CONSTRUCTION OF AN ELECTRICAL STOVE WITH THREE-OVEN APARTMENT

CHAPTER ONE
1.1   INTRODUCTION
This project is as a result of increasing interest. Essentially, the idea, as demonstrated in an existing design, arises in the project students a feeling of motivation, and hence the search for a way to bring it to reality in a simple, yet intelligent design, like this. Specifically, this design seeks for a source of energy that is relatively cheap and available, and therefore has an edge over other stoves and ovens using kerosine and gas as sources of energy.  It also aims at making domestic cookers and ovens safe enough as against highly flammable liquid or gas fuel. Many Nigerians today are faced with the problem of petroleum fuel scarcity and as per cooking and drying which is not often easy to get fire wood from forests that are often far away especially from the big cities.  Equally too, the few available fuels are of substandard quality with the attendant danger of fire outbreak.
In addition above, fuel consuming cookers and ovens have two outstanding deficiencies, namely; sooty pre-heating and problem of dogged nozzles which lead to offensive discouraging and dirty burning. Above all, deforestation as a result of fire wood consumption is causing great deal of environmental problems in most regions of Africa. In this modern world and its various invented means of cooking, it largely seems as if non has quite addressed this area by providing an alternative means of cooking and drying. In a close observation, large scale cooking and drying as an drying of meat and fish sellers, commercial corn roasters, food sellers and “suya” sellers, etc, need efficient heating system.  The absence of short drying period and hygienic process of preserving our loide and sea foods is another issue, which has led to fast spoiling and give an electrical stove with an oven apartment to sufficiently address these problems.
1.2    PURPOSE OR OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY
This study is to devise a means of producing an electrical stove with three apartment to address the following:
(1)   The problem of sooty pare-heating as observed in vaporizing cookers.
(2)   Economically, this equipment is designed for cost reduction and easy to maintain.
(3)   To reduce the effect of kerosine scarcity prevailing in our present days.
(4)   To meet up with inadequate availability of fire wood through deforestation.
1.3     LITERATURE REVIEW
In an extremely large span of time ago, people generally roasted by placing food substances on hot wood coal or on heated rocks, and smoking (drying) ,of meat and fish was done by means of brick oven.  This brick oven was locally made in a dome shape having an opening through which the firewood and other food substances were put.  In use, the firewood was burnt to a sufficient time to provide enough hot coal before the meat or the fish already laid on a perforated sheet or wire was regulated by either gathering the fire wood together for more heat or withdrawing them from the oven so as to reduce the heat.  This event can be dated back at least to the third century AD Equally too, primitive Africans set fire on a carefully arranged fire wood and used the fire so generated for cooking.  That was when civilization was still in the womb of time.  As a result of science and technology electricity came into during such trend that electrical element was made to generate heat when electric current is passed through it.  About 1914 electricity was adopted for cooking, and become popular in late 1920s.  along side those periods, oil exploration and its various refined products like kerosine, gas, etc for both industrial and domestic consumption were made possible.  Hence, kerosine stores and gas cookers, over the years, began to replace the primitive way of using firewood for cooking and drying, particularly in most civilized regions of Africa.
Then came a time, late part of the last century and the new millennium, when petroleum fuel scarcity overwhelmed the entire nation, making lives of many Nigerians difficult.  Consequently, kerosine stoves and gas cookers became n o more alternative as before.  Many Nigerians began  using fire wood for cooking and drying.  This period was crucial during the PENGASAM strike, 1994. When a certain container inside which coal is burnt to provide heat for cooking and roasting was named ABACHA STOVE.  In the course of the above periods, foreign electrical stoves and ovens flooded our local market, and their maintenance culture were by no means easy. Thus, economically their uses were not feasible enough domestically. Thus, threw a challenge to our local engineers to produce electrical stoves and ovens that can stand the test of time within our locality, and to avoid the danger of kerosine and gas explosion which have terminated a lot of lives in our present days.  Such a challenge also paved way for the project students came up with such a dual-purpose domestic electrical heating equipment to sufficiently address the problems being imposed by petroleum fuel consuming stoves and ovens.