I want to explore further is the significant potential for smoke reduction. Given the normalcy of the ever-present wood smoke in East Africa it seems like an almost secondary benefit when compared to having better fuel efficiency, shorter cooking times. However, reduced smoke is perhaps the most important, at least in terms of the immediate human health concern.
Taking a look at this WHO report on household air pollution we can see that 3 billion people still use open cooking and heating fires in their homes, and of those, 4 million are dying of illnesses directly attributed to chronic exposure to that air pollution. The list includes pneumonia, stroke and heart disease among others and in most regions, women and children are most susceptible as they are primarily in charge of domestic chores such as cooking. Smoke is a serious
We have no hard numbers on the efficiency of the stoves we teach, given that each stove is constructed under slightly different conditions. We do know however, that the stoves are designed to increase air flow for more complete combustion, and that the smoke reduction is significant. Numbers we've found from other sources put the ball park reduction at about 75%, so while this design may not have the efficiency of some of the commercially available stoves out there