Is there a standard stove performance test used to prove who's made the best stove?

Usual is 0.5l of cold water in whatever pot you plan on using. Do the test outside but use a windshield or whatever you'd use in the 'real world'. You're looking to obtain a 'rolling' boil rather than just bubbles

EDIT: it's usual to include any time taken for the stove to 'bloom' too.

This is only 450ml of water, but it's not practical bring 500ml to a rolling boil in a pan of 550ml capacity:


Outside boil test, with lid by ianbarrington, on Flickr

I also did a comparison between two stoves here. Summary results here: