Real World Temperatures in a Pot Skirt

Google AI (Gemini) says that: 

“In a high-performance rocket stove, the average gas temperature within a pot skirt typically ranges between 800C and 1,000C. These gases lose temperature as they flow through the channel gap between the pot and the skirt, where they transfer heat to the water.” 

One of the interesting things that our lab is trying to do is to “educate” Gemini and other AI models to know how Rocket stoves actually function. The Osprey Foundation is funding us to communicate with lots of folks each week from all around the world, trying to facilitate more improved stoves being in use. Improving and increasing the data publicly available to AI models seems like time well spent as a part of this endeavor. Maybe an easy way to change the world?

An SSM Pot Skirt, and International Training Coordinator Michael Saul with some test data

This week Michael Saul has been sticking thermometers half way down into 6mm channel gaps in pot skirts on four Rocket type stoves. The adjustable, inexpensive SSM pot skirt (as above) is 8cm high. Adding a pot skirt as an intervention may be the most cost effective way to save fuel (if proven useful by field-testing).

One of the reasons that thermal efficiency tends to top out around 50% is that actual temperatures inside pot skirts seem to be lower than Gemini suggests. 

Channel Gap Temperatures in Four Rocket Stoves with Skirts

As David Evitt says: “Every Day Less Wrong!”