cooking in West Africa
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I use the sun to cook?
All terrestrial and most aquatic plant life use the
sun's energy to produce all their food. So why shouldn't humans?
|The sun, the Earth's star, is very hot and powerful.
The core of the sun is approximately 15 million degrees Celsius and 4.5
pounds of sunlight hit the Earth every second!
More sun fun
Alternatives to wood products come in the form of
fuels. These fuels like gas and coal have taken centuries to
form, and are also being used at a rate much higher than they are being
||Renewable, Usable, Free Energy:
For many centuries, humans have been using
fire as a source of fuel. Fire uses lots of wood to burn, and when wood
was used in small enough quantities to allow time for new trees to grow
in place of old ones, everything was great. Now, the demand for wood for
other products, coupled with the increased population of the Earth is making
wood for fuel scarce. Deforestation is a problem all over the World, especially
in countries that depend on wood for fuel.
For more on Deforestation see:
Revolution and Rain
Our friend, the sun, is always there for us. Capturing
energy from the sun is simply using energy that is currently not being
used. It is also free to harness the suns power, an asset to anyone who
pays electric bills. In regions of the World where there is no access to
electricity or gas fuel, the benefits of solar power are tremendous.
How does solar
Solar energy, in the form
of light, can be reflected and effectively concentrated or focused into
such a way that it can be used to cook food. The rays of light must
be directed through panel positioning to focus on the place where food
will be placed for cooking. This can be done through parabolic models
that directly focus solar energy to a single point or through paneled models
that direct the suns rays into a central location.
For additional information on
|This energy in the form
of light must be converted into heat in order to be effective for cooking.
Black pots, pans, and parts of the cooker are used as light absorbers.
As the light is absorbed, it is converted to heat and transferred to the
food, heating it to temperatures necessary for cooking, pasteurization
The heat energy must be retained
within the cooker for a sufficient amount of time to be useful in raising
and sustaining the temperature. Retention of heat is best done through
insulation. Insulation involves absorbing and trapping heat.
While this is mainly achieved through materials used in the construction
of the cooker, (cardboard, adobe, concrete, hay, or trapped air),
type of cooking device can also affect efficiency.
of Solar Box Cooker Design
of Solar Cooking by Natasha Lindo and Toli Lerios
Off Grid Living: Solar
How do I build
my own solar cooker?
In order to build a solar cooker for ordinary use
the following items will be needed:
surface material: Aluminum, tin, mirror, glass, etc.
Utensils: For faster cooking paint pots black (if not otherwise
tire (rubber), soil, ash, cardboard, trapped air, etc.
box, baskets, wood, etc.
Plans for each of the following designs can be
accessed by clicking on the headings below. For further examples
and designs an extensive list of plans for building solar cookers has been
compiled by The Solar Cooking Archive.
The following are the three main styles that have been developed and implemented
in the field:
Photos courtesy os Solar Cookers
Do I have
to be outside to cook?
||NO! In fact some new solar cookers have
been installed onto the sides of homes in many locations! They can
be accessed from inside the home throughout the year, and offer relief
from the sun for the food preparer.
For more information please see Through
the Wall Ovens .
solar cookers been used?
According to the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
between 1990 and 1995 Africa lost 3.7 million hectares of forest every
year. The report states that Africans south of the Sahara rely heavily
on fuel wood for cooking. Up to 70 to 90 percent of the energy used in
Africa comes from wood. As a result, heavy deforestation occurs. It is
our hope that the introduction of solar cookers can help alleviate some
of these problems. The following pictures illustrate the many types
of solar cookers being implemented in African:
is a region that lies mainly south of the largest, hottest desert in the
World, the Sahara. This region is also known as sub-Saharan Africa and
some of the poorest people in the World live there. Sunlight is abundant
in this region, and the need for alternative fuel is evident.
||These women stand next to their panel cookers in Burkina Faso
||A Kenyan woman bicycles home with the solar cooker she has just completed.
||The box type solar cooker here carried by three African women, was
easily constructed with cardboard.
These three men are fashioning their own parabolic panel
out of clay.
The box cookers seen here in Tanzania were made out wood.
This basket was woven especially for the purpose of being
made into a solar cooker.
All photos courtesy of Solar Cookers
||This modified box-style solar cooker was built
by Kristen Rahn while
she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer
in Paraguay. Newspaper was used as insulation,
and a hole dug into the ground for use as an outside box. In this
picture a cake is being baked.
could I find information about solar cooking?
We don't have all the answers in
solar cooking, but here are some sites that might:
Where can I
find more examples of solar cooking designs?
I don't want to build a solar cooker-
can't I just buy one?
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