Rural people of Nepal are highly dependent on fuelwood for cooking purpose. Government of Nepal
(GoN) recently announced “Clean Cooking Solutions for All” by 2017 and is promoting chimney operated Mud and
Metallic Improved Cook Stove (ICS) throughout the country. GoN has already been promoted 897,745 Mud ICS
and 16,314 Metallic ICS till July 2014 and target to install 2,700,000 Mud ICS in the coming year. Mud ICS are
widely promoting in the rural Terai and Mid Hill areas of Nepal. With the promotion of efficient and hygienic cook
stove contributes positively in economy, health and environment. Increase of efficiency of the heavily promoted
Mud ICS has great important in the context of Nepal. Use of air gap and proper chimney height are the few ways to
increase the thermal efficiency of ICS. Thermal efficiency of Mud ICS using bricks with two cylindrical holes has
been found 19.3% in cold start, 21.3% in hot start and 19.5% in simmering which is 2.67% higher in average than
the existing stove without air gap. Thermal efficiency of Mud ICS with decreases by 3.78% during increase of
chimney height from 39'' to 48''