Energy-saving Stoves

This special stove design helps African families burn less wood, and is also a great learning tool to use with kids in the UK.

Making an Energy-saving Stove at your school is another great 'African Gardens' project to get your pupils involved in. They can be used to talk to pupils about all sorts of important issues, such as climate change, energy use and sustainability - and they are great fun to make as well.

You could have a competition splitting your class into teams, all racing to make them, and then when the stove is dry, a race to boil a pint of water! Or see how long it takes to boil some water on an open fire compared to using the stove, or a kettle.

Use these step-by-step Energy-saving Stove instructions to help you make your own fantastic stove. 

Energy-saving Stoves in Africa

In an African country, if you've got no gas or electricity for cooking, burning wood on an open fire may be your only choice. But open fires use a lot of wood, which takes a long time to collect. These are often 'three stone' fires, where most of the heat escapes around the sides of the pot.

The Energy-saving Stoves that Send a Cow uses in its training need only one third of the wood that an open fire uses, and takes harmful smoke away from the kitchen - saving trees, time and people's health.