Not exactly UL but an awesome new idea in wood burning stoves
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Really clever new technology (the heat to electric conversion) and a good looking design as well. Yeah, 2 lbs is a bit on the high end of the weight scale these days, but you don't need to carry fuel or spare batteries, so it really isn't all that bad. I don't think it will win over a lot of UL AT hikers as they have fuel, battery, and recharging resupply opportunities every few days, but it would be absolutely great for extended backcountry trips where both fuel weight and charging PED's can be a big issue.
What I liked is they use the captured electricity to fan force air to increase the heated vapor or chimney effect... solving some issues I ran into some early tests.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
It's looking much more refined since the last time I saw it.
My portable solar panel weighs 4ozs and makes more power under full sun. I can also strap it to the top of the pack and charge while walking. This stove is heavy and inefficient. Basically a gimmick. Az
This stove works day and night.Originally Posted by azb
Price was $129 at web site.
Not bad in the land of trail pricing.
Grog like play fire
Grinder
AT hiker : It's the journey, not the destination
As leaftye noted, this stove will make power 24/7/365 (and cook your food) if you feed it fuel (that you don't have to carry). I haven't seen any solar panels that work well under forest cover, under clouds, in the rain, at northern latitudes in the winter, and um, I'm fogetting something, um, oh yeah, at night. I'm a pretty hard critic on most stuff. Is there room for improvement? Of course. But these guys have a product that has pretty big potential.
I became aware of this about 6 weeks ago and have been waiting for BioLite to release the power output spec's. This is not a new technology but it seems they may have improved it, time will tell.
"You have brains in your head/You have feet in your shoes/You can steer yourself in any direction you choose." - Dr. Seuss
The raw energy density of petroleum and cellulose based fuels is much higher than the energy density of any battery. Typically, a battery works with just the energy of changing the orbital parameters of one electron in a chemical bond. Fuel, when combusted, breaks most of the existing chemical bonds and this releases ever more energy, so the (heat) energy per pound of a combustible fuel far outweighs the energy per pound of a battery.
However, conversion of the heat energy into, say, electricity is thermodynamically inefficient. But then too is the conversion of solar energy into electricity.
Perhaps we cn take the old fashioned idea of a bicycle based electrical generator and have a "First Wheel" (rather than a "third wheel") generator/charger that we backpackers can drab behind us.
Currently, it appears as if the attempts to generate electrical power in the woody wilderness are entertaining.
Over time, something useful will possibly happen.
The Biolite Stove/generator may be a very practical idea for someone car-camping in a remote area for a very long time. Except for cost, it might have some third world good applications as well.
This product certainly has potential in the Third World (if the price is right). For someone on the move in the wilderness with absolutely no contact with civilization (and not much sunlight overhead), it also looks good.
Time will tell....
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning how to dance in the rain!
Neat. Great idea
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One of the things that was mentioned on their website was that they hope to use some of the money from the sale of the backpacking stoves to launch the Home Stove operations for the 3rd World. I could buy one just for that reason....
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning how to dance in the rain!
In light of Azb's post I would like the specs as well I am sure that they will be enough of an output. Have you PM'd them? if so PM me.
Oh and Azb - there is a good chance that there is a voltage regulator hidden inside the phone and inside the panel nowadays - to improve the flow of electricity to prevent over charging. So the more watts the panel generates - the more desirable it is. Yet with this new stuff it does not decrease the charge time - because its regulated.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
In addition to the power output characteristics, I also want to know how wood is fed to it. I don't see pictures of a bottom opening like on their bigger stove.
Down through the top opening, I suspect. Functional, similar to the Zip Stove idea, and for a small stove, probably the best way to utilize the stove's body to produce a chimney-effect.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning how to dance in the rain!
I'm with Shelterbuilder on this: I may just buy one to support the social causes. I've used the Zipstove and Woodgas stove so this wouldn't be much of a stretch. Both of these use batteries anyways so running out of juice would no longer b3 a concern.
"Keep moving: death is very, very still."
---Lily Wagner (nee Hennessy)
I just can't get over the plastic box stuck onto the side of the stove body. That'll end badly. Looks like a case of form over function. They'd do better to keep the plastic box with electronics away from the stove body. I guess a single unit looks Better in the marketing photos...
--Matt
Not necessarily. This looks like a "chimney"-type of design, which will draw a large percentage of the heat upward, instead of allowing it to radiate outward (I've done this with woodburners myself). The perf-steel outer "skin" is probably spaced far enough away to keep the plastic cool enough to keep it from melting, while placing the heat-to-electricity converter close enough to function. The converter appears to be ventilated. And there ARE some plastics that have very high melting points. It might be a powder-coated metal; powder coatings typically fuse to the base metal at around 385* F, but there ARE some hi-temp coatings that melt at higher temperatures. (It might even be some sort of ceramic that looks like plastic in the pictures.)
I can't believe that any inventor - especially a "start-up" - would bring a new product to market that will fail within an unreasonably-short period of time. That's just "business suicide"!
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning how to dance in the rain!
This stove generates electricity using a Peltier junction, which requires one side to be hot and the other side to be cool. Therefore, they must have a way to keep the electronics side cool, or it would not work. My guess is the fan draws air down through the orange part of the shell (see the vent holes?), then blows the air up into the burner.
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