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Monday, November 28, 2005
Cooking it cheap
KORONADAL CITY -- There's a way to cook that food at a considerably cheaper cost. And the food cooks just as fast as well as cooking it in liquefied petroleum gas.
Call it Filipino ingenuity that might be frown upon by liquefied petroleum gas dealers.
But this stove is a proven winner to ordinary households in these most trying times.
A couple here, Rene and Ofelia Coroņa, has been inaudibly producing what they proclaimed as "the solution to the rising costs of liquefied petroleum gas."
Meet the husband-and-wife tandem's "Air Kalan," a cooking equipment that utilizes charcoal (uling) instead of liquefied petroleum gas to produce fire or heat for that culinary masterpiece or just the simple day-to-day family food.
"Before, our product seldom gets notice. But now, many have been inquiring and are interested in using it because of the prohibitive cost of liquefied petroleum gas," she said at her small display center just outside one of the largest shopping malls in Central Mindanao region.
"Moreover, those who have been buying are those who looked like they are financially stable," she added.
Air Kalan operates somewhat like the other commercial stove burners powered by liquefied petroleum gas. Kalan is a local term for stove.
However, Air Kalan is additionally powered by electricity that consumes about two-watts, which, according to Ofelia, "could not even make the dial of an electric meter move."
"The fluorescent bulb can make the electric meter reading equipment move than our Air Kalan," she said.
This is how to use the Air Kalan: put in some charcoal to the burner, light it with a paper or anything flammable and when it started to ignite, plug the wiring to the socket and turn on the adjuster to generate the appropriate heat.
An attached blower powered by electricity fires up the heat using the adjuster.
"You can even use small blocks of woods and not only charcoal to the Air Kalan," Ofelia said.
Air Kalan looks like it is made up of steel because it is colored silver. It's just painted so, however.
The burner is actually fashioned out of clay but made more durable by reinforcing it with wires, the proprietress said. The indigenous stove could last several years.
What is important, she noted, is taking good care of the blower that hastens the cooking process for the stove to serve the household long enough.
The burner, if it is broken, could be bought from them at only P150, she said.
Ofelia said the ready-to-use set of Air Kalan costs only P1,200 for a small double-burner.
It is P1,800 for the medium-size double burner. A combination of small-and-medium size double burner fetches P1,500.
The couple also sells a single burner Air Kalan at P850 each.
Of course, the couple offers warranty but only for only three months after purchase.
After the period, if the electric blower breaks down, a buyer could buy it from them for P700 with labor installation free of charge.
Based on the couple's product briefer, Air Kalan can consume more or less P10 electricity a month for a three-hour daily use.
Add the cost of charcoal, which is usually sold in the area at P70 per sack, a household needs only to shell out at least P80 per month with Air Kalan.
If the same household size uses liquefied petroleum gas, which can be bought here by P537 per 11-kilogram tank, and consumes it at two to three months, Air Kalan is still considerably cheaper.
For three months with Air Kalan, cooking expenses will run approximately less than P250, the couple's product briefer suggested.
The Department of Trade and Industry has already granted Rene the right to sell Air Kalan following his successful application for the trade name Airblow Marketing on February 26 this year. (RBS)
(November 28, 2005 issue)
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