The cooking performance of the Whirly Pinay, a clay “Top Lit Upward Draft” (TLUD) stove, is tested in the cooking of Bam-I (6 kg) and Rice (3 kg rice + 5 kg water). The fuel is Ipil-Ipil wood (Leucaena leucocephala) – 2.5 kg, costing Php13 pesos (US $0 .28). The cooked food to fuel ratio is 5.6. The amount of cooked food provides a meal for 13 adults.
A high moisture content in the firewood will cause the Whirly Pinay to smoke and form soot until the wood dries up. Such was the case in this experiment. For the first 13 minutes of cooking the Bam-I, there was smoke but in diminishing amount. Thereafter, the Whirly Pinay performed beautifully as can be seen on the bottom of the pot which remained soot free to the end of the experiment.
The cooking of Bam-I and the boiling of water and rice is done with the wood gas produced by pyrolysis inside the Whirly Pinay TLUD stove. Just before the wood gas runs out, primary air is introduced to burn the char and complete the cooking of the rice the “palangay” way – a Filipino tradition of cooking with embers to prevent the rice at the bottom of the pot from getting burnt.
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