About 1.9 million people in developing countries die from toxic emissions from their stoves annually, an issue U. California-Berkeley global environmental health professor Kirk Smith hopes to combat through the development of a device to monitor how families use their stoves.
Though researchers and companies have sought to reduce the number of deaths due to stove emissions by producing cleaner and safer stoves, families often do not use the new stoves. With Smith’s wireless device – Stove Use Monitoring System – researchers will be able to gather data from the new energy-efficient stoves to evaluate their effectiveness.
“The past experience of knocking on each house’s door is difficult and expensive,” said Ilse Ruiz, a graduate student in UC Berkeley’s Civil Systems program who is working on the project.
According to UC Berkeley professor of energy and society, Daniel Kammen, in some cases the stoves were not tailored to the types of foods that the cooks and their families were used to eating, so they were not used when the researchers were not around to watch.
Smith’s device is part of a proposal called 100 Million Stoves that he and his colleagues submitted to this year’s Vodafone Annual Wireless Innovation Project, where they won first place and received a prize of $300,000.
“We knew that cost-effective stoves were already out there, but we need to collect data to see if they are effective,” said June Sugiyama, director of Vodafone Americas Foundation. “Smith’s new technology takes it one step up.”
Dana Charron, managing director of Berkeley Air Monitoring Group and one of Smith’s partners, said they developed software and hardware needed for the sensors used to collect data on the stoves. Electronically Monitored EcoSystems, another one of Smith’s partners on the project, developed the system’s electronic design and construction.
According to Ruiz, the system will be able to track stove usage by monitoring temperature.
“The idea is that a community member will be holding a custom-made handheld reader and be able to verify if the stoves are used,” Ruiz said. “The reader can sync the data to a computer or take out a memory card and send it via phone.”
Smith is currently developing an internet platform where readers can directly send data online.
“The idea of collecting objective data is pretty new,” Ruiz said. “Recently, there are a couple of groups that collect data, but they do not have the full concept like us. They just see how their stoves are doing.”
Ruiz said the sensors will be ideal for rural areas where there is no electricity because they are rechargeable.
“The thermoelectric generator on the stove produces heat that will power the data transmission,” she said.
According to Ruiz, researchers first started monitoring stove use in 2007 under Project CRECER in Guatemala, but the process required more work and expense. The new monitoring device will make this process easier.
“We used temperature recorders and left them on the stoves for months,” she said. “We physically went to the houses and downloaded the data because it was part of the study and we had good ties to the community. It’s still expensive, and that’s why we’re developing the wireless (gadget).”
Smith and his colleagues are currently testing two prototypes – one for chimney stoves and the other for rocket stoves – that they will send to Mexico in October.