A camping stove that charges your phone

Dr_Nickcp
Dr_Nickcp Posts: 53
edited February 2012 in Tour & expedition
Here it is http://www.biolitestove.com/CampStove.html
Apparently it runs on twigs and will charge USB devices. It seems very cool, but can it really work?

Comments

  • big_p
    big_p Posts: 565
    it'll have a heat motor in it connected to some sort of dynamo

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_engine
  • andrew_s
    andrew_s Posts: 2,511
    According to the website it's a thermoelectric generator.
    I would expect it to be like solar - not really enough power available to put in a useful charge under normal cooking durations. It weighs 950g too.
  • MichaelW
    MichaelW Posts: 2,164
    More info on the types of Thermo Electric Generator units that are commercially available.
    I love the ones that you just put on top of your wood burning stove to generate 12 volt power.
    The most powerful ones produce 500watts.
  • andymiller
    andymiller Posts: 2,856
    Thanks for posting that. It's a very interesting product/company/website. The statistic that twice as many people die from the effects of woodfires as die from malaria is striking.

    $64,000 question is of course how useful it is to cook with and how much power it produces and unfortunately there's no information on either.

    I used to have a bushbuddy biogas cooker (ie similar principle but without a fan) which wasn't as quick and convenient as a gas stove (and of course, pots got a certain amount of soot on them), but worked reasonably well, and there was definitely something enjoyable about cooking with a real fire.
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  • Jay dubbleU
    Jay dubbleU Posts: 3,159
    Probably ok until you spill soup on your mobile - plenty of solar mobile or dynamo chargers out there
  • andymiller
    andymiller Posts: 2,856
    Jay dubbleU wrote:
    Probably ok until you spill soup on your mobile - plenty of solar mobile or dynamo chargers out there

    Very few things in life are foolproof, but it would be common sense to protect the device eg by putting it into a plastic bag while there were liquids around.

    Plenty of solar chargers around maybe, but also a lot of disappointed buyers of solar chargers.

    Wood is a pretty predictable and controllable fuel source - you can generally find twigs under any roadside tree, and provided the wood isn't too wet and too green it should burn OK. The main question for me would be how much usable power it generates - eg could I generate enough energy from cooking dinner to power an IPod for a day?

    Yes it is fairly bulky and fairly heavy, but there are circumstances where it might be worth considering.
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