PIZZA PERFECT. Jerry Yu shows the interior of his patented JY insulated firebricks charcoal-fed oven that he originally designed for his wife’s pizza parties, but is now being sought after by commercial pizza establishments and pastry and bread bakeries. Photo taken by INQUIRER.net editor CHUPSIE MEDINA
ALTERNATIVE LPG BURNER. The JY insulated firebricks stove is made of lightweight but fire-sturdy materials and designed to be heat-efficient. Housewives appreciate the relatively clean-burning quality of less expensive charcoal when used in the stove. Photo taken by INQUIRER.net editor CHUPSIE MEDINA
MANILA, Philippines -- The bane of high oil prices is Jerry Yu’s boon. Today, in most ongoing trade fairs or expositions, Jerry’s booth would be bustling with activity and business. Interested onlookers are enticed to purchase what seems to be a sensible solution to spiraling fuel prices.
Jerry is selling charcoal-fed stoves and ovens. They are not your usual run-of-the-mill burners or kilns. The animated spiel that accompanies Jerry’s product demonstrations reveals more than just a jaded sales pitch. Indeed, it sounds more like an advocacy.
Jerry is a disgruntled LPG user. His dissatisfaction with oil-based fuel, more particularly its continuing price rise, started about three decades ago. In the early 70s, the 16-year old Jerry had decided to help his brother manufacture glazed ceramic and clay products. “It was the in-thing then,” he says.
In the business, LPG had always been considered the ideal fuel for glazing ceramics. The blue-flamed fuel is clean-burning, something that is extremely necessary to bring out that deep, rich smooth luster of color that coats decorative clay or ceramic products.
In 1982, Jerry started his own ceramics business. He built his own LPG-fired industrial ovens and used them to bake bricks, pots, planters, tiles and even balusters -- any product that the market would buy.
But the early 80s was a time when oil prices were on the rise. With the cost of LPG increasing by 10 percent, Jerry decided to retool his ovens to make them more efficient and to stay ahead in the business. “Every time the price of LPG rose, I would introduce changes in the ovens,” he said.
But as the cost of fuel continued its climb, Jerry realized -- and with a deep sense of loss -- that there was a limit as to how much innovation could be introduced to keep his ovens efficient and competitive.
“It did not help that China was soon producing glazed products that were cheaper than what we could produce,” Jerry says. After some soul-searching, he decided to wind down operations. If it was any consolation, many of his competitors had closed shop even months earlier.
All was not lost, though. Jerry’s dissatisfaction with the high cost of LPG prodded him to take a second and closer look at the poor man’s fuel -- charcoal. What knowledge he had imbibed in more than 30 years in the business, specifically in the technology of refractory, became the core of his new stoves and ovens.
With additional researches, Jerry designed and manufactured what are now his unique patented insulating firebricks. They are the most important part of his stoves and ovens, acting as the walls of his specially designed stove tops and kilns to efficiently utilize the heat from its fuel source.
The bricks are porous and lightweight, like most insulators, but retain their strength even at high temperatures. Surprisingly, the outside wall of a JY cooker remains cool even as a fire rages inside. “The design of the firebricks is the product of accumulated knowledge, of 30 years of experience,” Jerry says.
Developing the stove prototypes, though, had been a new adventure for Jerry. He started in earnest two years ago: “They were originally over-engineered,” he says. They were big bulky contraptions that used too much iron and too many bricks, and were not the epitome of fuel-efficiency.
After a year, Jerry felt confident about his much-improved designs. He started giving the newly fabricated models to neighborhood carinderia owners. “I told them to use it and to tell me what they think about it,” he said. The best feedback he continues to cherish is the fact that all stoves he gave away are still very much in use.
“Even at the trade fairs, I listen to comments,” Jerry says. They have become the source of inspiration to continuously improve his product.
When there were comments that using charcoal was inconvenient, messy and emitted smoke, Jerry searched for the right answers -- or solutions. His stove has a tray to efficiently catch ash fall. He showed how his unique bricks don’t accumulate soot. Neither did the outside of the pot get soiled. He suggested using charcoal bits dipped in denatured alcohol to start a fire and to prevent smoke.
Listening and interacting with prospective customers, best of all, had earned him the attention of commercial food establishments. Not only are bakers and pizza parlors lining up with orders for custom-made ovens, even fast food chains and gourmet restaurants were asking for stoves tailor-fit for their own use.
“It’s a happy problem,” Jerry says. Customers, according to the entrepreneur, are willing to wait even a month to get their oven or stoves. Jerry says that re-orders are not uncommon, an indication not only of customer satisfaction, but also of the growing shift away from LPG use.
There have been comments that charcoal is not a better alternative to petroleum because it would unduly deplete our forests, according to Jerry. Even the comparatively lower cost of charcoal would not be sustainable given the tripling of crude oil this last year.
With the same resoluteness he showed when developing his firebrick stoves and ovens, Jerry points to the inevitability of industrial tree farms that would produce renewable fuels. “Petroleum is a finite fuel,” Jerry says, and this would be the single biggest reason for an onrush in the development of alternative fuels.
There will be new forms of cooking fuel, a basic necessity in human living, which will emerge, he says. Even the crude way that charcoal is made will evolve into something more efficient, adds Jerry.
Meanwhile, he will keep improving his stoves in terms of efficiency of fuel use, design and price. For Jerry, this sense of purpose is needed not just to keep in business, but also to help those that are affected by the continuing rise in LPG.
Jerry Yu can be reached at jyfirebricks@yahoo.com or at telephone number 63.2.9114216 and 63.920.5760256.
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