Monitoring impacts of clean cookstoves and fuels with the Fuel Use Electronic Logger (FUEL): Results of pilot testing

Abstract

Objective, affordable, and unobtrusive monitoring tools are needed to quantify in-field performance and increase user acceptance rates of clean cookstoves and fuels. To meet this need, researchers have developed the Fuel Use Electronic Logger (FUEL), a sensor-based system that monitors the mass of a household fuel supply and cookstove temperature over time to quantify cookstove adoption and use, fuel consumption, and extrapolate to air quality and climate emissions. Following proof-of-concept studies in Honduras and Uganda, a pilot study was conducted in 44 rural Ugandan households monitoring over an average of 45 days. The purpose of these studies was to evaluate sensor usability and technical performance, inform algorithm development, and demonstrate how FUEL data can be used to quantify key stove performance metrics. Usability results indicated that the FUEL accurately monitored fuel consumption 88% of monitoring days, and 78% of households continued to use the fuel holder without the sensor 8 months after the monitoring period. Fuel consumption was reported per cooking event, day, monitoring period, household, and per capita. Results showed high daily variability in each household, suggesting that longer monitoring durations are needed, with estimation error decreasing from 72% at 4 days to 6.5% relative to a 25-day monitoring period. Cooking duration paired with fuel consumption also provided indicators of average firepower and therefore operational practices across households. Use of emission factors with fuel consumption data estimated carbon savings, showing that stacking of an improved and traditional stove will contribute to higher fuel consumption and carbon emissions per capita than households using a single improved stove. These results highlight the potential of the FUEL system to aid in more effective and accurate quantification of long-term technical performance and adoption, while increasing the transparency and impact of improved cookstove projects.