Arivi Paraffin Stove

In low-income neighbourhoods all over the world, dangerous paraffin stoves are used indoors for cooking and heat. These stoves produce poisonous carbon monoxide, and if knocked over, can burn down an entire neighborhood in minutes. In South Africa alone, it’s reported that an incident like this occurs every two weeks in winter – causing serious injuries and sometimes fatalities.

To help solve this enormous issue, South African designers Anastasios Calantzis and Frederick Kruger developed the Arivi Paraffin Stove – a much safer and efficient alternative. As soon the stove is tilted to reach almost 45 degrees, a shut off mechanism immediately snuffs the flame. And if knocked over, the stove immediately goes out. The stove also has a double-insulating wall that helps efficiency but also prevents that heat from causing a fire.

“Now, it’s one thing if the stove is being knocked over,” Calantzis says, “but we also wanted to look at a case in which something knocks over a candle, the shack catches on fire, and the stove is in the shack. What then? There’s a regulation that says the tanks are not allowed to leak any paraffin. But you can imagine if there’s a sealed tank of paraffin in that stove, it’s like a bomb. So that’s why we designed the fuel cap out of plastic. So during a fire, that plastic cap melts and pops off, allowing all the gas to escape before the tank explodes.”

The duo hope Arivi’s operation should be good for a low-income family’s strained resources, too, costing some 33 percent less in fuel expenses at the same time it drastically reduces the dangers of fire and respiratory ailments, particularly among children.