PM+Correspondence

Correspondence from Patricia Mcardle

For the record On Sep. 11, 2017, I traveled to Los Angeles at the invitation of [|Nithya Ramanathan] , co-founder of [|Next Leaf Analytics] . The purpose of the meeting with the NLA team was to discuss how NLA’s [|StoveTrace]  sensors (//currently being used to provide real-time, cloud based temperature monitoring for biomass cookstove field tests//) could also be a useful tracking device for the monitoring and evaluation of solar cookers and retained heat containers in the field. I was referred to Nithya by her father, UC San Diego climatologist [|V. Ramanathan] . I had recently written to Prof. Ramanathan to propose a solar cooker demo at the UCSD campus. In a 2008 paper, he calculated the dramatic reduction in black carbon achievable by using solar cookers: 70 to 80% in South Asia and 20 to 40% in East Asia. Ramanathan was a presenter at the [|March 2010 GACC planning meeting in Washington DC hosted by Shell and the UN Foundation]  and the only one who mentioned solar cookers. (//Note: No solar cooking reps were invited to that meeting, which Dar Curtis learned about three months after the fact.)// Despite Ramanathan’s early support for solar cooking, he has become disillusioned with the efficacy of this technology because he told me he has found them difficult to use when he tried cooking with them at his home near UCSD. He has also concluded that solar cookers are not useful for Indian women who cook early in the morning or late in the evening because they are “working in the fields” all day. I thought it would be useful for him to see a demo of several new designs by the San Diego Solar Cooking Group. He has accepted my invitation. Nithya was ill the day I went to LA so I didn’t get to meet her, but I did have a productive meeting with NLA co-founder <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[|Martin Lucak] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and several members of the NLA team. They knew almost nothing about solar and retained heat cooking, so I provided them with a brief tutorial before we began discussing their invention, the StoveTrace. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">They referred me to a <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[|Nature article] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> about a large-scale study that used Stove Trace. Due to the data from the Stove Trace monitors, which revealed diminishing use of the stoves over several months, follow up interviews by project organizers found that although 80% of users had purchased the Teri forced draft stoves on credit, only 30% said they would buy another stove. This was due to design flaws, difficulty in getting reimbursed and lack of local repair services. A subsequent follow-up study found that 94% of the stoves had issues inhibiting their use including damaged combustion chambers and broken fans (//essential for a forced draft stove).// Because Stove Trace provided a steady stream of precise, real time data on stove use (far more accurate than self-reporting) project organizers could accurately evaluate the use/acceptance of their product. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">I explained the concept of integrated cooking and the challenges we have faced trying to convince GACC officials that the combined use of solar cookers, retained heat containers and fuel efficient biomass stoves is far more sustainable than the use of biomass stoves alone or LPG stoves. I also explained how retained heat containers reduce the time needed to cook a pot of food over a biomass fire. Since the Stove Trace tracks heat generated during cooking events, it could easily be used to measure the use of solar cookers and retained heat containers. Note: Next Leaf does not sponsor programs. They provide equipment and monitoring expertise. Each Stove Trace Monitor costs around $40 (this includes the Bluetooth activated, remote monitoring systems). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">I told the Next Leaf team about CalPoly San Luis Obispo physics professor Pete Schwartz’s new prototype retained heat container, which includes a heavily insulated hot plate powered by a small solar panel. Pete’s device generates enough heat to actually cook food. I’ll be linking Pete with this group so they can continue this discussion. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">The NL team was also interested in a proposal I told them about that had been submitted in 2011 by <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">[|Anne Riederer] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> (a AAAS scientist working in EPA’s office of research). She had recommended to GACC officials, including EPA’s Jacob Moss, Brenda Doroski and John Mitchell) that the GACC develop a PC-based computer model to monitor integrated cooking systems for households in a given community. Anne’s proposal would have analyzed information including local fuel types and costs, latitude/longitude (//for solar cooking potential//), median household income, median family size, cooking requirements for staple foods, etc. As the database grew, it would have allowed the GACC to pinpoint behavioral changes needed to meet optimization targets. Her proposal was not adopted. I will connect the Next Leaf Team to Anne, who is now an Asst. Prof of Public Health at the University of Washington.  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">I explained the different types of solar cookers to the NL team and noted that the dismissal of solar cooking technology has occasionally been taken to absurd heights such as the time GACC director Radha Muthiah visited the salt pans of Gujarat, where for eight months a year, poor Indian men and women harvest salt from thousands of acres of treeless flatland. In an article <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">[|Radha wrote about her trip to Gujarat] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> she noted that, **“** **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">In this barren area there are no trees, making fuel collection a real challenge.” **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> To say that fuel collection is **“a real challenge”** in the saltpans is a gross understatement. I showed the NL team this photo to make my point. The saltpans would make an ideal location for the introduction (and monitoring with Stove Trace) of an integrated cooking system. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">One of Next leaf’s partners is <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">[|Instove] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">, a manufacturer of institutional rocket stoves located on the Aprovecho Campus in Oregon. Instove has sold hundreds of its stoves to UN implementing partners for use in refugee camps. I told the NextLeaf team that on several occasions I have suggested to Fred Colgin, the founder of InStove, the logic of combining the use of an InStove cooker with an institutional solar cooker like the Scheffler or one of Ajay Chandak’s large Prince solar cookers. Fred is not interested in this concept. His rejection of the integrated cooking concept is puzzling since for years both Aprovecho campuses in Oregon have used large Telkes solar box cookers to do most of their cooking and water heating from May until October. Dean Still describes this large-scale “integrated cooking” system at Aprovecho in his 2016 book, [|//Clean Burning Biomass Cookstoves//]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">, which summarizes the results of Aprovecho’s million-dollar R&D cookstove grant from the Department of Energy. Note: while he was writing the book, Dean told me he planned to include construction plans for a Telkes. Although the plans didn’t make his book you can still read Dean’s description of summertime cooking at Aprovecho on <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">[|page 8] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">One NL staff member heard Julie Greene speak at the recent Hearth conference in Oregon and was very impressed with the potential for solar cooker in the clean cookstove movement. Nithiya can be reached at: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">nithya@nexleaf.org <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">. Martin can be reached at: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">martin@nextleaf.org <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Pat McArdle <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">9/13/2017 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">subsequent on-site stove n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">inspection in 36 homes (Supplementary Data B) found that 94% of   n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">stoves had issues that inhibited use, such as a damaged combustion n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">chamber or broken fan. n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">subsequent on-site stove n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">inspection in 36 homes (Supplementary Data B) found that 94% of   n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">stoves had issues that inhibited use, such as a damaged combustion n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">chamber or broken fan. n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">A subsequent on-site stove n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">inspection in 36 homes (Supplementary Data B) found that 94% of   n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">stoves had issues that inhibited use, such as a damaged combustion n <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">chamber or broken fan.