Re: [pct-l] BTU's

["Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>]

My alcohol fuel consumption was just about what yours was.  All in all, it
seemed about the same or LESS than the amount that I use of white gas in my
Optimus 8R.  I don't know why this is so.  I suspect that the white gas
stoves have  too large of a flame to be really efficient, and you end up
using a lot more fuel to boil the same amount of water than if you were
using a alcohol stove .  With my white gas stoves (Optimum, 3 different MSR
versions), the flame is spilling around the 2 quart pot that I am using, a
lot of heat is just being lost to the environment, even with a good wind
screen(you may be heating the windscreen and not just the water).  So yes,
you get a faster boil time with the MSR but use more volume of fuel to do
it.

What I am saying is that BTU's per volume may be important only to a degree
and the design of the stove may be such that it negates the advantage of
one fuel over another.  "Managing" a stove is also very important  - it is
easy to double your consumption of fuel in cold, high wind, etc by not
being cognizant and careful of all the factors that can draw that heat
away.

The only circumstance that I really wonder about the performance of an
alcohol stove is melting snow for water.  This just takes a very long time
and a really high quantity of heat.  I am not saying that my alcohol stove
could not do this; I have never done it , so it is just an unknown.  In the
end, it my take so long, that under those conditions where it would be
required to melt snow on a regular basis, another hotter stove would be a
better choice.  OTOH, it may do almost as well.  This will give me
something to think about when the flurries come.

Goforth

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