Abstract
More rigorous and detailed test procedures are desirable to determine the effect of various design
modifications on the performance of fuel/cookstove combinations, and to optimize their performance. This research
paper investigated the effect of a novel heterogeneous testing method to evaluate the performance of domestic solid
fuel/cookstove combinations. The water-heating test (WHT) and the ‘hood’ method were used as the basis of the tests
with additional variants of fuel load, power setting and method of ignition. The experimental cookstoves included a
typical brazier (Imbaula), a new type Mozambique ceramic cookstove, the baseline Mozambique metal cookstove, and
the bottom-lit down-drafting (BLDD) coal cookstove. Results showed that a heterogeneous testing method provides
more representative performance data over a wide range of usage scenarios, the equivalent of providing performance
curves rather than the minimum and maximum performance points provided by single tasked based methods. This
novel heterogeneous testing method generates robust and diagnostic results with which to compare fuel/cookstove
technologies. Cookstove designers and programme managers who wish to improve the design of existing and new
cookstoves, and to promote efficient fuel/cookstove technologies based on sound laboratory tests can use the principles
explored in this study.