Creating a Better Stove BDL & HFPF

Burn Design Lab (BDL), located in Vashon, Washington, with a mission to improve the lives and the environment through research, design, and development of outstanding cook stoves and fuels, developed a working partnership with Hands for Peacemaking Foundation (HFPF) in 2016.

BDL and HFPF partnered to redesign and improve the small plancha stove being manufactured at the Aller Skill Center in Barillas, Guatemala. This redesign resulted in improved efficiency, better heating and reduced fuel consumption. The findings from the redesign are going to be implemented in the manufacturing of the mid- and large-size stoves that HFPF builds.

This partnership will help HFPF continue to grow and expand their operations in Guatemala. Today there are over 2.1 million households, located mostly in the poorest and most vulnerable municipalities of the country that use firewood. HFPF, through partnerships with villages and the generosity of North American teams, provides clean, efficient wood cook stoves.

In 2018 four villages benefited from the partnership.

Centinela Chiquito and neighboring San Pedro Centinela are located 27 miles from Barillas. It takes two hours to get to the village of 100 families and around 600 inhabitants. The village of Centinela Chiquito had a request for 100 stoves. The village of San Pedro Centinela requested stoves for their community as well.

This year the Alger/Means Team installed 100 of the BDL-HFPF redesigned stoves in Centinela Chiquito and 15 in the village of San Pedro Centinela. 

Buena Vista is located nine miles from Barillas and it takes 45 minutes to get to the village in 4 X 4 vehicles. There are 50 families and around 325 inhabitants. The neighboring Ojo de Agua has 35 families with around 321 inhabitants.

The Marysville Free Methodist Team installed the BDL-HFPF stoves in both villages this past summer. Buena Vista received 35 stoves and Ojo de Agua received 30.

“It is much faster to start the fire, cook the food, Before there was a chuguro and costed me to cook meals. Before, I was tending the fire for almost the entire day, now the fire chamber is much more efficient. I have my own land, so I can make progress working now that I have time.”

“The stove cooks much faster. In the past there was smoke in the kitchen, but now there is not, It is much better than what I had in the past.”

“I spend a lot less on wood. In the past we spent two bars on wood, now we spend less than half of that. We are saving Q40 a week now.” (Equivalent to a whole days worth of work)

“The Aller stove is much safer for my kids. The protector bars on the side prevent the children from getting burned. It was a lot more dangerous in the past, because coals from the fire would fall on the floor where children ran around. They would also grab the burning wood from inside the fire.”