Hi Paul, What an encouraging email, thanks for getting back to me. We are based out of the town of Batan Grande, which is around 80m, but we work with communities throughout the watershed of Rio La Leche. One of the communities of greatest interest due to their proximity to Andean (Spectacled) bear habitat is probably around 1,500 ft, so still well below 3,000m.
We have not done any work with TLUD stoves. We are in the process of trying the Cocina Mejorada (a fuel efficient wood burning stove made of adobe and aluminum and tin) with about 10 families and decided to start with this stove because it is familiar in Peru and relatively easy to build. Many women also cook inside or in a semi-enclosed area and the Cocinas have a chimney. Removing smoke from the dwelling is an important factor for us. This is what we have funding for at the moment. As I'm sure you're aware, some important things to consider are familiarity, ease of construction, ease of use, and locally available materials. We are concerned with introducing something too foreign, complicated, or expensive. It is a very poor area, with relatively recent immigrants from the Andes and elsewhere in Peru. I imagine it will be possible to find metal workers, I'll have to check with my collaborators. I work with a great team of locals whose full time job it is to study a population of bears and also assist with community-based conservation initiatives. In a perfect world, we'd like the community to move away from wood, since it is becoming scarce in this Dry Forest environment and includes many endangered tree species. However, we understand this will take time and some will always choose wood for cooking because of flavor. In terms of ag residues, corn is the most common crop you'll find at lower elevations. Many women use corn cobs to supplement their open fire stoves already, and you often see corn husks burning on the side of the road, or being fed to cows. There are lots of cows, chickens, pigs, and some donkeys and I'm not sure what they do with their feces, if anything at all. Rice becomes the primary crop as you move up in elevation. There are also lots of beans. Other things that grow there are sugar cane, avocados, mangoes, watermelon, bananas, passion fruit. I don't know if you can do anything with trash, but there's lots of that! Mostly plastic, of course. We are constantly seeking funding for the project (it is all grant funded), so at the moment we do not have funding to build or distribute any significant amount of TLUD stoves. However, I'm happy to start writing grants that fit this idea and we can certainly start exploring. I'll be traveling to Peru mid-March and hope to check up on the alternative cooking initiative, among other things (this is one of many initiatives in the region). I'm not sure what your situation is, but you are always welcome to join me in Peru to explore the feasibility of TLUD stoves in the region. Or, I'd be happy to collect any additional information you might need while I'm there. I travel to Peru about twice a year and the project is ongoing for the foreseeable future. Let me know your thoughts! I'm excited to see what may come of this. Cheers, Samantha --- Samantha Young, MS Conservation Education San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research 760-747-8702 ext. 5758 [email protected] "I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do." --John Muir >>> Paul Anderson <[email protected]> 2/4/2014 10:15 AM >>> Dear Samantha, Wikipedia tells us that your work area is at: Elevation 80 m (260 ft) As long as you are below 1000 meter, there should be no problems with using a natural draft (ND) TLUD stove for your purposes. (Above 1500 meters a chimney or small fan is needed.). I and others will assist you with introducing TLUD stoves into your project. Specifically, I am preparing instructions for the easier production of TLUD-ND stoves. It is called Troika, and is easier than my earlier description that was based on USA hardware stove parts. I need about 5 days more time. You will need some workers with tinsmith and metal working skills. Have you done any work with TLUD stoves already? In the desert with irrigated crops, you should have not problem with dry fuels like maize cobs. What other ag residues are available? I assume that wood is totally out. Please tell us more about your situation, timeline, objectives, etc. Paul Doc / Dr TLUD / Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD Email: [email protected] Skype: paultlud Phone: +1-309-452-7072 Website: www.drtlud.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: [email protected] Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:11:11 -0800 Subject: [Stoves] Improved Stoves To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <[email protected]> ( mailto:[email protected] ) Hello sirs! My name is Samantha and I work for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, in Conservation Education. For about 2.5 years, I've been working on a community-based conservation project in rural northwestern Peru (Lambayeque region, specifically out of the town of Batan Grande), in support of an Andean bear conservation project. I heard about your Improved Stoves project from the article in Conservation Magazine. One of our interests lies in reducing the amount of firewood used by locals for cooking. We are exploring a fuel efficient stove popular in Peru, called a Cocina Mejorada. It is somewhat easy to make and from locally available materials. However, as I understand it, it only reduces the amount of firewood by about half, but still requires wood. I am definitely interested in exploring TLUD stoves and the like that use different types of biomass (lots of corn and cows in the area), but I have zero experience in engineering or stove design. I'd love to learn more about what you've done, especially Stove Camp. Are you at all interested (or do you know someone who is interested) in training locals in Peru to build and use these types of stoves? Thanks for your insight! Cheers, Samantha --- Samantha Young, MS Conservation Education San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research 760-747-8702 ext. 5758 [email protected] "I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do." --John Muir _______________________________________________ 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://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
_______________________________________________ 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://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
