For ages solar cookers were made use of in 3rd world countries where electricity and gas was not readily available. Nowadays various solar oven designs are not only used in these regions to make food, but also to boil water for purification.
With energy supplies coming under threat, first world countries should get more involved in using solar cooking in households. The nice thing about a solar cooker is that is uses an abundant fuel source - the sun - so it helps to conserve the non-renewable sources of energy. Though it takes about 4 times longer than conventional ovens, it is worth the wait if you think how much it is benefiting the environment.
There have been a variety of unique solar oven designs thought up, but they can be categorized in three shapes: parabolic, panel, and box cookers.
Parabolic Design:
As the name suggests, a parabolic cooker is made from reflective material that is molded into bowl. This helps it concentrate the sunlight in one area and effectively cook your food. However, this design typically costs more and it's rigid structure makes it less practical for traveling.
Panel Cooker:
A panel cooker is any cooker made with a series of flat, reflective panels arranged to direct sunlight to a focal point.
The panel shape is not as efficient as the parabolic shape, but it has the advantage of being foldaway, portable, and rather simple to make. These cookers can be found in a number of interesting deigns, but the simplest is by far the one made by folding one of those reflective windscreen blinds.
Box Design:
Very different to the other two designs, the box cooker works by trapping the sun's heat, instead of simply focusing it on a central point. It is designed in such a way that it let's light in, but stops that heat from escaping. As more sunlight comes in, the hotter it gets.
This results in the entire area of the box to get hot and be able to cook larger portions of food at a time. This design is by far the simplest to put together - all you need is a black cardboard box with one side covered in tin foil and a sheet of clear perspex or glass on top to hold in the heat.
In fact most of these solar oven designs can be made from household materials in a short space of time. And what you can cook in them is really limited to your imagination - you can bake bread, steam vegetables, make stir-fries and even a roast chicken in them. Another advantage is the amount of power you'll save - unlike a conventional oven, your cooker needs to be outside to operate, so it put less strain on your kitchen's air conditioning system.
And since over two-thirds of Americans (according to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey) cook food on a daily basis, just imagine how much power we could save if more of us used solar oven designs during the sunny months.
There really is no excuse for not looking more into solar cooking. With a number of affordable solar cookers and free instructions available on the internet, you owe it to yourself, your kids and the environment to try one out for yourself. - 20607
With energy supplies coming under threat, first world countries should get more involved in using solar cooking in households. The nice thing about a solar cooker is that is uses an abundant fuel source - the sun - so it helps to conserve the non-renewable sources of energy. Though it takes about 4 times longer than conventional ovens, it is worth the wait if you think how much it is benefiting the environment.
There have been a variety of unique solar oven designs thought up, but they can be categorized in three shapes: parabolic, panel, and box cookers.
Parabolic Design:
As the name suggests, a parabolic cooker is made from reflective material that is molded into bowl. This helps it concentrate the sunlight in one area and effectively cook your food. However, this design typically costs more and it's rigid structure makes it less practical for traveling.
Panel Cooker:
A panel cooker is any cooker made with a series of flat, reflective panels arranged to direct sunlight to a focal point.
The panel shape is not as efficient as the parabolic shape, but it has the advantage of being foldaway, portable, and rather simple to make. These cookers can be found in a number of interesting deigns, but the simplest is by far the one made by folding one of those reflective windscreen blinds.
Box Design:
Very different to the other two designs, the box cooker works by trapping the sun's heat, instead of simply focusing it on a central point. It is designed in such a way that it let's light in, but stops that heat from escaping. As more sunlight comes in, the hotter it gets.
This results in the entire area of the box to get hot and be able to cook larger portions of food at a time. This design is by far the simplest to put together - all you need is a black cardboard box with one side covered in tin foil and a sheet of clear perspex or glass on top to hold in the heat.
In fact most of these solar oven designs can be made from household materials in a short space of time. And what you can cook in them is really limited to your imagination - you can bake bread, steam vegetables, make stir-fries and even a roast chicken in them. Another advantage is the amount of power you'll save - unlike a conventional oven, your cooker needs to be outside to operate, so it put less strain on your kitchen's air conditioning system.
And since over two-thirds of Americans (according to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey) cook food on a daily basis, just imagine how much power we could save if more of us used solar oven designs during the sunny months.
There really is no excuse for not looking more into solar cooking. With a number of affordable solar cookers and free instructions available on the internet, you owe it to yourself, your kids and the environment to try one out for yourself. - 20607
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