EFFECT OF DISTANCE OF POT FROM FIRE ON PERFORMANCE OF WOOD BURNING STOVE

Abstract

A biomass cooking stoves are commonly used for cooking and heating food in rural households. This study was conducted at Haramaya University on five designed and constructed stoves with different distance (0cm, 2cm, 4cm, 6cm and 8cm) of pot from fire and one conventional stove obtained from market in order to select the stove which has the best performance which also means the optimum clearance of pot from fire. The performance of stoves was compared in three different ways. These were the onset of cooking (ti), maximum temperature reached (Tmx) and the effective cooking time (Δt). In terms of these three parameters (ti, Tmx, and Δt) ANOVA test shows significant differences at 0.05 level. The fabricated stove of distance of pot from fire 6cm (S4) was recorded the least onset of cooking time (ti), large maximum temperature reached (Tmx) and large effective cooking time (Δt).The relative amount of heat energy loses through each stove body and smoke out let was estimated by calculating the area under the plots. The large area under the stove body temperature versus cooking time was recorded by stove of distance of pot from fire is 6cm (S4), 7968(Kmin). It shows the high amount of energy loss through the body of the stove. This paper conclude that the constructed stove of distance of pot from fire 6cm (S4) was the stove which recorded a good performance in terms of onset of cooking time, effective cooking time and maximum temperature reached.