[Stoves] Solar cookers

Thu May 15 16:04:49 CDT 2014

As this is a bioenergy list, I hope we can now leave solar cookers in the
light of Otto's very sensible comments.  Our own experience confirms Otto's
observations in every detail.  Solar cookers don't work in the Sub-Saharan
situation partly because the staple foods don't do very well in solar
cookers; partly because the cooks actually enjoy being involved in food
preparation, and are unhappy leaving the food to cook where they can't
taste, stir, smell the process; and partly because this is Africa, and if
some wanderer doesn't steal your food, then there is a real prospect that a
monkey or some other animal will.  Tellingly, one failed experimenter wrote
"The road to the north is littered with abandoned solar cookers!" Stick to
stoves, brother stovers - the solar route has been extensively tried and
repeatedly failed.

Prof Philip Lloyd

Energy Institute

Cape Peninsula University of Technology

PO Box 652, Cape Town 8000

Tel:021 460 4216

Fax:021 460 3828

Cell: 083 441 5247

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Otto Formo
Sent: 15 May 2014 09:00
To: Stoves Bioenergylist
Subject: Re: [Stoves] solar cooking in time Re: Others may know this but it
new to me WILSON SOLARCOOKER

Dear Dieter,

 I am very much aware of the baskets for hot storage.

 Low income households are not entitled to the luxury to plan their cooking,
hours and days ahead.

Meat or beef ("Relish") are expensive and hard to find.

As far as I know, in most part of southern Africa, these households among
others, use some kind of a "porridge" made from corns (Maize).

That one has to be eaten right after preparation or it will turn into
"cement", just like potato mash.

In Zambia (and many other African countries), they used it daily as the
staple food source, called Nzima.

No access to a fridge or freezers, and occasionally just "fresh" meat. 

They also need to utilize the daylight for work in the fields, also
collecting water and firewood.

After dark its time for cooking, that's the fact.
You hardly find people "outdoor" after dark, apart from illegal charcoal
producers and poachers.

The daily routine is not addressed by the clock, but actually by the sunrise
and sunset.

Just what we were doing in Norway, a hundred years ago..before electricity
and tap water.

Have you ever stayed in a village and listen to the hens start "calling",
just before sunrise and life begin to become active again? 

May be in a refugee camp, you can find differences from this pattern, but
that's not a "normal" situation.

 All the best

Otto

  _____  

Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 14:08:01 +0200
From: doseifert at googlemail.com
To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Stoves] solar cooking in time Re: Others may know this but it new
to me WILSON SOLARCOOKER

Dear Otto and list,

The answer to Paal's question "What shall you do With a solar cooker, when
the sun set and People like to have their warm supper 
after a long day in the fields?" is very simple: The meal was prepared in
the time when the sun was shining, than the pots 
were transferred to hay boxes/hay baskets and all is ready and warm for
eating just when people arrive (described e.g. in the book "Fireless
Cookery" Seattle 1981)
In the case of cooking with firewood instead of that, the meal has to be
cooked and people have to wait hungry or they have to collect firewood. 

In 2011 my wife noted the number of days she cooked with our parabolic
cooker (Alsol 1.4) with 1.4 m reflector diameter. 
On 157 days she cooked all meals of the day, she baked and made conserves
and she did not touch her electric stove in the kitchen, 
because solar cooking in the garden gives more pleasure, needs less
attention etc. In regions with scarcity of firewood 
there is regularly more sunshine per year than here in Upper Bavaria.

I think that traditions (also e.g. that the rice has to taste of smoke etc.)
should be abandoned before the last tree disappeared.

With best wishes
Dieter

Am 14.05.2014 21:35, schrieb Otto Formo:

Michael N,

There are a lot of good ideas out there, but if they are not put into
practice or action, what`s the point.....................?

I was very dissapointed to find out that this was a "scam" and fake in broad
daylight.

Like Paal used to say:
"What shall you do With a solarcooker, when the sun set and People like to
have their warm supper after a long day in the fields?"

YES, that could have been solved by the Wilson Solar Cooker.
Now, the only Mr. Wilson, I will remember from the US, is the nighbour to
Dennis..........that`s all.........:)

May be that`s the best way too.
Otto

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