BioLite believes that clean energy is all around us - we just need the right tools to harness it. After successfully Kickstarter funding the BioLite CampStove in 2012, the company is in the end stages of another campaign to fund their BaseCamp stove.
The BaseCamp stove is designed to provide cooking, grilling and charging for groups. A thermoelectric generate converts heat from the fire into electricity. Some of the electricity powers a fan that circulates air around the fire and aids in combustion. The remainder of the electricity is used to power devices.
BaseCamp's power pack generates up to 5 Watts and can store power. The current estimate is that thirty minutes of charging can provide five hours of talk time. A user interface shows the heat of the fire and the amount of electricity being generated, to maximize efficiency. The heat source can be distributed to act as a grill or concentrated in a small area for boiling.
Parallel innovation is important to BioLite, and the team works on both outdoor recreation and emerging markets. Half of the planet still cooks on smoky fires, and BioLite says that these fires kill more people than AIDS and malaria combined. Since 2009 the company has implemented four generations of stove prototypes and currently sells products in Ghana, Uganda and India.
As a company BioLite is made up of twenty five dedicated professionals. The BaseCamp campaign has already blown by its $45,000 goal with a week left in the funding period. Prototyping is complete and production tooling is in process. Stoves are expected to ship in October 2014.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/biolite/biolite-basecamp-stove-turn-fire-into-electricity