Dear Marc and Tuong
>http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu/krsmith/?p=249 >It would be good to cross reference the efficiencies you found. For example, for an LPG stove, the report eff is only just over 50%. Not all LPG stoves are the same of course. There is a test of an LPG stove done using the Indian thermal efficiency test that reports a figure of about 62% and when using the same hardware, a reasonable similar gas composition, but at a different altitude and quite different pot, we got a figure within 2%. Note there is calculation error in the Indian efficiency test which is that it does not credit as absorbed heat used to boil out water. As the range of temperature is from 20 to 90 degrees, there is certainly some evaporation before reaching 90 and that affects the final answer. I suggest you run such tests in Vietnam at 30-70 degrees and then you can safely assume you will start below 30, and not evaporate anything meaningful by 70. In a series of tests we found that evaporation from 30-70 was within the error of the scale readings (±0.5g) so could not be said to be detected with confidence. The Indian efficiency test does correctly apply the heat capacity (Cp) of the pot taking into consideration its mass and material. This corrects a significant error in most WBTs, significant meaning it makes a statistically significant difference to the final result. If you want to correctly state the thermal efficiency <±5% the pot material needs to be considered. Ti is not difficult to add. The approach taken in the Indian test calculation is to calculate the water mass equivalent of the pot the add it to the mass of water heated. This is simple and reliable and easily understood later in the calculations. >Also, I'm not sure reporting a single efficiency number is all that useful. Reporting the efficiency doing one thing using one pot at one power level, or two power levels summed so you cant see the difference, is not very useful, I agree. People want to know the performance profile of a stove, not just one number which contains little information. If that number is not even accurate, there is almost no information contained in it. >The stove types you detail have much variation depending on construction quality, operation, fuel type, pot size, etc. The performance of a stove varies with pot size operation method, fuel and to a small extend, construction quality. If you interpret performance as durability then that matters too and you have to report it. A stove might fall to pieces quickly if it is operated at high power continuously, for example. Regards Crispin
_______________________________________________ Stoves mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site: http://www.bioenergylists.org/
