[Stoves] Solar cookers

Thu May 15 23:54:20 CDT 2014

Dear Philip -

I could not agree with you more, one thing I find I often repeat to expert
expats when they ask why Cookswell does not promote solar cookers is that
Biomass ( read photosynthesis)  is nature's own beautiful solar cooker - it
has had millions of years of R&D, a wonderful LCA profile and, as with
trees, provides so much more in the form of water retention, shade, timber,
habitat..etc''..... I would like to see a piece of plastic/aluminium do all
that and cook dinner!

Thats my two cents.

Teddy

*Cookswell Jikos*
www.cookswell.co.ke
www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos
www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com
Mobile: +254 700 380 009
Mobile: +254 700 905 913
P.O. Box 1433, Nairobi 00606, Kenya

Save trees - think twice before printing.

On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 12:04 AM, Philip Lloyd <plloyd at mweb.co.za> wrote:

>  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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