the Sun Cook Solar Oven: Cooking without Carbon
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto, Canada on 10. 9.06
It was the warmest Canadian Thanksgiving that we could remember; up north where we would normally be wearing woollies, we had dinner outside on a dock, red leaves floating on the water around us. The bird was local, free range, organic and wonderful. We discussed environmental issues all night and determined that the five hours cooking the bird created close to 15 pounds of Carbon Dioxide emissions. Perhaps next year we should try cooking in a solar oven like the Sun Cook- they call it " the sustainable replacement for the backyard barbecue". This Portuguese design has polished reflectors which concentrate sunlight in the insulated oven chamber; a metal plate on the bottom absorbs solar energy, and the tempered glass top holds it in. Get this- you time your cooking with a built in sundial. Available from ::Sun Baked President Stephen Kerr lists some very good reasons for cooking solar, repeated below the fold.
UPDATE: See also Paula's earlier post on solar cookers here
Solar cooking is fun!
Why spend time cooking inside when it’s sunny outside? Preparing food outside in your backyard or in nature is fun and relaxing. Preparing food with renewable solar energy is doubly so, as you get the satisfaction of doing no harm to the environment while you cook healthy food with free solar energy.
Climate Change
Every time you cook food using electricity, natural gas, propane or wood, you release polluting greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The scientific consensus is that global warming is happening, and that climate disruption is directly linked to atmospheric CO2 from fossil fuel and biomass burning. Solar cooking emits zero CO2 or other greenhouse gasses. It’s the sustainable way to cook.
Peak Oil
Petroleum geologists all agree that the Earth’s reserves of oil and gas are finite, and that eventually they will reach a point of peak production, then decline. In fact, a scientific consensus is rapidly building that global oil production has peaked, and that natural gas production in North America has already peaked, and is now in decline. Solar cooking uses no fossil fuels, and produces the same results when the sun shines.
Health
Solar cooked food is healthier and often tastier than food cooked by other means. Nutrients stay in the food, and you never need to worry about burning food. Because there is no smoke, cooks don’t need to worry about inhaling toxic, unhealthy smoke from charcoal barbeques or cook fires. Food doesn’t dry out or burn, like it can when being fried or cooked over an open fire. Solar cooked food is succulent, moist and delicious.
Deforestation
Global forests are under threat from deforestation. Solar cookers have helped people in the developing world save their remaining forests. Some three billion people rely on firewood for their cook fires. This simply cannot continue if the global environment is to be preserved and human populations sustained. When people in developed countries invest in solar cookers, they can help people in the developing world. Click here to learn more.
Empowering Women and the Poor
In many developing nations, families spend a far too large percentage of their incomes on fire wood and charcoal for cook fires. The burden of gathering wood and making charcoal often falls on women, whose health is damaged from smoke, and whose income and time are drained in the quest for fuel. Solar cooking empowers women in developing countries from enslavement to the cook fire, freeing their time for other chores, and improving their physical and financial health.
All of these reasons should convince you that the time to buy a solar cooking appliance is now. Click here to order the solar cooker that’s right for you.
Solar Cooking Uses Free Fuel
When you cook with electricity, gas, wood or propane, you pay hard earned money for the fuel that you use, while much of the energy in the fuel gets wasted as heat in your kitchen or outside. With solar cooking, your fuel is the free energy of the sun, which has never to our knowledge sent a bill, and never will. If you replace your backyard barbeque with a solar cooker and use it regularly, your cooker will pay its cost back in fuel savings within 3 years. For the remaining 17+ years, you are cooking literally for free.
There's a lot of information out on the net how to make these for next to nothing... If you've never heard of this before, heres some basic links i grabbed quickly:
http://www.discoversolarenergy.com/DIY/cooking.htm
http://solarcooking.org/spc.htm
I would second the recomendation for solarcooking.org!
It is a global information resource about solar cooking with an emphasis on its use in the third world.
Check out
http://www.solarcooking.org/docs.htm#newsletters
This one page will keep you fascinated for hours!
solarcooking.org is an inspiring informational site with lots of different approaches to solar cooking, not a commercial site trying to sell a product (unlike Sun Baked).
$350? Ouch. I will stick with the cardboard and aluminum foil one I made a couple of summers ago.
Hi, I'm Stephen Kerr, the owner of Sun Baked. Just thought I'd like to clarify a few issues raised by the two anonymous posts above.
Sun Baked is a founding member of Solar Cookers International Association, and we fully support the work of solarcooking.org. When my small business actually starts making some money, we'll be supporting a solar cooking project in the developing world. I expect this will be sometime in the summer of 2007.
Sun Baked is my creation. After years spent doing solar water heating, I wanted to spread solar energy technology to a wider range of people than just middle class homeowners with money. Selling solar cookers to people who want to reduce their impact on the environment is how I make my very modest living.
Yes, you can make a solar cooker yourself, out of simple materials. A few caveats if you do.
The cooker you make yourself will not likely reach the high temperatures (up to 400 degrees F) we have recorded in the Sun Cook. This could be dangerous if you're cooking meats. Be sure to use a meat thermometer, and monitor the temperature of the meat you are cooking. Meat must be maintained at a minimum temperature of 140F to kill dangerous bacteria and prevent food borne illness. Just because the oven temperature says 140F doesn't mean the meat inside is that hot.
The home made solar cooker will not likely last for very long unless it's exceptionally well crafted. This is what people who have made them long ago tell me. The ones I sell come with a two year warranty and built to last for at least 20.
I have also seen what are frankly unsafe parabolic solar cookers made from things like satellite TV dishes covered in foil. These are dangerous because the focal point is located far beyond the volume of the dish in empty space. If somebody walked into it, they could be burnt or blinded. This could also start a fire. The German parabolic cookers I sell are safe to use, because the focal point sits within the volume of the reflector dish, and is clearly demarcated by a pot holder.
If somebody wants to make their own solar cooker - I say more power to you. That's how I got into it. However exclusively promoting "DIY solar" is clearly not for everybody, and will not spread solar cooking as a sustainable practice beyond a few of the already converted and already skilled. Best wishes to all.
Stephen
The home made solar cooker will not likely last for very long unless it's exceptionally well crafted. This is what people who have made them long ago tell me. The ones I sell come with a two year warranty and built to last for at least 20.
Hello, Nice to meet you.
I don't know about that. I made mine 3 years ago, and it is still going strong. I use it in the summer, so my house isn't subject to more heat from the oven as I don't do air conditioning. Plus it's fun.
I am glad you're promoting Solar cooking, but DIY solar is a wonderful project, and a nice exploration of science with fun food benefits.
To decry DIYers on it is kind of sad, but as a vender of such products I can see how it would be in your interests to do so.
My only point was for $350, it's not an entry level item. Most of the folks I know would not get into solar cooking straight off and plunk down that much money. DIYing is a great way to start off, and if you're like me, maybe even stay content. Plus, I used waste items in the form of cardboard boxes, and finding a use for them instead of going into the recycle/trash was nice. I just don't like to buy anything if I can reuse something.