User:Neilnoble/sandbox

Smoke Hoods
In many rural communities people use wood and dung (biomass) as their main source of energy especially for cooking.

Burning biomass creates toxic smoke, which is a health issue. Many households around the world use a basic stove for cooking that do not have a chimeny or flue to take away harmful gases.

An alternative approach is to incorporate a smoke hood above the stove to capture smoke that would otherwise fill the house.

The hood is placed over a traditional fire or a stove, and the cook can access the stove through a front opening.

a smoke hood may be appropriate in some situations where...
 * Where people like a sit in front of a fire that they can see when they need to keep warm
 * Where some kind of microfinance is available, as the smoke hood will last many years once it is installed
 * Where there are metalworkers keen to broaden their skills and manufacture a new product
 * Where there is not much access to other types of fuel than woodfuel and agricultural residues

Smoke hoods work in a similar way to open fireplaces used for heating in many countries worldwide. They alleviate smoke by venting it out of the kitchen from the fire or stove on which the food is cooking.

Refernces and further reading

 * Healthy Hoods Smoke Hood Designer www.healthysmokehoods.org
 * Health Hoods Maintenance []
 * Health Hoods Microfinance []
 * Healthy Hoods []
 * Monitoring Indoor Air Pollution [] •
 * Design Principles for Wood Burning Cook Stoves Bryden.M. et. al. Aprovecho Research Center 2004
 * The effect of ventilation on carbon monoxide and particulate levels in a test kitchen Still, D. & MacCarty, N. in Boiling Point 51,  Practical Action 2006
 * Smoke, Health and Household Energy Volume 1: Participatory Methods for Design, Installation, monitoring and assessment of smoke alleviation technologies. Bates. E. et. Al. Practical Action May 2005
 * Smoke, Health and Household Energy Volume 2: Researching pathways to scaling up sustainable and effective kitchen smoke alleviation. Bates. E. et. Al. Practical Action May 2005
 * CREST: []
 * HELPS International: []
 * How to Build The Improved Household Stove: A Construction Manual for the Rocket – Lorena and Shielded Fire Stove, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Uganda.
 * World Health Organisation website on indoor air pollution []