[Stoves] Sun Buckets: off topic news, introduction
Roger Samson
rogerenroute at yahoo.ca
Wed Jan 4 13:15:49 CST 2017
The Chinese have low cost solar cookers made from cast concrete with small mirrors glued on to them. There were about 300,000 of them installed in western China ( Gansu province) when I was working on rural development programs there about 12 years ago. At the time they were about $40. . The Chinese government was supporting the parabolic solar systems as well as $150 biogas cooking systems. The solar parabolics if I remember provided about 18% of household energy needs and mainly were used for boiling potatoes and pre-heating hot water for wheat/lentil noodles their freshly made main daily staple. The woks ran on biomass or biogas. The noodles were so delicious.
See the 11 minute mark of this video to see how hot they got concentrated solar hitting the pot to make it glow.It was pretty impressive how well they worked. So its really only the sunbucket needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0XWyASyyko
regards
roger
--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 1/4/17, Paul Anderson <psanders at ilstu.edu> wrote:
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Sun Buckets: off topic news, introduction
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>, ambwat at gmail.com
Cc: "Salih Hamadto" <hamadtosa at hotmail.com>, "Patricia Roberts" <Patty at pacificmillimeter.com>, "Alfred Hislop" <Al at pacificmillimeter.com>, "Ken May" <mayekenneth74 at centurylink.net>, "Steve Stevens" <oldbike2 at comcast.net>
Received: Wednesday, January 4, 2017, 12:14 PM
Ron and all,
I am studying the limited info about the Sun Bucket, and
finding
enough to agree that it could well be compatible with
TLUD stoves
(and to a lesser extent with other biomass
stove-types.). So it is
not "off-topic" if, as Ron says, it can relate
to biomass stoves.
I doubt that it is only $50 if including a 1.5 meter
solar dish.
I will report back after I have direct contact with the
company.
Paul
Doc / Dr TLUD
/ Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email: psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype: paultlud Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website: www.drtlud.com
On 1/3/2017 7:30 PM,
Ronal W. Larson
wrote:
David and list - and cc some solar
cooking friends
Congratulations
on this modification of the usual solar cooker.
And on the two
awards that Sun Buckets has already won.
It
might seem you are on the wrong list - as we get
little traffic
re solar cookers - and our “biomass” address
would suggest this
is normally be the wrong place. But I see three
connections
(that I have mentioned recently to the ccs), that
make this
entirely appropriate for out stove list.
a).
There could be reasons to employ the same storage
concept at a
family (maybe neighborhood) level with any form of
biomass
stove. I think it would fit especially well with
TLUD stoves -
as they could be designed at a large (one full day
of cooking)
size - and one day’s cooking could be much less
time consuming
than at present. No solar involvement at all in
approach a).
b).
There could be good reason for option a) (such
as very high
fuel costs) to also want to couple a fully biomass
approach with
(zero fuel cost ) solar.
c).
Every solar option needs a backup - and biomass
is the usual
choice (except in the USA).
The
backup need not make charcoal - but the solar
cookers can never
be carbon negative; TLUDs can make that happen.
Which won’t
happen normally with a liquid (LPG) etc.
So
I’d like to continue this dialog with anyone
interested.
Because of all the option a), b), c)
possibilities, this
dialog could remain on this list. I suggest we
stay away from
the solar-only topic you brought to us. And we can
leave this
list if a few think it is detracting from our
biomass stove
dialog.
I
was employed at what is now NREL in Golden Colorado
and have
several friends with extensive experience in high
temperature
thermal storage (even little myself). I’ve been a
member of SCI
on and off.
My
friend Dr. Salih Hamadto (in Khartoum Sudan) has
sold many
concentrators of the Scheffler variety - which I
think might end
up being a preferred approach - instead of
paraboloids. All
the ccs know about biochar - which I think has a
much more
natural fit with your nice idea than our rocket
enthusiasts.
Ron
On Jan 3, 2017, at
12:51 PM, David Stein <ambwat at gmail.com>
wrote:
Dear All,
I am a newcomer to the Stoves list
but I’ve
spent some
time in the household energy sector in
developing
Vanuatu which is where I met
Nikhil.
I am
fascinated by solar cooking these
days.
There are many
potential socio-economic and
environmental benefits of solar cooking
and they are
all very seductive. Just
thinking about fuel-free and
emission-free cooking is
intoxicating.
However, it
seems that it is difficult to
achieve the potential benefits of solar
cooking
(especially in the developing
world) largely because those that dwell
in hot
climates (which is where much of
the developing world seems to be
located) have
developed lifestyles that
minimize exposure to the sun whereas
most methods of
solar cooking require the
cook to be out in the sun, often at
times of the day
that aren’t typical
cooking times. These facts
make the
difficult task of changing the cooking
habits of
cooks even more
challenging.
But it appears
as though the Sun Bucket http://www.sunbuckets.com/ “cracks all of these
nuts.” This amazing
innovation is
“charged” with the
heat of sunshine and the heat is stored
in a “sun
bucket” (phase change
“”battery”) where it can be used
when (like in the
evening or early morning)
and where (like inside a kitchen) it is
needed.
It cooks as hot as cooking on
fire and
existing cooking pots and pans
can be used so there is minimal need for
changes in
cooking behavior. It also
seems very affordable. I
guess it’s what they call
transformational.
It looks as
though a Sun Bucket should be a
part of every integrated coking scheme
(solar
cooking when it's sunny, using an
Improved Cook Stove when it's not,
and maybe using a
retained heat cooker with
both) everywhere the sun shines in the
developing
world.
I can hardly wait for
the Sun Bucket to be
unleashed to the world-wide market of
cooks that
could really use them.
Best wishes
for the coming year.
David
Stein
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