document updated 10 years ago, on Feb 18, 2014

Stoves that can be used in an emergency situation for cooking, and possibly heating.

alcohol stove

Alcohol stoves have one huge benefit over other stoves — they can be safely used indoors, which means they make it much easier to cook, AND they can be used for heating.

Campers / hikers aren't as keen on them because the fuel doesn't provide as much heat for the same weight of fuel, but when you're at home, fuel weight doesn't matter.

Details:

for home use, it's common to use chafing fuel / Sterno to cook with
alcohol stoves have been used for marine cooking for a while, they have a lot of good advice about them
it's also possible to use some types of denatured alcohol [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Alcohol stoves don't put out as much heat as other stoves; this can be fixed somewhat by using a pressurized design. Heating the fuel tank from below is a great way of pressurizing the fuel.

Note, however, that pressurized stoves can be finicky and dangerous. "This process [priming], although not difficult, must be done correctly or the stove will tend to flare up and send flames high above the surface of the stove. Many boat fires are caused by alcohol stove flare-ups. For these reasons, the number of alcohol stoves using pressurized burners has declined dramatically."
Some medical details on the safety of burning ethanol/methanol stoves indoors: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Unpolished information:

various wicks can be used to increase the surface area available for burning, including Scotch 27 tape
I kinda like the remote fuel design
this is cool, but maybe overkill?
how to make very tiny holes

buddy burner

Buddy burners are useful because they're stable and inert, and can be stored almost anywhere. They're not as good as an alcohol burner IMHO, but it may be useful to some as a backup.

How to make them: [1] [2]

wood stoves

Wood stoves have the upside that the fuel is plentiful and easy to find. Downside: you have to cook outside, and so they can't be used as a heater either.

Science and theory:

Aprovecho Research Center > publications

Specific models I like: