Characterization of conventional cooking stoves in South Eastern Nigeria

Performance characterization of some selected conventional cook stoves in South Eastern Nigeria had been carried out. Three conventional cook stoves (3-stone stove, charcoal stove and sawdust stove) were selected and evaluated. Their performances were compared with those of improved stove. The results show that the time spent in cooking 1 Kg of rice/(yam) is significantly different in all the conventional stoves under test; (maximum 0.75 (0.44) kg/hr for 3-stone stove and minimum 0.61 (0.35) hr/kg for charcoal). Fuel utilization also differs for instance lesser quantity of charcoal would be required to cook the same quantity of food on the charcoal stove than the open fire stove. Also the specific fuel consumption value of charcoal stove is lesser than all other stoves. The 3-stone stove have higher specific fuel consumption values indicative of more fuel consumption but lower thermal efficiency. This indicates a poor performance when compared to other improved stoves such as kerosene stove with higher thermal efficiency of 64.38 %.