News
This page is dedicated to reporting on recent newsworthy events, upcoming projects and new products.
Update: 1 December: Vuthisa secures contract to clear invasive alien species AND make charcoal on a private farm land in the Kokstad area…Go to article
Update: 30 November: Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation donates Vuthisa stoves to the Thandanani Childrens Foundation...Go to article
Update: 1 September 2011: We have re-launched our website…Go to article
Update: 17 April 2011: 90 StoveTec stoves installed in a rural village in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal…Go to article
Update: 20 December 2010: StoveTec named the most popular stove by participants in a field test study…Go to article
Update: 3 December 2010: Vuthisa is announced as the StoveTec Dealer of the month (December) by the StoveTec Importer in South Africa…Go to article
Update: 19 November 2010: Vuthisa attends a briquette producers workshop in Arusha, Tanzania – http://vuthisa.com/2010/11/19/briquette-producers-workshop-arusha-tanzania-2010/…Go to article
Update: 31 March 2010: Vuthisa has partnered up with Thandanani Children’s Foundation…Go to article
Update: 1 December 2009: We have become stockists of Aprovecho’s StoveTec rocket stove…Go to article
Vuthisa have secured a contract with a private farm owner in the Kokstad area (Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa) to remove all the invasive alien species (and poison the stumps to prevent recurrence) on their farm and rehabilitate the area back to grassland. The felling program commenced in October and we have begun to make charcoal from the now dry timber. There are approximately 800 tons of jungle timber that needs to be converted to charcoal and firewood. Only about 50 tons of timber is suitable for the paper pulp market, but because of the steepness of the terrain, short-haul transport options are severely limited. Visit the Contact Us page to get more information.
Update: 30 November 2011
We are pleased to announce that The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation decided to donate 40 of our StoveTec stoves to the Thandanani Childrens Foundation. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics Aids Foundation has been supporting HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment services in South Africa since 2000. Founded in 1989, Thandanani Children’s Foundation is a registered non-profit organisation that facilitates community based care and support for orphans and other vulnerable children in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands (South Africa). A wonderful gesture to a worthy cause!
Update: 1 September 2011
We have re-launched our website with our new logo, in which we highlight Emerging Energy / Green Technology products that don’t typically find their way to your local retail outlet. The products are quite diverse yet all find relevance in an off-grid environment and include cooking stoves, solar cookers, a novel water roller, hand operated fuel briquette presses, charcoal making kilns and books for development workers. We also offer our own in-house range of services, namely Farm or Plantation Mapping, Geo-modeling and 3D modeling.
Update: 17 April 2011
Vuthisa has successfully installed 90 StoveTec wood-burning stove in a village near Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal.
The farm owner is looking forward to seeing a reduction in his firewood collection and handling costs because the StoveTec stove uses 50% less fuel than other stoves on the market. The recipients of the new stoves are all extremely pleased with their new stoves and at our recent visit to them we had absolutely no negative comments or complaints about the StoveTec. Their homes are less smoky now, they use less wood and they are able to cook their food faster. A win-win situation for everybody involved.
The usually loose standing stoves are cemented into custom-made docking stations to serve as 2-pot or 3-pot stoves. Above each station is a hood that collects the emissions and channels it towards the chimney. The stoves are operated with just a few sticks of wood and will only occasionally give off smoke, such as when started up or when adding new wood. 
This particular village is connected to the electricity grid but the management company had no option but to leave it offline and revert to using wood in light of the annual electricity hikes imposed by Eskom. Go to the installations page for the full article.
Update: 20 December 2010
The Journal of the International Energy Initiative, Volume 14, no.3, recently published (September, 2010) “Field testing and survey evaluation of household biomass cookstoves in rural sub-Saharan Africa” by Edwin Adkins, Erika Tyler, Jin Wang, David Siriri, Vijay Modi of Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. The conclusion reached was that the StoveTec stove was voted the best stove by the participants of the study in both Uganda and Tanzania…
Abstract
“This paper presents the results of two studies conducted to evaluate the performance and usability of household biomass cookstoves under field conditions in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Cooking tests and qualitative surveys compared improved, manufactured stove models based on the ‘rocket’ design with the traditional three-stone fire. All tests and interviews took place in household kitchens in two village areas in Western Uganda and Western Tanzania…”
Conclusion
“The fuel saving benefits of the improved stoves were generally clear and quantifiable, and, the imported stoves were seen as preferable to the threestone fire. The StoveTec performed the best overall, with substantial fuelwood savings for all cooking tests and high user rankings in both studies. Though the other three stoves were not compared directly against one another, results suggest that the Envirofit stove ranked second, overall, while the two locally-made stoves were ranked lower, in one case below the three-stone fire.”
Update: 3 December 2010
Vuthisa is announced as the StoveTec Dealer of the month (December) by the StoveTec Importer in South Africa. This is what the importer had to say:
“Congratulations to Kobus Venter, our Retailer of the Month for December. Kobus was one of Restio’s first agents for the award-winning StoveTec stoves. He has been active in setting up rural entrepreneurs for the stoves in-and-around Pietermaritzburg – liaising with local municipalities, hosting training workshops, exhibiting the stoves at a number of expos and festivals, etc. This month, Kobus attended a ‘fuel briquette producers workshop’ in Arusha (Tanzania) where he spoke about combustion issues and the wonders of the StoveTec stove. Kindly refer to Kobus’ blog to read more about the workshop and view some fantastic photos: http://vuthisa.com/2010/11/19/briquetteproducers-workshop-arusha-tanzania-2010/. Your free StoveTec stove will be included in your next order. Keep up the inspiring work, Kobus!”
Update: 19 November 2010
Vuthisa attends a briquette producers workshop in Arusha, Tanzania – http://vuthisa.com/2010/11/19/briquette-producers-workshop-arusha-tanzania-2010/
Vuthisa has partnered up with Thandanani Children’s Foundation in supplying low-cost cooking stoves to poor households in the Pietermaritzburg and Richmond areas of KwaZulu-Natal. Thandanani has a network of volunteers that provide care and support for families with orphans and vulnerable children, households identified as being in dire need of emergency assistance, facilitating access to fee remissions, social grants and other forms of government support, facilitating the establishment of volunteer driven income-generating projects, to name but just a few of the services they offer.
The volunteers, as their name imply, volunteer their own time and travel expense to visit above families in question for very little remuneration. We wanted to know whether or not the volunteers would be interested in signing up as sales agents as an incentive to get word out about the remarkable StoveTec wood stove, so we arranged cooking demonstrations. The feedback we received was very encouraging and many are interested in taking delivery of demonstration stoves in order to give demonstrations in their own respective areas.
Demonstration to volunteers - Click on image to view slideshow
Further training has been scheduled. To find out how you can help or get involved with this initiative or Thandanani Children’s Foundation’s worthy cause, please contact Nhlanhla on nhlanhla@thandanani.org.za.
We are available to do demonstrations in your area, be it for income-generation or to show people under your employ how the stove works. Contact us at ventfory@iafrica.com or visit the Contact Us page to get more contact information.
Update: 1 December 2009
We have become stockists of Aprovecho’s StoveTec rocket stove! Visit our StoveTec information and order page for more information on the stove and to find out how you can own one.
View this clip to see how the stove works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay8dD2LjdZo
Charcoal gas stove « said,
August 2, 2011 @ 5:21 pm
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