Dates are set

At last, our dates are set. We will be leaving Saturday, June 11th at 5 PM, arriving in the Dominican 4 hours later. Christa, our daughter, will be coming with me to help with the project. Our return is scheduled for Saturday July 9th.

Concrete Block Stove

Ideally, the best solution is to remove fumes from the burning charcoal without the fumes entering into the room where the can be breathed by the residences. Secondly, is to have a stove the children will not burn themselves should they come into contact with it. A lady from my church was on the Internet one day and gave me the following address ( http://www.guatemalastoveproject.org/ ) . It is my intent to modify the stove for use with charcoal and green fuels. Modifying the stove and testing will begin as soon as our temperatures are consistently above the freezing mark. Tests will be run in my backyard.



Alternative Fuels - Briquettes

While researching Charcoal Stoves, I came across initiatives around the world to replace charcoal with fuels made from organic materials, such as grass clippings, paper, sawdust food scraps.etc. I have been able to produce briquettes from combinations of shredded paper, saw dust and grass clippings.

As soon as the snow disappears, I will be having a press night and will make a number of briquettes of varying combination of materials for testing in the newly designed stove.



Press and Pressing Equipment

On our trip this past February, two presses were made for making briquettes this summer. These are being stored for our return this June.

It was an interesting process, I had ordered the 2 x 4's, 2 x 6's and bolts prior to our leaving so we could start first thing and not have to take the time to go to the wood yard. The first thing I noticed was the wood was actually 2" x  4" and 2" x 6", not our usual 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" and 1 1/2" x 5 1/2". Our sizes are special order. With the increased sizes, I then had to order longer bolts. We do not have access to equipment, so I will make component parts, for making the briquettes, prior to returning in June.

New Design of Charcoal Stove

I looked at modifying the current stove, but nothing effectively increased the efficiency of the current design. I found a charcoal stove used in a country in Africa that twigged my interest. A couple days later I was in our local hardware store and noticed a small cooking stove in their bar-b-q section. I combined both ideas and came up with a new design. I spent many evenings running one hour tests to see how effective the new design is and was satisfied with the results. My prototype was made from 8" stove pipe 7" long and modified with a pair of metal snips. Pictured below is the first prototype, made by a Haitian craftsman. Believe it or not, he used a cold chisel and hammer to cut out the shape.



The Stove Project

The Stove Project began in April  2009 on a trip to a Haitian village in the Dominican. I witnessed a charcoal stove in a small house, with next to no ventilation. When I asked out guide why they cooked inside, she explained that to cook outside, any amount of breeze would make the charcoal burn faster. The Haitians have little to no money, to conserve charcoal to cook what little food they have, they cook inside. This has resulted in lung diseases among the women and children being burned from walking into the stove. My project was to redesign the stove so it could be used outside in a moderate breeze.