Survey Based Behavior and Impact Assessment A Case Study of Improved Cookstove Adoption in Rural Honduras

Nearly 40% of the world's population relies on inefficient burning of biomass using traditional stoves and open fires for their household energy demands. Use of traditional methods contributes to global anthropogenic climate change, and has been attributed to at least 4 million premature deaths every year. In addition, increasing population in middle- and low-income countries pushes the demand for firewood to unsustainable harvest rates leading to deforestation. To address such challenges, many international organizations have worked to provide improved cookstoves for these communities. This study applies surveys incorporating research methods from social sciences focusing on the role of users to evaluate the impacts of these technologies in the field, as well as to understand what motivates consumers to change their traditional practices. By conducting surveys before and two months after dissemination of 390 improved cookstoves in Copan Ruinas, Honduras, this research evaluated the impact of the improved cookstoves for the users and their evaluations of the presented technology. Results suggest that approximately 85% of the households used the improved cookstove as their primary stove. The top three reasons for households to continue using the stove were reported as reductions in smoke emissions, firewood consumption, and time to cook food. For 80% of the households, the level of effort required to cook with the improved cookstove was reported as significantly less than traditional stove. Future work should include sensor-based monitoring and long-term follow up to verify findings and examine impact over time.