[Stoves] Solar cookers

Bruce Stahlberg bruce at affordableenergysolutions.com
Fri May 16 13:50:53 CDT 2014


All points well taken.  We did use the sun to heat water, even small
amounts, which families found very useful for washing and even preheating
water for cooking which saved on fuels.  The process was simple with even a
small box and transparent cover with dark container inside.  The water can
get warm or very hot but either way it is free, easy and useful.  Solar
"cookers" can be used as a secondary (or primary) use to heat water.
Biiomass will always be the main fuel source but changing a mind set to
make use of the sun's is a good trend as well.  Bruce


On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 11:54 PM, Cookswell Jikos
<cookswelljikos at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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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-- 
Bruce Stahlberg
Affordable Energy Solutions, Inc.
3008 41st Ave South
Minneapolis, MN  55406
612.724.8977
www.affordableenergysolutions.com
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