Kickstarter

We're going to kick-start a Kenyan stove industry that will reduce deforestation, improve urban health, and lower the typical family cooking budget.

We have designed a highly efficient stove that runs on wood chips and can be produced in Kenya for less than $5. In a six-month pilot project, we will demonstrate the Kenyan Stove’s effectiveness to artisans and consumers.  We will work with local sheet-metal artisans to manufacture and sell 1000 units, and conduct field research to optimize the open-source Kenya Stove design for the needs of Kenyan cooks.

We already have the preliminary Kenya Stove design, and a government partner lined up to supply wood chips for fuel, but need your help to bring the Kenya Stove to cooks in Kenya.

The Opportunity
The majority of Kenyans cook with wood and wood-based fuels: traditional fire pits are found in rural areas and many urban dwellers cook over charcoal. Although widely available throughout East Africa and the world, charcoal is a terrible fuel.

• Charcoal is energy inefficient: the process of carbonizing wood destroys nearly 70% of original energy potential.
• Charcoal is a time sink: coals and briquettes take a long time to light and reach a cooking temperature, meaning that Kenyan cooks waste many hours per year just waiting to cook.
• Charcoal is unhealthy: charcoal stoves emit dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide and the initial smoke releases particulates linked to health problems, from cognitive development setbacks to a mortality rate 200% higher than from malaria!

The Solution
The Kenya Stove is a wood gas stove designed for the Kenyan user.  Wood gas stoves are generally accepted as the cleanest burning and most energy-efficient of all wood-based fuel stoves. The Kenya Stove will be open design and costs less than US $5 to produce, so local merchants and artisans will be able to make and sell the stoves to their neighbors at a reasonable cost. The Kenya Stove has numerous benefits over charcoal stoves, including:

• Energy Efficiency - the Kenya Stove burns wood chips directly, eliminating the 70% energy loss from making charcoal. This will also make a direct and substantial reduction in deforestation in the region.
• Time Savings - the stove is ready to use within 3 minutes of lighting, a time savings equivalent to almost one week per year per cook compared with using charcoal stoves.
• Cost Savings - Kenyan families spend as much as 30 percent of their income on stove fuel. Wood chips can be produced for approximately one tenth the cost of charcoal, which means that adoption of the Kenya Stove will save users about a quarter of their annual income.
• Health Benefits - Wood chips burn more cleanly than charcoal, emitting fewer particulates and significantly less carbon monoxide. In real world terms, this will lead to improved childhood cognitive development, lower rates of respiratory illness, and help to reduce the high rate of mortality caused by air pollution.

The Project
We have completed the initial design of the Kenya Stove, manufactured and tested prototypes using tools and materials available in Kenya, and lined up a Kenyan government partner to supply mesquite chips for fuel for a pilot project this year. This is where you come in!

We have planned a six-month project to demonstrate, popularize, and improve the design of the Kenya Stove. We will fly to Kenya, where we will demonstrate the technology and train artisans from Nairobi to build and sell Kenya Stoves. After distributing 1000 units, we will conduct research with both the artisans and the end-users to help hone the design for use with different Kenyan cooking styles and optimized production methods.

Our Kickstarter funds will be used to fund this pilot project. Our budget includes travel to and within Kenya, materials for producing the initial 1000 units, documentation of the design and production guide, and cost to produce and ship our supporters’ rewards.

Stretch Goals
The stove design will be open-source, and we hope to encourage wide-spread construction of the stove throughout the country. It is our hope that in 6 months we will have jump-started a new wood gas stove industry in Kenya, using our open-source Kenya Stove design. Should we raise funds in excess of our goal, we will expand the geographical reach of the project to other major cities around Kenya which will accelerate the optimization and adoption of the Kenya Stove.

$15k – Nairobi and Loita
$20k – Nairobi, Loita, and Nakuru
$30k – Nairobi, Loita, Nakuru, and Kisumu (with additional staff)
$50k – Kenya and major cities in Tanzania (with additional staff)
$100k – Kenya and major cities in Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia (with additional staff)

Get More Involved
Read more about the project on our blog at www.kenyastove.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest Kenya Stove updates.

Please contact us with any of your questions or suggestions for the project. In most cases we will try to respond on our blog or in Kickstarter updates, open and public communication is a core component of any open source project!

What’s in it for Supporters?
You mean in addition to feeling good for helping to dramatically improve the lives of thousands of people, launch a crowd-funded and crowd-sourced industry, and making it possible for anyone to build a highly efficient wood-gas stove? We have some phenomenal rewards for our supporters.

Follow our project at www.kenyastove.com and on Facebook!

Reward Information:

Backpacking stove made from corrosion resistant 316 stainless steel. The stove is precision laser cut, and features retractable stainless steel handles that stay cool. The stove has a double wall which facilitates primary and secondary air. You'll notice that the flame will hover above the wood fuel at the point where secondary air enters the stove.  Free Shipping (US), $55 to Europe.
Dimensions:  6.125 W x 5 H (inches)
Weight: 600 grams
Fuel: dry sticks, wood chips, wood pellets (500g capacity)
Time to Boil: 6 minutes to boil 0.5 liters
Fuel to Boil: 50 grams to boil 0.5 liters