A Rough Guide to Clean Cookstoves

This synopsis of clean cookstoves provides a short overview of the health consequences of unimproved cooking facilities, compares manufactured versus improved stoves, discusses the most important attributes of stoves to make them viable for commercial distribution rather than given as charity, and presents key performance factors. First, this report finds that nearly three billion people still rely on unimproved, biomass-based cooking facilities. Second, it also finds that the most important factor for any given cookstove's marketability is its reduction in fuel consumption and that commercial markets, as compared to charity, are key to cookstove dissemination. Third, the report finds that despite the significant cost, extensive field testing in addition to laboratory testing is key to determining cookstove performance and customer satisfaction. Fourth, it finds that the cookstove market is becoming increasingly commercialized. The next installment in the series will analyze the cookstove value chain to identify which factors influence the profitability of the clean cookstove market.