UCB-SUMS Stove Use Monitoring System

The Sensor

The SUMS are attached to stoves to record temperature changes over time (months), thereby providing an objective, quantitative, and unobtrusive measure of stove use, but also can be used to infer stove performance, operator behavior, and fuel use for carbon financing and other purposes. 

The Wireless SUMS Platform

The wireless sensor platform will be powered by the energy from the stove itself to record usage data and send it to a dedicated reader that is carried by someone in the village making a monthly walk through.  The cumulated data would then be uploaded via cell phone to a central database for systematic processing. The wireless SUMS can be deployed in a careful subsample across millions of households in a statistically valid manner to verify use for funders and provide ongoing information valuable to dissemination programs, whether subsidy or market based. They provide unique and valuable information that can be scaled to millions, unlike household visits.

Wireless TE-SUMS Prototype and Test Data

The fan for clean combustion and the wireless sensor module to track usage is powered with excess heat of the stove with the thermoelectric module.

Voltages of up to 3V can be generated at the thermoelectric module during normal stove operation. To the right is the stove data transmitted by the wireless unit.