DESIGN, CONTRUCTION AND TESTING OF AN IMPROVED WOOD STOVE - IMPROVED WITH RESPECT TO THE LOCAL WOOD STOVES IN UMUDIKE AND ENVIRONS

It has been noticed that the available local wood stoves used by rural dwellers within Umudike and environs consume more fuel wood and take longer time to cook food placed on them. Here effort was made to design a stove that can take lesser wood and lesser time to cook food. This was intended to reduce wastage of fuel wood and save time for the rural dwellers within Umudike and environs. The improved wood stove is made of a double walled combustion chamber. The double walled combustion chamber was incorporated with the aimed of reducing heat loss to the surrounding environment, thereby concentrating the heat on the pot. The result showed that the improved wood stove took lesser time and lesser amount of wood to cook 2000 mls of water when compared with two other local wood stoves.