Key Factors of Thermal Efficiency Test Protocols for Household Biomass Cookstoves

Abstract

In this paper, three typical test methods for thermal efficiency of biomass stoves were discussed. The effect factors such as operation process, test ending time, pot sizes, amount of water on the thermal efficiency of domestic biomass cookstoves were studied. The results show that the test ending time and the amount of water used have major impacts on thermal efficiency. The amount of water is in positive correlation with the thermal efficiency of the stove (R=0.92) when the heat needed for the selected amount of water is less than actual power output of stoves. The thermal efficiency is more controllable and accurate when the test ending time is 2 °C lower than the boiling point and the amount of water is selected according to the actual power output of stoves.

The Influences of Various Testing Conditions on the Evaluation of Household Biomass Pellet Fuel Combustion

“…The chamber heights and ventilation rates were not requested by the listed test methods, but also had a significant influence on performance [20]. The test ending point operations were the most dissimilar, but little had been reported about this in the literature [11,12]. Combined with the actual stove design, a four-factor, three-level orthogonal test was designed to evaluate the stove performance under a range of conditions (see Table 2).…”