Gas will be used for cooking and heating applications.
Substitute for natural gas infrastructure (pipes and plants, trucked in propane) with:
- A wood gasification stove. http://files.howtolivewiki.com/wood_gasification_stove_clip.mov has a (2M) video of the wood gasification stove from http://Spenton.net in operation.
Wood gasification stoves use sophisticated combustion engineering realized in the form of cheap sheet metal forced air stoves. Two AA cells power ten hours of cooking, with a peak heat output of 3KW from finger-sized twigs. Wood gasification stoves are low emissions because the fuel is burned either as gas (volatiles boiled out of the fuel) in super-abundant oxygen blown in by the fan, or as charcoal similarly burned in abundant oxygen.
Wood gasification stoves are rated as ten times more efficient than open fires, and three times more efficient than high-efficiency clay stoves.
Financial model:
- $20 or less per stove, one per household
Fuel costs are low, perhaps $1 per household per week or less. In a small and well insulated shelter or home, even this relatively modest heating device should provide most or all of the heat required -- even through the winter -- in most climates.