How to get people to know about your blog or website

June 18, 2013 · Filed under Tips, Blogs and websites, Social Media · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

DarkAndStormy

by Kobus Venter

Just follow these basic tips to get people to find your website. I hope others that start off on WordPress finds this and keep working at getting traffic. If your stats show only a handful of visits per month, it means no one knows about your website and it’s not showing up on the first page of a Google search! I have the following suggestions:

1 – Send out some blog posts, but post from your home page if possible (unless you create a static home page) and remember to add keyword tags and categorise your posts. If you have a website for your business then create a blog page, but post at least once every 2 weeks. The serious blogger has broken into laughter at this point no doubt, but how many genuine fans do they have – and who wants to be a professional blogger anyway – I just don’t have time for that. In my opinion if you want to build a fan base, blog about things that interest you and Google / WordPress will do the rest. My rule of thumb is if you see a dip in your page visits after a few weeks, send out another blog post or post a gallery containing photos with some descriptions at least. If you write informative posts, people will link to it. No one wants to hear what you ate for supper last night – leave that for Twitter or Facebook – actually no leave that out period!

2 – If you’re getting over 2000 visits per month be grateful for this allocation. Remember that your content has got you this far, not paying towards Google AdSense, and it has been a relatively free ride. If you want to sell stuff online I would recommend against using WordPress.com. You’ll need WordPress.org. I found a happy medium in that I still use my WordPress.com account, but refer people to a hosted (D9 Hosting) WordPress.com site as my landing page for people wanting to pay through PayPal for products and services. I use a PayPal Business shopping cart through a free plugin (Easy Digital Downloads). If you want 10,000 visits per month, and increase your turnover well then be ready to pay $$$. For upper end websites you would need to get email lists going and get spammy, more $$$ in hosting fees and $$$ to get Google AdSense going – not forgetting $$$ towards creating a high-end shopping cart. Moving to WordPress.org means losing some forum support, free anti-spam and most importantly loosing keyword tags which is WordPress.com’s free SEO service to you, meaning more $$$ to pay for SEO. You get the picture? You want to show up on the first page of a Google search page – that’s it – and it can be done without much fuss and extra $$$.

3 – Send your post links to a blog carnival (http://blogcarnival.com/), contribute to discussions by joining Yahoo, Google or LinkedIn groups and leave a link to your website and other Social Media accounts.

4 – Link to other websites through a Blogroll on the side widget or in your text. Whomever you are linking to will no doubt see it in their Stats page and may even link back to you. Google algorithms will pick that up and boost your site.

5 – Open a YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account and maintain your colour and logo theme throughout it. When you upload a video to YouTube be sure to have links point to your website and Social Media sites. Activate Publicize on WordPress.com and promote posts automatically to Facebook.

6 – When you send out emails, design a footer that includes your contact details, Social Media profiles and website address.

7 – Post images often as people will often land on your page after trolling Google Images or Yahoo Image Search and lately through Pinterest.

8 – At around $18 per year you are certainly getting a bargain if you get more than 2000 visits to your website per month, but achieving that and more is possible without paying a cent more by following the above guidelines. You’re getting visits because Google thinks your content warrants being promoted to the first page.

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Vuthisa Biochar Trials Guatemala – Part 1

April 26, 2013 · Filed under Biochar, Charcoal, Wood · Tagged , , , ,

Herewith Part 1 of the trials and tribulations of starting a Biochar project in Guatemala. Emphasis is on manufacturing Biochar from invasive alien species in the forests of Guatemala, without creating excessive air pollution. Using a retort system means that gaseous products that are normally vented unburnt are in fact now utilised to provide the heat back into the retorts, creating exothermic conditions, providing its own heat for carbonisation. Efficiencies are higher and the final conversion to Biochar (as opposed to making charcoal conventionally) should be around the 25% mark. The ’3-Drum Retort’ system, whereby lower quality and smaller diameter feedstock is burned as fuel to provide the heat into the internal retorts is in the Beta phase and these types of testing will yield valuable lessons. There were many challenges in getting the kiln on to the farm in question. First it travelled by road on the back of a pickup truck and then by boat some 400 kilometres.

Transport

Then it had to be carried on foot to the burn site. Some innovative approaches are adopted, including the use of bamboo sticks to carry the pieces through the bush.

Other challenges we foresee would be to try to get hold of clay to seal the kiln off and this seems to be in short supply. The humidity is high and the first test burn resulted in creating torrefied wood only, so the burn will have to be extended to allow moisture to be driven off. We suggested placing wood piles close to the kiln to dry pre-dry the wood and to consider two subsequent burns: one burn to create the torrefied wood and a second to turn that into Biochar.

To be continued…

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Construct and optimize a Facebook Fan Page for your business

October 29, 2012 · Filed under Blogs and websites, Social Media, Tips · Tagged , , , , , ,

By Kobus Venter

I have blogged about issues of interest to me and related to my business for the last couple of years and thought it was about time to venture out into the world of Social Media Networking. The first thing I did was to create a Fan Page on Facebook, even before I had a private Facebook account. Thereafter I learned how effective 140 characters can be to communicate (tweet) with your fans. Sometimes you don’t want to say much, just share a photo or a link, and for that Twitter will suffice, but you also want to share it on Facebook, so why not link the two up? I have listed a few pointers below which will put you on a path to using Facebook for your business:

Follow this step by step guideline to set up your Facebook Fan Page:
http://mashable.com/2011/05/22/how-to-facebook-page/


According to Social media expert Mari Smith (http://www.marismith.com/) the ‘About’ section in your Facebook profile actually contains the meta description for your Page so make sure it has your keywords. Construct a nice little write-up about what your business does or how it came into being with a clickable website. Also see these useful guidelines: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-101-business-guide/


If you have a Blog such as WordPress, use Publicize to send posts to Facebook:


http://en.support.wordpress.com/publicize/#setting-up-publicize

Link up your Facebook with Twitter. Your tweets are posted as Facebook status updates and you can also install the Twitter application on Facebook to send the corresponding message as a tweet.


http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/


Post images along with links in your posts and change the cover photo of your Fan Page regularly as this will show up on the walls of those who have Liked your page. According to an informal study by MarketingSherpa (@marketingsherpa) professional image content generates 121% more Facebook shares.



If you write status updates in first person then you should sign off each post with your first name e.g. “I want to share this info with you, I believe it’s valuable. By Tom Smith (Example)”.


See Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime by @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 and bit.ly/MariPrt2

Use HootSuite to manage all your social media sites in one convenient dashboard page:


http://www.bridiestypingservices.com/why-you-should-be-using-hootsuite/



Update your Facebook status outside of business hours as most people won’t have time to read them immediately. Time the post to correspond with the Time Zone of the users you want to connect with first.


See Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime by @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 and bit.ly/MariPrt2
Write out your Facebook and Twitter address on your contact page or blog posts and emails along with the social media icon
e.g.

www.facebook.com/vuthisa



https://twitter.com/vuthisa (@vuthisa)


Once you have had more than 1000 Facebook Likes or Twitter followers and to truly grow your business you may need some more personnel to help manage content and do follow-ups. Appoint a content curator, full-time employee, personal- or virtual assistant to help, but still reviewing each message before they are sent out.


See Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime by @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 and bit.ly/MariPrt2
Draw up an Editorial Calendar and plan ahead for the week what you want to tweet or share on your Fan Page: http://www.hannonhill.com/news/blog/2012/how-to-set-up-your-editorial-calendar-free-template.html




Create a mailing list and spread the word about your online presence. It helps you to directly engage with your users and promote your products. You may need to offer something in return for people joining your email list, like a free Ebook.


http://www.incomediary.com/outstanding-email-list-building-success-in-6-easy-steps

Additional resources

Much of what I listed above I learned from watching the playback of the LIVE Webinar I attended recently hosted by renowned Social Media Expert Mari Smith: Social Media Crunch Time!

Part 1 Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt1 ~ Note 37 min mark on @Anne_McKevitt #socialmedia http://t.co/77SYz18N [pic]

Part 2 Video Replay of #SMcrunchtime @MariSmith bit.ly/MariPrt2 ~ Note 10min 15sec mark on @SOULinstitute #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/hbxZhNzA [pic]

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WordPress.com for bloggers and small businesses

April 10, 2012 · Filed under Blogs and websites, Tips · Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

By Vuthisa

WHAT IS WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is a weblog hosting provider owned by Automattic and there are over 71 million individual blogs with the service as of March 2012. With WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPress.org) you don’t have to pay for web hosting or manage a web server and once you have registered your blog you can immediately start blogging. WordPress.com combines ease of use with nearly unlimited customization options to change the look and feel of your blog or website. The easy nature of publishing make WordPress.com ideal for any manner of websites and it is not uncommon to see websites with a Blog page alongside other pages, all created by WordPress.com. People with no experience with websites can easily start blogging and if they so wish, turn their blogs into websites with the knowledge gained. WordPress.org (as opposed to WordPress.com) requires a web host and server and you are required to upload all the software needed to run your blog.

IS WordPress.com REALLY FREE?

Technically WordPress.com is FREE, if you do not mind your blog or website (cringe!) displaying a sub domain e.g. http://myblog.%5Bwordpress%5D.com%5D as part of the address! In order to have the [wordpress] bit removed one has to subscribe to domain registration and mapping annually. Blogs on sub domains like .blospot.com or .wordpress.com lack the credibility that blogs on their own domains have because those on domains are less likely to disappear over night or to be spam sites. The cost of domain registration and mapping is $ 18 USD per year. This is peanuts however compared to what it would cost to get a self-hosted website…and you won’t get a monkey. All the fees listed below are optional upgrades. It is my humble opinion however that in order to give the blog a semblance of uniqueness, credibility and to associate it with your personality or even branding, at least consider upgrading the ‘Domain Mapping’ and ‘Custom Design’ options, costing a total of $48 USD per year. The upgrades can be cancelled when the renewal period rolls around – but you won’t want to.

Click to enlarge

In summary:

Domain registration (e.g. http://myblog.wordpress.com)

FREE

Add another domain (or when subscribing to mapping)

$5

◊

Mapping (e.g. http://myblog.com)

$13

◊

Custom Design and CSS (Customize the fonts in your theme and change your header picture)

$30

◊

VideoPress (Optional, just use YouTube)

$60

◊

Space Upgrades (Optional, not needed initially)

10GB Space Upgrade: $20

25GB Space Upgrade: $50

50GB Space Upgrade: $90

100GB Space Upgrade: $160

200GB Space Upgrade: $290

◊

No Ads (See: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/go-ad-free/) (Optional)

$30 per annum

◊

Site Re-direct (Optional)

$13 per annum

◊

Premium Theme (Optional Once-off)

$50 per annum

◊

Guided Transfer (Optional)

$129 per annum

GETTING STARTED

I have listed the cost breakdown above first, not to discourage new bloggers or business owners wanting to turn their blog into a website, but because WordPress inexplicably does not have this cost breakdown listed anywhere, or at least in a single-page summary format. It’s very easy to start a blog and WordPress.com is by far the best and as mentioned one can also build a website using WordPress.com like I did. I looked around for a long time before starting my blog and I am not sorry I chose WordPress.com. It is hosted by WordPress, so you don’t have to pay hosting fees as in the case of self-hosting. For self hosting you would need a WordPress.org account, and you do get more plugins and you will be able to monetize your blog or website through advertising etc. You can migrate to WordPress.org eventually, bearing in mind the increased cost of a dedicated server and the fact that you would have to pay someone to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for you as you cannot use tags. Tags are keywords or phrases that best describe your blog posts and show up in search engines, such as Google. My advice is to start with WordPress and slowly familiarize yourself with HTML code at a fraction of the cost of a self-hosted website, that can be costly to design, even more so when not opting for WordPress.org and outsourcing website design. Also remember that you’ll require broadband (or ADSL) internet connection to update info and upload large images. It took me about 6 months to understand all the features within WordPress.com and it is still an on-going learning experience 3.5 years on (2012).

To have your own blog you need to register a new domain name, i.e. http://myblog.wordpress.com. To lose the ‘wordpress’ bit you have to upgrade to ‘Domain Mapping’ i.e. change to http://myblog.com which will cost additional money, but this is the only money you have to spend for the time being within the first 2 months of starting your blog at any rate. I recommend that you upgrade to domain mapping from the start. Then, if you eventually move to a self-hosted WordPress blog and you migrate your existing posts and pages to the new space, the posts will have the same URLs (web addresses, like http://vuthisa.com/…) without the ‘wordpress’ bit which are not displayed in WordPress.org blog posts (like http://vuthisa.wordpress.com…). This is important because Google and other search engines will have indexed the content of your site using those URLs. If the page address were to change, then the value of those indexed pages would be lost. Eventually the search engines would find the pages again, but your site rank would drop in the meantime, and your traffic with it. Using your own domain name helps you retain your site’s value. As mentioned the cost for using your own domain name for your WordPress.com is about $12 per year, a worthwhile investment and you’ll also have to pay a yearly fee of approximately $5 per year to register the domain name.

Take note that WordPress.com blogs/websites do not have the ‘www’ prefix. If somebody places the ‘www’ in front of your blog address it WILL however still open. I always put the ‘www’ in front, on my business cards or email for instance, because it sometimes creates confusion. The next expense you would have to undergo is to create your own Header. This is the background picture displayed on every page of your blog. In order to upload your own header you need to upgrade to the Custom Design and CSS option which allows you to customize the fonts in your theme and change out the default header picture of the theme you selected originally. Contact your local graphic design company to create your header picture (CSS) or get some ideas by visiting the 5dollarbaby guys, pay $5 and see what they come up with (http://5dollarbaby.com/category/headers/page/10/). I designed my own header with GIMP (similar to Photoshop) and eventually taught myself to upload animated GIF files within my header. You can change your header design as often as you like, although if you are planning on attracting recurring customers it is always best to make subtle changes to your header design. With the Custom Design upgrade you can choose to apply your custom fonts or custom stylesheet to any of the themes available on WordPress.com. Some themes, like the plain but versatile Sandbox and Toolbox, are blank canvases waiting for your custom fonts, CSS and images.

Here’s an example of the changes that you can make to a Blog Theme thanks to the Custom Design Upgrade:

Before the Upgrade (Standard Header Graphic: Greenery Theme):

Click to enlarge

After Customization:

Click to enlarge

After registering, you should be able to immediately log into your profile and select a Theme. This is quite an important decision and I advise you to investigate all the free themes on the internet to see if there are any glitches or display issues. Here are a few themes: http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/. See some examples of the most popular themes chosen by WordPress bloggers below:

Click to enlarge

You need to learn some basic HTML, i.e. if you want to create tables or lists or need to start new paragraphs that simply won’t stick in WYSIWYG. All posts are written as WYSIWYG “What You See Is What You Get” and it is easy to change Font colors, underline etc., but there is a tab you can select to go into the code to make photos cling to paragraphs etc. if you struggle with WYSIWYG.

Here is an example below of what the Post and Page editing screen looks like. Note the tab on the right giving you an option between Visual and HTML:

Click to enlarge

I use this website: w3schools_examples and w3schools_try_it to preview my text or to learn HTML language. When putting up a new Widget in WordPress I preview the widget in http://www.onlinehtmleditor.net/. Widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebars of your blog. Widgets make it easy to customize the content of your blog sidebar but WordPress does not have a preview pane for widgets.

There is plenty more I can say about increasing traffic to your blog, but visit this blog post for advice: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-web-site-or-blog/ You’ll slowly get into it and before you know it have 2,000 visits per month. One of the best features of WordPress is the STATS page. The STATS page shows you how many visits your site gets, and what posts and pages are most popular. It also includes a bunch of nifty graphs, charts, and lists. See an example of my STATS below:

Click to enlarge

Your content can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and Pinterest easily. See http://en.support.wordpress.com/topic/social-tools/

My advice would be to send out a few posts on a subject that you love to talk to people about or concerning a subject matter you are quite knowledgeable on and start educating the world! Submit the post to a blog carnival so that it can be read by a wider audience. People use Search Engines primarily because they want to empower themselves with knowledge. If your posts are interesting and informative and crammed with resources, more people will visit your posts or pages and refer to you in their own text links or on Facebook, Twitter and the like. If you’re battling with a HTML code issue or a glitch that you’re unable to fix, ASK A QUESTION and the WordPress.com volunteers will gladly impart with their time and knowledge on the WordPress Forums. They are able to go into your blog and fix wonky codes for free and they have saved me on more than a few occasions.

Good luck!

Refer to the following web pages for additional assistance:

SETTING UP

http://en.support.wordpress.com/introduction/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-started/

http://theme.wordpress.com/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/customize-my-site/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/create-content/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/add-a-domain/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/manage-my-profile/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/upgrades/

SUPPORT

http://en.support.wordpress.com/

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-more-site-traffic/

http://bit.ly/onecoolsiteCreate-wordpress-com-website

http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/popular-posts/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress.com

OTHER

http://blackberry.wordpress.org/

(Get WordPress on your Blackberry)

http://en.support.wordpress.com/import/

(Importing content from another blogging platform)

http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/03/16/basic-netiquette-for-beginner-bloggers/

(Proper blogging etiquette)

http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/popular-posts/

(The best resource on the net – subscribe to this blog)

http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/image-settings/

(If you get stuck with uploading images)

http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/page-jumps/

(Create hyperlinks with WordPress)

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_examples.asp

(Examples of HTML coding language)

http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_intro

(Input HTML code and see the result immediately)

http://www.onlinehtmleditor.net/

(Preview your widget before updating it – shows up images as well)

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/

(Take part in a blog carnival and share your post with the world)

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Energy saving 2-plate and 4-plate electric cooking hob

April 7, 2012 · Filed under Electricity saving · Tagged , , , , , ,

By Vuthisa

Cooking is a vital part of everyday life and there are a variety of methods to cook food or boil water. Using electricity is the preferred mode of cooking where it is available. South Africa uses an estimated 215 billion kWh of electricity annually, the 18th highest user of electricity in the world. According to a publication by ESKOM a typical 2-plate stove (2 kW) gets used on average 3.5 hours a day, 30 days per month. The monthly cost to a household for this type of appliance is second only to geyser usage. On-going very significant increases in the cost of electricity in South Africa will have a dramatic effect on all electricity users and day to day cooking will become unaffordable to millions of households. The demand for electricity peaks when households need to prepare meals resulting in electricity outages.

In our investigations we stumbled upon a product called the ECONOHOB. These hobs have been tested by accredited testing bodies including, SANAS, SABS, Proudly South Africa and ESKOM and approximately 20,000 of these hobs have already been sold. The biggest of these installations were at the Eco Project in Witsand, Western Cape Coast, where they are successfully used.

Pictured below are the ECONO-MINIHOB – Energy Saving 2 x Plate Stainless Steel Hob and the ECONOHOB – Energy Saving 4 x Plate Stainless Steel Hob.

The CSIR invited the ECONOHOB in the International Cleantech Open Competition for Breakthrough Innovation, run in conjunction with COP 17 in Durban, December 2011 and they were placed runners up in this Category out of 41 applicants.

So what makes this hob special? Herewith a rundown of its advantages over existing models:

Energy Savings up to 60% – Compared to conventional, expensive 3 phase Hobs.

Competitively priced at half the cost of conventional Hobs that are not energy savers.

The ECONOHOB uses only 6 amps (4-plate) & 4 amps (2-plate) of power respectively in cooking mode.

Based on an example of a 5000 RDP housing development, savings would amount to 5600 MWh per annum and reduce Carbon Emissions by 516 million kilograms per annum.

For more information contact:

SUE COOPER from FINISHING TOUCH (PTY) LTD

Email: sue@jhbmail.co.za

021 8551605

0827889511

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Charcoal from invasive alien tree species

January 5, 2012 · Filed under Biochar, Charcoal · Tagged , , , , , ,

By Vuthisa

We recently concluded a feasibility study into the viability of rolling out portable metal kilns to eradicate invasive alien tree species. The cattle farm in question is situated in Franklin, approximately 30 km North of Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. To achieve this task we adapted the Portable Kiln system and made it into sections in order transport it up onto the mountain top where it was assembled, ready for use. This is a self-funded trial to determine if it is feasible to convert jungle Wattle plantations into charcoal in order to alleviate poverty and transfer skills and ultimately establish Community Based Organisations (CBO’s) …AND preserve our rich species biodiversity!PanoramicView


View Larger Map

Kiln_no_retorts

3-drum Biochar Retort

A single Trans-Portable kiln can process 550 kilogram feedstock into approximately 100 kg charcoal (un-sieved) or 50 kg sieved charcoal in a single 24-hour shift. We have since increased our daily yield by increasing the kiln diameter by 40% and adding conical lids and chimneys to increase yields and clean up emissions. The new retort dubbed the 3-drum Biochar Retort can also accept 3 perforated 55 Gal oil drums which is filled with smaller diameter feedstock in order the produce bona fide Biochar, obtained with a substantial reduction in emissions and a 25% yield. We processed a mix of exotic invaders from Australasia Acacia mearnsii (black wattle) and Acacia decurrens (green wattle) on the private farmers’ land and rehabilitated 6 hectares of this jungle back to pristine grassland. We had up to 8 kilns on the mountain. The felled timber was prepared and stacked in piles measuring 1 m (L) x 1 m (W) x 1 m (H) or approximately 280 kg (617 lb) per pile. We had a staff compliment of about twelve people, divided into clearfelling (and stacking) and burning teams. All of the bags (5 kg) produced were sold in Pietermaritzburg, Howick, Margate as well as Durban.

Overall we were quite happy with our feasibility study having been able to test the kilns for durability, conduct valuable market acceptance trials, gather cost breakdown per activity which is invaluable when project is finally scaled up.

Below are some late afternoon vistas of the farm following a thunderstorm, blessing the area with much needed precipitation. This is a very beautiful and picturesque farm and with the invasive wattle eventually removed it will be a polished diamond indeed, as seen through the eyes of the first inhabitants of the area.

For more information contact us.

The Vuthisa Team

(BEE rating: Level 4)

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Charcoal gas stove

August 2, 2011 · Filed under Charcoal, Indoor air quality, stoves · Tagged

By Vuthisa

Background

This blog post aims to provide the reader with some background on charcoal stove usage as well as charcoal burn characteristics.  Vuthisa developed a unique charcoal stove, able to extract and burn harmful Carbon Monoxide gases inherent to all types of charcoal.

Jiko2

Jiko charcoal stove

We discovered that charcoal use by households is not a new concept and constitutes the primary urban fuel in most of Africa and it is estimated (2003) that approximately 250 million people cook with charcoal. The prevailing tendency in household fuel usage has been to move away from wood fuel towards charcoal for reasons ranging from smokeless burn, ease of use, easy storage, no insect infestation, no need to air-dry, cost effective to transport and high temperature burn.

Rural village in the Eastern Cape provinceSeveral intervention studies have also shown that switching from wood to charcoal can substantially reduce respiratory infections, which may also account for the move over to charcoal. Much of the world’s charcoal feedstock is not plantation wood and the unsustainable harvesting of biomass result in widespread deforestation, thereby handing charcoal its bad reputation. In our context, countries like South Africa (and most developing countries) with well managed commercial plantations and exotic invaders however can provide a sustainable supply of charcoal for household end-use applications. In our opinion improved charcoal stoves should only be sold to communities if the charcoals are produced from carbonised invasive alien vegetation or managed commercial plantations. See our Welcome post in this regard. The manufacturing process is also very polluting and wasteful and there is a serious need of improved charcoal kilns. Join the Portable Kiln Google Group, which I started in order to improve the efficiency of this design or for more information visit this information page and join our design challenge.

More modern fuels such as paraffin- and LP Gas are becoming more popular than fuel wood for cooking and space-heating, but have led to several deaths due to accidental shack fires or lethal gas leaks. Burning charcoal conventionally inside a home is a hazardous and potentially fateful undertaking due to the dangers of Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning. I highly recommend Carbon Monoxide Poisoning – A Medical Dictionary, Bibliography, and Annotated Research Guide to Internet References.

Some experts agree however that if issues of concern related to CO such as ventilation and education can be successfully addressed, the widespread implementation of improved charcoal cook stoves should be considered. Traditional charcoal burning stoves such as the metal and ceramic Jiko and Loketto were designed to retail cheaply and provide durability during extended usage, which they do, but failed to address the problem of Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning once the occupants go to sleep.

Vuthisa decided to investigate charcoal burning by developing and field testing many prototypes. Feedback from stove users indicated that charcoal can be very abrasive on metal surfaces in direct contact with flames and due to the rapid heating and cooling tendencies of a charcoal fire. Charcoal burned in coal or fuelwood stoves reduced the lifetime of these stoves significantly. Refractory ceramics (and low-density clay bricks) offered the best results as it insulates the fuel from the stove body, but also allows combustion temperatures to rise above 600°C for complete combustion of volatiles.

We discovered that the volatile Carbon Monoxide (CO), a fuel in its own right should instead of being vented off be re-combined with pre-heated Oxygen (O2) from the air in a process termed Gasification. This results in a LP gas-like flame, venting harmless CO2. The process occurs spontaneously and the charcoal fuel batch will burn out in its entirety within 90 minutes from lighting the stove. Depletion of Oxygen levels in a poorly ventilated room can therefore not occur and CO issuance build-up remains below Health and Safety limits.

Best Burn Method

We found it is possible to light the stove indoors with minimal particulate issuance by top lighting the stove using kindling (visit woodheat.org to see the advantages of the top down lighting technique). We monitored CO build-up inside the room with a Draeger X-am 5000 CO monitor, maintaining adequate ventilation. The maximum CO ppm (parts per million) recorded was 30 ppm over a 1.5 hour period. Once the occupants gets exposed to levels of around 200 ppm for extended periods they will experience nausea, headaches and vomiting. Higher levels of around 1000 ppm for example, have far more serious consequences, including falling into a coma and never waking up.

Back to charcoal burning: After the stove is lit, temperatures will continue to rise inside the chamber and more coals will start to combust, although the top layer will be protected by a so-called “pyrolysis wind”. Primary air is drawn up the combustion chamber by virtue of the internal chimney. The stack length has been optimized to control the draft to combine 6 parts air to 1 part fuel, with the secondary air supplying the remaining 6 parts air to resultant 1 part producer gas. Pre-heated secondary air (drawn in along with the primary air before splitting off) will spontaneously interject into the area above the charcoal particles and mix with a constantly escalating supply of producer gas (CO and other volatiles) from the coals. Stoichiometric air/fuel ratio is achieved after approximately 8 to 10 minutes following start-up and gasification commences, the visual clue being a blue flame front forming off the burn plate (catalyst). Most charcoals contain approximately 20 to 30% producer gas, i.e. is not vented during the charcoal manufacturing process and the stove will deplete these supplies in approximately 30 to 40 minutes. The resultant ‘coke’ will also partially gasify and burn to ash over the remaining 30 to 45 minutes. The stove can be operated on a maximum fuel load of 500 grams of charcoal for approximately 1.5 hours. It can use as little as 150 grams of charcoal, sufficient to cook a small meal or for boiling approximately 1 L of water. A full patent was granted in 2006 and is still in force. Double click on video image below to see charcoal stove in action.

We’re not the only ones thinking charcoal gasification has potential in the developing wolrd. See this publication by Ulrich Graf called Low Cost Charcoal Gasifiers for Rural Energy Supply (GTZ, 1994, 49 p.). The publication demonstrates to interested laypersons and experts the conditions and applications under which small charcoal gasifiers can be one option for development within a range of simple energy technologies.

It is also possible to “pipe off” volatiles produced by a charcoal gasifier to run a generator as can be seen in this example:

Or watch this video below showing some of our Bioenergylist discussion group members experimenting with a burner attachment. Double click on the still image below to start video.

I also converted a barbecook® into a charcoal gasifier.  Just to prove the concept as I think flame grilling with charcoal has a lot of potential.

Durability

Remainder of mix poured over mold

Bricks extracted from mould and ready to be firedVuthisa partnered up with the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Ceramic Department in Pietermaritzburg to develop insulated fire bricks. We have made significant progress with our insulated fire bricks, with the mixture consisting of mainly Al2 O3, Fe2 O3, SiO2, CaO, grog and a light-colored refractory clay. An external supplier was contracted to supply the pre-mixed clay in powdered form. The cost per cubic metre is low and lends itself perfectly for this application. The density is lower than what can be achieved with clay mixes that contained sawdust. Our most recent bricks achieved a density of approximately 0.5 g/cm3 which qualifies it as an extremely lightweight yet durable refractory brick. The bricks and the ash filtering base are then joined together via a specially formulated paste-like cement that can withstand temperatures of up to 1300°C to form a hex shaped combustion chamber.

We also have a monolithic, precast, pre-fired, silicon-hardened, fibrous, refractory ceramic sleeve (not replicable outside South Africa) with a density factor of around 0.5 g/cm3, which is being used in our outdoor camping stove.

Dissemination

Stove programs in South Africa have a poor track record (Wood as a source of fuel in South Africa, MV Gandar, 1983). Attention is all too often focused on fuel efficiency, economics and ease of construction at the expense of the socio-cultural environment. It is therefore important to slowly introduce a new stove concept to the target community to test their acceptance of it, but also to demonstrate the advantages that owning such a stove offers. It will be vital to do product acceptance trials in the proposed project implementation area and adopting a successful dissemination technique will take the stove project towards success through inception to maturation. Extension workers should record cooking technique and fuel usage information. The information must be interpreted to fine tune the design specific to the needs of the community.

In summary

It is hoped that by informing a wider audience, strategies can be formulated to improve charcoal making and charcoal burning technologies.

Camping stove to create awareness

Our prototype portable charcoal camping stove aims to highlight the plight of millions of people cooking on inefficient and unsafe charcoal stoves. It is not for sale at this time. Kindly donate (on the sidebar to the right) to help us bring the stove to the market!

In line with creating awareness around issues concerning indoor air pollution, we also promote the clean-burning StoveTec Rocket stove. Click here for more information.

Enquiries welcome via our Contact us page or visit the News link from time to time for updates.

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