Abstract:
The thermal efficiency of charcoal cooltstoves, which are widely used in Thai household, was evaluated in this study. These stoves were selected from those have high market share as survey from the main suppliers in Ratchaburi province. Many existing testing standards of charcoal cookstove were reviewed and investigated to find out the ones that were not complicate and gave the rational result. The stove, which showed best thermal efficiency, was then experimentally determined its main heat loss by performing detail heat balance. We redesigned the stove to reduce the major heat loss and constructed, and then tested to verify the improvement of thennal efficiency. The widely used charcoal stoves for household cooking that were used in this work are No-3 size and obtained from the three main suppliers, namely Pronthip, Narin, and Thanapoom factories; and a high efficiency stove (HES) from Thanapoom factory. It was found fiom the comparison of 5 testing standards that only two standards (VITA and CIS 13152) were suitable and used in this work. The VITA standard is, based on its easy-to-test, widely used for charcoal cookstove testing, while CIS 13152 is slightly complicate but give more accurate result. The average thermal efficiency based on the CIS 13 15 standard was slightly higher than the VITA standard but showed the same trend. The average thermal efficiency of HES, and the stove samples froin Pronthip, Thanapoom and Narin factories were 31.05%, 27.33%, 25.06%, and 23.00% respectively, for VITA standard, and 37.50%, 34.44%, 29.02% and 26.88% respective, for CIS 13152 standard. The heat balance of HES-the best thermal efficiency in this study-showed that the main heat losses were heat loss through the gap between pot bottom and stove, flue gas loss, heat store in stove, and unburned carbon loss. To reduce these losses, two types of stoves were designed and constructed. The combustion chamber of the first one, compared with the existing HES, was increased with a venturi shape to promote the flow velocity of flue gas and thus the heat transfer to the pot. The second one, in which we aimed to reduce the heat store, was designed by reducing its thickness and thus its weight. Both types, in addition, were replaced the colnpressed clay insulation with the ceramic fiber; and the gap between pot bottom and stove were also reduced. The thermal efficiency of the first one cannot be improved due to the increase in stove's weight and surface area of heat loss, while the second one can improve the thermal efficiency to 39.00% and 45.57% for VITA and CIS 13152 standard testing, respectively, because of its lower weight.