Solar Powered Camp Stove

Last week we reviewed the Woodgas-Stove by iENERGY over on Biomass Authority and came away very impressed with the product. This week we wanted to explore the solar power option for this stove and provide some tips for sustainable camping. While the woodgas stove is more of a biomass product than a solar one, it does rely on a small electric fan to achieve high burn temperatures and this fan can be powered either by traditional batteries or solar power. Guess which option we prefer?

In case you haven't read our review of the wood gas stove we'll catch you up here before we move on. The stove weighs under 2lbs and is built for portability; instead of using white gas or liquid fuel this stove simply uses twigs and other organic matter which can be found along the trail. The stove functions like a blast furnace directing air up and through the fire to help it burn hotter and more consistently, and it includes a metal range for resting a pot or pan on so you can grill up that morning feast or roast marsh mallows... your choice!

Since the real value of this product is convenience, not having to cary around fuel, the solar option is a no-brainer. We put this option through a series of tests in Yosemite National Park, California this past week and were very pleased with the results. The solar panel is an add-on third party device that is simply resold with the woodgas-stove and includes the correct dongle attachment. It comes with two rechargeable double A batteries and ideally those would be charging as you prepared the stove. You could almost think of it as using solar to charge batteries which in turn power the stove. Unfortunately, this concept is a bit of a letdown because it means batteries still have to be made and sold with this product vs. pure solar.

In our opinion some of the romance is lost when you think of the solar option as a battery charger instead of an energy source in itself. For this reason we chose to "forget" our rechargeable AA batteries at home which allowed us to test the solar option in survival mode, as if we had been in the woods for years trying to heat our food (and hands) even as the batteries came to the end of their life. Maybe we're on Gilligan's Island and the professor just used those rechargeable double-A's for his latest project? Maybe we're on Lost and fire is the only way to keep away the "Others". Would the stove still work without those batteries??

Amazingly, even without the batteries in tow the solar panel was able to power the little woodgas stove. Granted, It did take a few extra seconds to get the fan spinning, and it was a sunny day, but the fact that this little system could run indefinitely just using the sun and a few twigs is a very romantic concept indeed! With the stove costing just under $50 it's worth checking out and the solar option is a must have in our opinion!