p



‡ Half the world·s people must burn wood or dried dung

to cook their food.
‡ Nearly 1.2 billion people, a fifth of the world·s
population, do not have access to clean drinking water.
‡ Over 1 million children die yearly because of un-
un-boiled
drinking water.
‡ Wood cut for cooking purposes contributes to the 16
million hectares of forest destroyed annually.
‡ Half the world·s population is exposed to indoor air
pollution, mainly the result of burning solid fuels for
cooking and heating.
 ð



‡ Types of cookers
‡ Principles of solar cooker design
‡ Retained heat cooking
‡ Cooking guidelines
‡ Teaching ideas
‡ Examples
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‡ Box Cooker

‡ Panel Cooker

‡ Solar Funnel Cooker

‡ Parabolic Cooker - not recommended

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‡ Among easiest and most popular to build and use

‡ Lid of a cardboard box reflects light onto pots under glass
‡ Advantage of slow, even cooking of large quantities of
food
 



‡ Sunlight is reflected off of multiple panels onto a pot

under a glass lid or in a bag
‡ Can be built quickly and at low cost
‡ Many different varieties
 §



‡ Safe, inexpensive and easy to use

‡ Concentrates sunlight into a dark pot in a plastic bag
‡ Combines best of parabolic and box cookers
‡ Anyone can make one
 



‡ Highly focused light and high temperatures

‡ Cooks nearly as fast as a conventional oven
‡ Costly and complicated to make and use ² have to turn
frequently to follow the sun
‡ Potentially hazardous-
hazardous-not recommended
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 §

‡ Collect the light

‡ Absorb the light
‡ Retain the heat
‡ Ease and Efficiency
‡ Safety
 


 
‡ Collect the sunlight using reflectors with an
approximately 400 square inch opening (20x20)
‡ Easy way to measure: the minimum opening of
the cooker needs to be the diameter of an adult·s
arm
‡ Reflective surface materials include: aluminum,
Mylar, aluminized Mylar of any thickness,
aluminum or chromium paint (Note: mirror like
reflectors can lead to eye damage)
 

 
‡ Absorb the light ² paint the pot matte black or
another dark color to absorb the heat
‡ Pots can also be elevated by a wire base or posts,
allowing the bottom of the pots to collect
sunlight
 




‡ Retain the heat ² hot vessels lose their heat to
the air quickly so they need to be covered
‡ Cover with plastic, glass, Plexiglas, or tempered
glass
‡ A tight lid will trap steam and speed up cooking
Ex: Canning jars work like inexpensive pressure
cookers
 




A note on plastics
‡ Oven bags are the best way to retain heat. They are sold
in most large U.S. grocery stores, although they may be
hard to find in other places (Reynolds© bags work well)
‡ If you can·t find oven bags, an alternate solution is
transparent High Density Polyethylene bags (HDPE)
‡ Prevent the HDPE bags from touching the pots or jars,
as they may melt
‡ Avoid polyethylene ² it melts too easily
‡ Good plastic may be the most difficult material to find,
and may require extra planning, possibly including
importing the oven bags
 





Ease ² simplicity of everyday use

‡ Funnel and box cookers are the easiest to use ² they
don·t have to be turned to follow the sun
Efficiency - how fast the cooker heats food
‡ Parabolic cookers focus light to a point (most efficient)
causing dangerous conditions
‡ Funnel cookers focus light across a broader area down
the center of the cooker (efficient but not dangerous)
 §§


‡ Safety ² Avoid highly focused light such as that

in the parabolic cooker. It can damage eyes and
start fires
‡ Always exercise caution with cookers. Sunglasses
are useful when looking into a cooker
‡ Cooking pots are hot and should be treated as
though they were on a stove-
stove-top



 §





‡ Collect the light

‡ Absorb the light
‡ Retain the heat
‡ Ease and Efficiency
‡ Safety
 





‡ If sunlight is lost or multiple items need to be
cooked, there is a solution
‡ Once the food is heated, quickly transfer to
either:
- an insulated box or set of towels,
- or an insulated hole in the ground covered
with more insulation
‡ The food will continue to cook for hours
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‡ Sunny Day: heats from 130- 145rC (265-
130-145r 300rF)
(265-300r
‡ Cloudy Day: heats from 95- 105rC (200-
95-105r 220rF)
(200-220r
‡ Hot enough to pasteurize water (at least 65-70rrC
65-70
for 20 minutes)
‡ Hot enough to fully cook meats, breads, grains,
vegetables, etc.
‡ Kills disease-
disease-causing bacteria
 '
‡ Expect solar ovens to replace 60% of fuel needs
in most places
‡ The other 40% of the time, due to inclement
weather or special types of food, traditional
methods can still be used
‡ Doesn·t replace fire as a way to heat homes
 


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‡ Vegetables: 1.5 hrs
‡ Rice/wheat: 1.5-
1.5-2 hrs
‡ Beans: 2-
2-3 hrs
‡ Meats: 1-
1-3 hrs
‡ Bread: 1-
1-1.5 hrs

See Recipe File for more

details and cooking ideas
 



‡ Cost: approximately $2/cooker depending on
location and availability of materials
‡ Materials include cardboard, aluminum foil,
plastic bag, etc. See Building Instructions for
more details and be creative
‡ Benefits
² Saves cost of fuel or time spent gathering wood
² Prevents diseases from impure water
² Ecologically friendly