24160: lyall (discuss) cookers en general (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: J.David Lyall <postmaster@lyalls.net>

There is a program, run by the Methodists I believe, that trains
people in using and building solar cookers. SImple solar ovens can be
built for next to nothing in cost. Sun Oven brand cookers are also
sold to graduates of the program for something like 50 u$d rather
than the 250 u$d cost that you'll pay in the usa. Everything that I
have heard, from people who have run training programs with the
organization as well as others, is that hardly anyone ends up using
the solar ovens on a regular basis.

Setting a pot of beans out in the  sun and winding up with a pot of
cooked beans late in the afternoon is not difficult however.

The costs of cooking are easily determined on the ground and the
results are surprizing and disappointing.
I know that cooking with kerosene or propane stoves is much cheaper
than cooking with charcoal. I know this because I have bought both
for friends and asked them how much they cost to operate versus
buying charcoal. Kerosene is cheaper than propane but requires some
maintenance.

Using a propane stove seems to cost one third as much as buying
charcoal on a daily basis. My mother in law has a 12 lb propane stove
which I bought for her. She says that a 45 dola ht load of propane
lasts her three weeks and charcoal costs 6 dola ht per day. That
looks like the propane nets to a benefit of 4 dola ht (20 gourdes)
per day. But, she has never had the bottle re-filled. I have to do
it. She knows that 2 dola for propane versus 6 dola for charbon is a
great benefit but she will never put aside 2 dola (10 gourdes) a day
to get it refilled. Then when it is empty she says that she cannot
get 50 dola (250 gourdes) together to get it refilled. I know that
this isn't true as various sisters/brothers in law in the house buy
phone cards and hairdos, tennis shoes etc which cost as much or more.

This is a great mystery.

My other haitian family in St Marc uses a propane stove and
successfully gets it refilled. They understand the financial benefit
and prefer the profit to the ambiance of the charcoal stove.

The only solution is for the government to forbid the transport of
charcoal, as the DR did 20 years ago or so. People will rapidly learn
to cook  with the cheaper methods available. Much of the charcoal
production in the countryside is on public land. Land which belongs
to no one, that is. And no one looks after it. I am sure that setting
forest fires on public land to make charcoal production easier is
illegal but I have witnessed this a number of times on hillsides in
view of police stations.