the himalayan permaculture centre presents the improved stove the traditional stove is everywhere now please listen carefully to that stove’s story the stove is the heart of every farmer’s home however the traditional stove has caused a lot of harm hey brothers let’s make improved stoves because your life is your most valuable possession using lots of wood, only one dish can be prepared and the cooking pots get very black
the traditional stove needs wood from three sides and now look at this pot! to wash a pot that is black like this, it takes so much effort! how would it feel to scrub pans like this every day? even scrubbing one pot is already such hard work! this black pan just doesn’t get cleaner, get lost you pan! whatever, later my wife will come from her mother's home and she will clean herself! i am done with this! inside the smoke filled room, the cook has to sit the cook’s health is badly affected by the smoke hey sisters let’s make improved stoves because your life is your most valuable possession some people have eye problems, others lung disease
everywhere there are problems like these. i don't know whose evil eye is the cause most of the cooks are women and women have kids with them lot of kids have been burnt, this is the truth what is the improved stove? an improved stove is a stove that is entirely closed except for an opening in which you build the fire and several holes in which pots and pans can be placed the main feature of the improved stove is that it uses a chimney to pass the smoke out of the kitchen so that people do not inhale it stage 1 – planning before building an improved stove, you need to plan where and how you will build it
planning - step 1: consider the wind direction when choosing where to site the stove in the kitchen, select an area opposite to the doorway in this way, wind from the doorway flows to the mouth of the stove, and carries the smoke up through the chimney planning - step 2: choose the right size for the pot holes whatever the size of the family and of the pots they normally use decides the size of the pot holes on top of the stove the chimney hole where smoke leaves the house needs to be on the opposite side of the house to the prevailing wind direction otherwise the wind will blow smoke back into the kitchen
planning - step 3: consider the roof oh! sir, hello! hello! what are you doing? i am inspecting the stove in this house i have heard that! you are talking about the improved cook stove, right? that’s right this house has a tin roof, but most other houses in this district have straw roofs i have heard that straw roofs can catch fire if you build an improved stove you are right. but this stove’s chimney has been made too high from the ground
in fact, this stove chimney would be better at this height but here it is up high but then as this house has a tin roof, it does not matter so much if it was a straw roof, you would need to keep the chimney hole far from the roof, up to here so far, we have built improved stoves in more than 500 houses and there has not been a single incidence of a roof catching fire these are all the required materials for building an improved stove to begin with we need one bucket of water a water jug is needed to use the water
during the process of making mud this tool is helpful to mix the water and the sand this tool is used to dig for suitable clay we also need two types of bricks: one for building the structure of the stove and the other one for building the chimney then, we need some stones. for making bridges above the mouth of the stove we can use iron rods or use long stones like this to make different shapes of stones, we need a hammer and so, before you start with the stove building process it is helpful if you first gather all these materials stage 2 – making bricks
making bricks – two types of bricks to build an improved stove you will need two types of bricks this is the simple brick that you will need for building the structure of the stove this type of brick, with the hole in the middle, you will need to build the chimney. you will need between 20 and 35 of the simple bricks and 10 to 25 of the chimney bricks. but note that this is not an exact number the number of bricks needed depends on the height of the house kitchen that it is built in making clay
before you can start you need to make a lot of mud to do this, first gather a lot clay then, add water to the earth and then just mix the earth and water with your feet making bricks – two ways of making chimney bricks for the chimney you can either use round bricks made by hand or square bricks the advantage of round bricks is that you don't need to make a brick mold first. you can just use a glass or a cup the first thing to do is to give the mud a round shape absence of a brick mold, you can use a glass to press a hole in the middle
and then simply remove the glass slowly this way we can make bricks with holes! making bricks - rectangular chimney bricks before you can make the square bricks you first need to make the mold step 1 – collect all materials the first step of making square bricks is to ensure you have all necessary materials and tools ready to make the brick mold brother, can you tell me what do we need to make the brick mold? for that we need pieces of wood of different sizes to get the right sizes, we need measuring tape to measure the length and the width of the pieces
then we need a saw to cut the pieces according to our measurements however, sometimes after you have cut a piece with the saw, the cut might be uneven then we need this tool to even out the rough edges then the pieces of wood need to be joined together for that we need nails and to hammer the nails into the wood we need a hammer too and that’s all. those are all the materials and tools required to make a brick mold step 2 - making the mold first of all, to make the brick mold, we need two pieces of wood these pieces should both have a length of 10 inches
and the width should be 2 to 3 inches we also need two small pieces of wood the length of these pieces should be 4 inches and the width 2.5 to 3 inches after that you join the pieces of wood together with a hammer now this piece of round wood is 3 inches wide and 5 inches high we need this piece of wood to finish the mold that is used to make the chimney bricks and you place it in the mold. you place it in the middle? yes, we need to attach it in the middle of the mold
and then now we just need to attach the round piece of wood to the form with a nail and then we are done are these both called ‘mold’? yes, this mold is used to make the bricks that are needed to build the stove and this one is used to make the chimney bricks that have a hole in the middle step 3 - filling mold this is the mold used for making chimney bricks filling the mold with mud, we need to sprinkle ash inside of the mold we move the mold around so that ash spreads evenly or we can use plastic instead of the ash
this means that the mud easily leaves the mold after it is inverted on the ground you can use this type of plastic and just press it tightly into the corners of the form now fill the mold with the clay, fill it thoroughly and completely and then remove the access mud and make it nice and smooth on the top then, before inverting it properly, tick the mold against the ground so that the mud comes loose from the wood. then invert it step 4 - brick drying after preparing bricks to make an improved stove first we need to dry them in the shade for 3-4 days after that we need to move them and dry them in the sun light for 4 to 5 days
we can invert them to make sure they dry all over stage 3 – preparation making the chimney hole while making hole in a wall like this we need to pay attention to the size of stones that are part of the wall if you come across big stones, then move a bit further away and choose a place where there are small stones then, to make the hole - don’t worry we can remove the smaller stones from both sides. okay
it is most difficult to remove the stones in the middle of the wall but don't worry, you can just slowly push them out or pull them in when you make the hole you do not need to be afraid that you will cause cracks in your house if you remove small stones it is quite easy to make a chimney holewhen you make the hole you do not need to be afraid that you will cause cracks in your house if you remove small stones it is quite easy to make a chimney hole to make the mud, in total you need 30 k rice sacks filled with clay after that, bring all the required materials near the stove making area, and then you are ready to start stage 4 - building the stove first of all, sprinkle water on the floor to make it wet
then place clay on the floor it is easiest to make a good hole whilst working from the outside as well as the inside then, on top of the mud, place the bricks. this is the foundation of stove now slowly make the stove’s base shape with the the clay and the bricks by adding one layer after other build the height of the stove this is the mouth of the stove, in here it needs a width and height of 8-9 inches it shouldn’t be too high or too wide down here, underneath the second hole, we make a low wall or ridge that holds back the ash that comes from the fire
and that prevents it from that it reaching all the way up to the chimney where it would cause a block most importantly it directs the flames to the underside of the pots this ridge, called a “check barâ€, should be built up to 2 inches lower than the level of the hole or where the base of where the pot sits. before placing any bricks apply plenty of sticky clay so, as you can see, you need to build walls all around the structure here, will be the first pot hole, on which pots and pans can be placed to cook and here will be the second pot hole and then over there, there will be another hole. that hole is for the chimney so there will be three holes in the top of the structure
the fourth hole that you need to make is a small one that will allow you to easily remove ash and dust from chimney hole it should in the bottom corner from where you can easily reach underneath the chimney so in total you need to make four holes we are now making one of the four holes here we have placed stones above an iron rod instead of brick as it is more durable however you can also use 1 long stone if you don’t have iron rods so we place stones to make the round shape of the hole you can use a hammer to give a round shape to the stones that you use for the pot holes you need to shape them like the bottom of your pots
make pot holes according to the size of the base of pots by placing the pots to be used for cooking to measure the right size size of the pot holes when designing the size of the holes decide which pots you will use and what size they are so they will fit best on the stove in this diagram the pot hole and the base of the pot fit just right to allow most of the flames to hit the base of the pot from below, while the pots sit tightly in the holes so all smoke goes up the chimney not into the room in this diagram the base of the pot is not the right shape for the pot hole, so the fire doesn’t reach the base of the pot properly, so food takes longer to cook and the stove uses more wood if you have to use pots that aren’t the right size, you can place three small flat stones around the hole to base the pots on, as in this diagram make sure the flame reach the base of the pots. however, this will let some smoke into the room!
sister, i have made an improved stove, but big pots don’t fit on it do you know of any solution to this problem? of course there are solutions first of all, before building your stove, based on your family size and the pots that you use often you decide on the ideal sizes of your pot holes according to the pots that you use but what about cooking during community feasts? during festivals, when you need to cook large quantities of food, you can’t use an improved stove but this is not a problem at all, because it is only festival time a couple of times a year at those times, you can just cook somewhere else, for example on a tripod or stove outside your home
an alternative stove design for cooking in very big pots next to the basic improved stove design you can add another stove structure. you just add it to the same chimney with this design you will be able to cook three dishes at the same time in this design everything is same just note that the fire hole should be in same direction and the check bar should be there in both stoves to remove the dust and ash from the chimney, you can either make hole here or you simply reach through the fire and pot holes of the big stove
an important thing to remember is to keep this stove closed whenever you are not using it otherwise, the heat as well as the smoke from the other part of the stove will escape from this part if you build a stove according to this design you can use big pans to boil milk or prepare livestock food on the big pot hole this design allows you to do this whenever you need it to clear out soot from the chimney make sure to leave an opening of the size of your hand, through which you can reach to the bottom of the chimney only open this hole during cleaning, otherwise leave it closed to give the pot holes a really smooth round shape, use mud after you have checked the size of the fire opening and the pot holes
as well as the size and depth of the internal chambers you can start filling in all remaining places of the stoves area with bricks and stones just make sure you leave the hole for the chimney open after you have covered everything with mud, your cooking area is finished and you can start with building the chimney to start with, use a piece of weighted string with a stone on one end to align and measure the vertical distance to the exit hole once you know exactly where the chimney should be start placing the chimney bricks one after the other with plenty of clay and create a straight and stable chimney closing the chimney take care capping the chimney on the inside
you can make a hole in the wall for the chimney or have a long chimney going up through the roof if you have a flat roof usually the chimney goes out through the wall in this way make two bricks with half a hole that will go on top of each other to make a hole, then cap it with a solid brick now the stove and chimney is complete last, plaster the stove and chimney to make it look nice in the past when i had a tripod stove, there was a lot of smoke in my kitchen now that i have the improved stove, all the smoke goes outside
in contrast to what some people think, improved stoves can also be built in houses with wooden or bamboo walls if you have a wall like this, you need to cut a part out of the wall equal to size of this brick after making that hole and attaching the first brick securely, you attach a second brick next to it this way, you create a structure that will pass the smoke far away from the wooded wall i can’t put big logs of wood into the fire hole of the improved stove how can i solve this problem? will you please tell me this, sumitra, sister? very well sister you should not put big log like this in the stove, santi, my sister
you should chop it up into small pieces with an axe first and make many smaller pieces of woods out of this big log that way this problem can be solved stage 5 - using and maintaining the stove every two weeks open the cleaning hole and remove soot and any dirt from the chimney also remove soot and dirt from the outside after cleaning the inside, plaster the outside too i need to look after the improved stove more than the traditional one and that’s what i’m doing now in the same way, plaster the chimney on the outside too another very important job every six months or so is to open the top of the chimney inside
and to use a long stick with cloth wrapped round the end to clean the chimney from the top to the bottom to remove soot or stones that may block the hole observe if the smoke doesn’t flow well and clean whenever you think this may help we need various skills to make the improved stove because i didn’t have these skills i needed to build and improve my stove 5 to 6 times! for example at the start i made a stove but i made the chimney on the windy side of my house so i needed to rebuild it because lots of smoke came into our house the second time i made the stove i but made the chimney too close to the thatched roof so i was scared of a fire risk, so needed to change it again the third time i made the stove it was far away from the door so the air didn’t flow well, so i needed to change that too
the fourth time i made the stove the measurements weren’t right so needed to change it again then i realized that i needed certain skills to build the right stove so i took advice from a skilled stove builder and now the new stove is great, the smoke all leaves our kitchen and our food cooks quickly and easily there are many benefits of the improved stove once there are improved stoves, there will no longer be smoke inside people’s homes less firewood is needed and there will be less people with respiratory diseases in addition, you can prepare two meals at once and keep your food warm for longer as the heath from the fire is captured in the structure of the stove
there are more benefits. food cooks faster because of the enclosed structure and there is no need to buy a metal tripod that’s not all: an improved stove can use small twigs and sticks to cook and get more warmth for longer with small pieces of chopped wood because there is no smoke anymore, the improved stove is good for our health. moreover, children can’t fall into the fire and that's still not all sisters. there are even more benefits other things in your kitchen, your pans, walls and ceiling don’t get so black. isn’t that right, sisters? there is no fear of flames being blown up high by the wind the improved stove can also be made with local resources, so this is a very good stove! finally, with the improved stove we don’t have to rub our eyes and blow our nose during cooking let’s make an improved cook stove in every household
where ever there is none, let’s run a training course dear farmer, brother, sister, let’s meet whenever there is a training course let’s not live with smoke and tar let’s have our meal prepared in improved smokeless cooking stove dear farmer, brother, sister, let’s meet wherever there is a training course sisters cry due to smoke that’s why we must make improved stoves