Enhancing Efficiency
Experience has shown that for a mud stove to be efficient:
• The thickness of the walls should be at least as wide as the palm of your hand.
Figure 3.5 Measuring the wall thickness
Figure 3.6 The height of the pot rest
• The pot rests should be as high as the width of your thumb.
• The height of the fire chamber should not be more than the length of your palm. In Uganda,
some promoters use sufurias to determine the height of the fire chamber, which is usually
equal to about three-quarters the diameter of the most commonly used sufuria placed with the
bottom against the stove.
Figure 3.7 The height of the fire chamber
Figure 3.8 Height of fire chamber measured using a
sufuria
• Pot holes should be adjacent to each other.
• In cases where a stove has more than two pot holes, the connecting channels should be at
least as wide as the fist.
Figure 3.9 Positioning of the pot holes
Figure 3.10 The diameter of the connecting channel
• The number of pot holes in one mud stove should not exceed two. Initially promoters
encouraged the use of three pot holes but later found that there were frequent chimney
blockages. The efficiency of the stove is reduced if it has more than two pot holes because
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