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Super Cool Outdoor Stove Powers Electronics While Cooking Your Dinner

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e5c6fdf862076486d1f467e0d28414c9_largeSummer is coming! At least for us in the Northern hemisphere, anyway. Days are longer, the sun is stronger, people are happier, and all these together can mean only one thing- barbeque time!

But as we all sit and chat around the little smoking stove, the darkness of the night often surprises us before the food is ready, and if we’ve been around there for long enough, our smartphones that often serve as a torch, might well have run out of battery, leaving us guessing if what we made is actually edible.

Now, two guys, Jonathan and Alec, decided to put a fullstop to this, and invented the ultimate solution to the problem, BioLite Basecamp. A full-on cooking and charging stove that turns heat from fire into usable electricity. Interested? I thought so.

The idea behind this incredible stove goes all the way back in 2009. During a regular conference on wood combustion, Jonathan and Alec decided to show the experts in the field the prototype that they have been working on. The response was incredible, and even the makers were amazed to find out that what looked like a super cool stove that can power things while it cooks, could actually save lives in rural parts of Africa and Asia. The demand seemed to be incredibly high, but of course people wanted a real size one, not a small gadget.

Since then, the two guys have been busy making it, and what came out of the effort is really great. A device that works entirely off-grid as it is powered by branches and firewood, and which can charge electronics while dinner is cooking. Electricity is produced via a thermoelectric generator, which powers a fan that sends air towards a burn chamber and creates combustion. The electricity, which is not used by the fan is sent to a USB port and sums to roughly 5W. The stove is also equipped with an LED indicator, which shows you the real temperature of the fire, allowing you to keep track on the amount of electricity sent to the port.

In addition to all that, BaseCamp does not use fossil fuels, minimizing the damage that smoke causes on people’s health and the environment. Yes, it makes the ultimate camping gear, but also could serve numerous outdoor energy requirements.

So, the brilliant BioLite BaseCamp Stove is currently on Kickstarter waiting for your support in order to begin commercial production. Jonathan and Alec are hoping to begin manufacturing the product in June, so if you want a piece of this incredible invention, you do need to be fast.

Image (c) BioLite

 

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