For the past 9 years, Simoshi has been supporting schools in Uganda to move away from traditional 3-stone fires, by using energy efficient institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Operating such IICS requires quite a lot of dedication from cooks, who do need to cut firewood into small pieces, a practice that really demands a drastic behavioural change from their past habits.
Using big firewood logs with 3-stone fires is the norm, and getting used to chopping into pieces can be very challenging, especially when not having the right tools or equipment to achieve such goal.
When monitoring the use of the IICS, it is not rare to find cooks still using firewood logs inside the IICS, a nd such practices damages the grates from the combustion chambers, braking them in half because they cannot support such heavy weights.
Big firewood pieces also asfisxiate and disrupts the airflow, not allowing for proper combustion, eventually slowing down the cooking process and increasing the consumption.
That is why continuous monitoring and training is crucial to ensure the best use of the IICS. With the current testing of electric induction cook stoves, such fuel threat is a story from the past! It all comes down to switches and buttons for the cooks to operate, and the electricity reliability from the grid.
