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This reminds me of the time I was interested in stoves and built a Lorena Stove in DRC. This is a large wood-fired 3-pot stove made up of bricks and mixed sand and termite soil and maybe vermiculite - they are pretty massive in thermal terms and the heat is higher up so if people fall asleep near the stove and rollover against it they don't get burnt and it certainly cannot fall over!

Other than those mentioned in your posting, factors that spring to mind are fire safety with respect to use inside flammable structures, how many pots need to be heated at once, what sort of fuel is available and so on. What is cooked most often and are there ways to reduce the energy required eg by pre-soaking beans.

The biggest issue as ever is that mix between education and having the local people decide what they want to do and how they want to do it.

Teach them how to solve problems themselves by showing them how they can solve this one and you will have achieved far more than you set out to.

I see you are working in Palestine, as am I at the moment. I haven't been involved in stoves here other than through detailing non food item lists including gas stoves and with respect to fire safety in transitional shelter design.

We retain concerns about the risk of fire and burns and your posting has encouraged me to dig out some safety documentation with respect to gas stoves that we should include in NFI kits.

I encourage you to contact the Shelter & NFI Cluster Palestine through the contacts at ShelterPalestine.org so you can encourage the cluster to promote safety through the distributions of Household NFI kits and to discuss your ideas more.

All the best with your work.

Steve Barker