Cook Without any Gas or Electricity: the Solar Cooker

A solar cooker uses the direct sunlight to heat, pasteurize and cook food and drink. These are ideal for low-income people, as they use barely no external energy or fuel, and are very cheap and simple low-tech devices.

Solar cookers can also slow down pollution or deforestation, as they have no emissions and use no firewood or other fuel.

Photo Source: sunnycooker.webs.com

How a solar cooker works

Solar cookers use some basic principles, such as:

• Concentrating sunlight: direct sunlight is concentrated on a small cooking area, thus concentrating the energy and increasing the heat produced; this is done by a reflective surface.
• Converting light to heat: light is absorbed by a black or low-reflective surface.
• Trapping heat: covering the cooking area keeps the hot air inside; it may be possible to reach the same cooking temperatures in cold days, as well as in hot ones.
• Greenhouse effect: a glass surface lets light pass through, but keeps radiation inside the area.

How to cook in a solar cooker

To reduce cooking time, it is important to cut food into smaller pieces than you would for regular cooking. Otherwise, cooking is done basically the same way as on a regular stove or oven. The solar cooker may be elevated on a brick, metal trivet, rock, or other heat sink and placed in direct sunlight.

Photo Source: blogs.swa-jkt.com

The cooker is turned towards the sun, and left there until the food is properly cooked. It is unnecessary to stir or turn the food over, because of even cooking and because if the cooker is opened, trapped heat can escape, thus slowing the cooking process. It is important to check if shadows from other buildings or plants are not blocking the sunlight. For longer cooking times, the cooker is turned to face the sun at its highest point during the time.

Simple Designs

Photo Source: wikipedia

Photo Source: solarcooking.wikia.com

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

• no fuel = no gathering or paying for firewood or other fuel; also, reduces deforestation and habitat loss
• high temperatures = ability of sterilizing and pasteurizing, as well as cooking the same as in a regular stove or oven
• no smoke
• no fire = children cannot get burned; no danger of a wildfire

Disadvantages:

• less useful in cloudy days = limited on cooking in clear days
• longer cooking time
• special cooking techniques required
• some designs affected by strong wind

I personally wonder how tasty food may be when cooked in such a solar cooker?And wonder who has had such an experience already.

Source: http://impressivemagazine.com/2013/07/18/solar-cooker/

kim kardashian flour matt forte jeremy shockey new orleans saints ireland vangogh yield