Campfires: More fuel-efficient than Stoves!

[Hans Lemurson]

Campfire: Consumes 10 fuel/day.  If you spend 5 hours cooking at it, you will burn through 2 wood.  You will need to deconstruct it after you are done to not waste fuel, but you get all the remaining wood back.

Fueled Stove:  Consumes 160 fuel/day (according to the ThingDefs).  If you cook one meal at the stove you will use about 2 fuel (less if your cook is fast).  "Turns Off" automatically when not being used.

If you have no electricity and need to conserve your fuel while you convert raw food into more nutritious meals, then the Campfire is the clear winner!

[hwfanatic]

It is slower, isn't it, though?

[Hans Lemurson]

Yeah, Campfire cooking seems to go at about 1/3 speed as stovetop cooking. (Looks like 17 work at a campfire, but 5 work at a Stove)

But even so, your fuel costs for the same amount of meals are 20-25% what a stove would cost you.  This is relevant for all those situations where Wood is your limiting factor, but for some reason you don't have electricity.  Very common situations like...
Umm...
Ice-sheet Tribals?
Desert Tribals?
EXTREME Desert Tribals?

Yeah, you know, all of those commonly encountered scenarios.  This is for that.

[b0rsuk]

You can't cook fine meals, on the other hand a campfire provides light and heat. It depends how valuable your colonist time is. Is you have a colonist who can only cook and not much else, go ahead cook on campfires.

But it feels /wrong/. Stoves are built to channel heat and not let it escape too much.

[Hans Lemurson]

I agree.  It's the wrongness of it that bothered me.  Burning a pile of wood in the open air should be much LESS efficient than in an enclosed channeled environment. 

I'm not sure though whether campfires should have their efficiency reduced, or Fueled Stoves have it increased.

[b0rsuk]

Increase stove efficiency. Refueling campfires used for heating rooms would be even more awful.

[Nuss]

Oh, you also can cook at a campfire...

[Dorian]

Not sure if it's intended or coincidence, but I've found my colonists get food poisoning more often on campfires, even if they eat at a clean table.  Can someone confirm this is true?

[Jimyoda]

Not sure if it's intended or coincidence, but I've found my colonists get food poisoning more often on campfires, even if they eat at a clean table.  Can someone confirm this is true?

That's because the chance of making a contaminated meal is determined by the cook's skill and the cleanliness of the room where it was prepared. Has nothing to do with where it's eaten.