Re: "World's Most Efficient Stove" Contest

["Kirk R. Smith" <krksmith@uclink4.berkeley.edu>]

For many years, the Chinese operated a special facility at their Rural
Energy Training Center outside Beijing used not only for testing stoves
as part of training but also stove efficiency competitions.  People
would bring their stoves from all over China or construct them along the
walls of a large auditorium that was instrumented with separate stations
for each stove with thermocouples, scales, etc., such that a dozen or so
stoves could be operated at once.  The output from the
instrumentation for each stove was displayed on a large "score
board" comparing the status of the stoves in real-time as they went
through a prescribed set of operations.  The ministry gave awards at
the province level for the best stoves and the winners would come to
Beijing for the nationals.  The winners of the national competitions
appeared in the national press (and TV too, I think).  I heard
recently, however, that the stove building of the training center is no
longer in use.  This is after more than 180 million improved stoves
have been introduced since the early 1980s.

Best for the new year for all/k

At 02:13 PM 1/6/2002 -0400, Kevin Chisholm wrote: