BioLite CampStove – A great idea? – Dave's Bankside Babble

If you’re a bit of a gadget buff and most men tend to be, sometimes something will come along that makes you think wow, how good is that?

The item I refer to on this occasion is the BioLite Stove, it’s a relatively simple idea with several practical plus points and it’s received a mixture of both rave and mediocre reviews.

Nick Small of Gizmodo UK said; “Wilderness lovers and Ray Mears-types who can’t bear to be without their mobile phone/GPS unit or other USB powered devices will love this piece of kit” – but will you?

Stoves have come a long way since the humble primus: turbo flames, jet boilers and ultra-light portables are just some of the options around. But now there’s the BioLite, a stove that burns twigs and charges your phone all at once…(Gizmodo UK)

BioLite is an advanced ‘eco-energy’ company who produce not just a ‘revolutionary stove’ that, whilst making cooking on wood clean, safe and easy, it also generates electricity. This neat product was invented by Alexander Drummond and Jonathan Cedar and the technology behind the BioLite stove was inspired by; “a philosophy of applying efficient design to real world problems” – now that’s the real bit that appeals to me.

It’s the application of their HomeStove in the developing world that I find the most interesting. Using the same technology, BioLite have created a low-cost biomass cookstove that, by converting waste heat into electricity, reduces smoke emissions by up to 95% while simultaneously providing users with the capability to charge mobile phones and LED lights.

A useful resource for the developing world, especially India and Sub-Saharan Africa. This year BioLite have launched a campaign to help build support for the HomeStove.

Yes, I can see the advantages of the BioLite CampStove and I could envisage its use ‘in the field’ however; whether or not I could actually justify spending the required c£150 on it is whole different kettle of fish!