Longitudinal analysis and expected evolution of household fuel and stove stacking patterns in rural Mexico

We conducted a longitudinal analysis of the multiple stacking options that emerge from a Patsari clean woodburning cookstove dissemination program in rural Mexico, directed to households with-and-without previous access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The analysis is based on Kitchen Performance Tests applied to 134 households belonging to 10 villages of Central Mexico, where household fuelwood consumption before -and-after the installation of the Patsari cookstove was measured. The analysis showed that: a) from the initial two categories of users (Open Fire and LPG) the adoption of Patsari stoves led to the emergence of six categories of users or stacking options (Patsari-alone; Patsari-LPG; Patsari-LPG-Open fire; Patsari-Open Fire; LPG-Open Fire; Open Fire-alone); b) when LPG is used in combination with open fires, there are negligible fuelwood savings; c) the largest reduction in emissions with regards to open fires is observed for the Patsari-only users (47.5%); and d) the adoption of Patsari cookstoves led to 39% fuel savings for exclusive fuelwood users and 48% for mixed LPG-fuelwood users. We conducted a Markov Chain analysis to explore the likely future evolution of user groups assuming a continuation of the Patsari stove implementation program. We found that instead of a smooth transition from open fires to Patsari stoves, 62% of the users within five years would be expected to stack different cooking devices, while 34% of the users would only use the Patsari cookstove. It is also expected that 19.63% of households will continue using the open fires either alone or in combination with other stoves. (c) 2022 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study conducted a longitudinal analysis of multiple stacking options arising from the implementation of Patsari clean woodburning cookstoves in rural Mexico. The results showed that the adoption of Patsari stoves led to the emergence of six categories of users, reduced fuel consumption and emissions, and predicted the future evolution of user groups using Markov Chain analysis.