[Stoves] solar cooker response (changing thread name)

[Andrew Heggie]

On 12 June 2017 at 18:42, Roger Samson <rogerenroute at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> Yes solar thermal cooking is not very popular unless you are in fuel short and dry environment. I worked in central China (Gansu) and they had the leading program in the world at the time but it was still mainly used for boiling potatoes and drinking water. The locals still cooked their noodles and sauces on biomass stoves. Biomass stoves remained their primary stove with solar cookers a secondary appliance.


I have no experience of solar cooking but can understand this in that
cooking fits into a routine, so lighting the stove and cooking the
meal or heating a drink will be almost automatic to the cook and
having to decide whether to deploy the solar cooker  would need a bit
more consideration. Whereas Anand's solar drying use would be pre
planned and less subject to the vagaries of sunshine at any one
moment.


>
> If you look at the numbers its electrical cooking fueled by solar panels that looks like its going to get very cheap. In terms of  convenience and safety it doesnt get better than electrical cooking. I think it will largely replace gas stoves in the future.

Have you access to any of these numbers? Following on from some of
Nikhil's exhortations to use induction hobs I purchase a simple single
pot one. I am impressed, it heats up very quickly for a stir fry and
if I were a better organised cook I could boil rice and set it to
finish in a haybox, stir fry some vegetables and then add some pre
cooked beans and have a meal on the table for four in 30 minutes.

The question is how much electricity is used and what sized battery
bank I would need to store it?

I will try to remember to use a watthour meter soon unless you have
already got figures.

I aslo wonder how a 900W microwave compares if it is only heating for
a few minutes.

Andrew