Dear Paul O
“It makes no sense to talk about a turn-down ratio of 4 to 1, if the time needed to turn down or turn up is not clearly defined.” Well I disagree there. A National standard is not in a position to tell manufacturers how quickly the power level should change. For your information, when a person is using a stove with a high thermal mass, the rate the heat gets into the pot changes very slowly and cook anticipate it by reducing the fire (or removing it completely as I have seen on one occasion) and adapt their behaviour to the product. >If turning up and turning down cannot be done quickly and easily, it becomes >exceedingly difficult to cook a meal. The ease and speed at which heat is >adjusted should be part of a minimal set of standards. I can only suggest you spend more time watching people cook with a wide range of appliances. In Maputo people cook on charcoal and use a stove that cannot be turned down at all, but cook they do! >The perfect stove in all respects is a modern gas stove. It's got everything: >low emissions, marvelous adjustability, instantaneous start-up and shut down, >and so forth. I cook with gas and I concur is it very good. As for ‘perfect’ I recommend an induction cooker – widely available in China for $30-50 – which has, in Ontario, lower emissions, more marvellous adjustability, instantaneous start and stop, over 90% efficiency, and virtually no carbon footprint because we get so much of our electricity from water power. In Quebec the % is even higher. It is only since the large scale introduction of windmills with their episodic and unreliable output that the installation of gas-fired stations has been necessitated. We have to pay for them whether they are used or not (how efficient it that?). >In terms of ease of cooking, it beats any biomass stove out there. In terms of >ease of cooking, why not use it as the standard against which all biomass >stoves are judged? If you can deliver the same cooking experience then you have a winner, hands down. No doubt about it. Regards Crispin
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