Project eCooking

Activity summary

The project focuses on electric pressure cookers (EPCs). EPCs are insulated, hermetically sealed cooking appliances that cook food using steam pressure.

EPCs achieve very high energy efficiency: field tests carried out by the Modern Energy Cooking Services programme suggest that they reduce energy consumption by 50% compared with conventional hotplates (Scott and Leach 2023).
This means low running costs, lower than those of coal and gas, particularly for households on the social electricity tariff. In addition to these energy savings, EPCs also make it possible to considerably reduce emissions of atmospheric pollutants at the point of use (no fuel combustion), including compared with gas, which is a high emitter of nitrogen dioxide.
In particular, these reductions in emissions are likely to reduce the exposure of women, in charge of cooking activities, and young children to these pollutants, as well as the incidence of associated respiratory illnesses in these population groups.

The project will consist of a randomised trial in a sample of around 1,000 households (sample size to be confirmed at the end of the pilot), some of which will receive subsidies for the purchase of EPCs and training in their use. We will be measuring the consumption of traditional fuels (wood, coal and gas) and electricity before the project, one year after the project and two years after the project.
We will assess the effects of interventions on mothers’ exposure to air pollutants using reference methods (gravimetric method for PM2.5).
Finally, we will assess the effects of the interventions on the lung function of children living with the participating mothers by carrying out spirometry tests and collecting self-reported symptoms of asthma (standardised International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire) and respiratory infections.