Solar Cookers—What a Bright Idea!

Most food is usually cooked in conventional ovens, gas or electric stoves, barbeques, and propane grills. But here's another, often-overlooked method of cooking food-one that uses the sun!

Cooking with solar energy is an easy and inexpensive alternative to using gas and electric methods. A solar cooker is easily constructed by reusing nontoxic materials such as felt, old metal tubs, paper mache, mirrors, bottles, cardboard, and pizza boxes. A wide array of models and shapes and sizes of cookers are available. In Spain, a box cooker was constructed entirely from reused beverage boxes.

Some people may think that the concept of solar cookers is a relatively new idea, but people have been solar-cooking food for at least the last 100 years. Swiss naturalist Horase de Sasussure, considered the grandfather of solar cooking, was the first known to construct a box to solar-cook food. De Sasussure cooked fruits in a primitive solar box cooker that reached temperatures of 190°F. During that time, the practice of using solar cookers was becoming more widespread. There are many stories of individuals using solar cookers: in India a British soldier patented a rather sophisticated solar cooker. A restaurant in China in 1894 served solar-cooked food, and an early sea captain constructed a solar cooker to use on long voyages.

The familiar solar cookers used today began to originate in the 1950s, a time when the world was still experiencing the after-effects of World War II. During this time, people looked for methods that would create a stable and peaceful future. Many well-respected engineers received the assignment to study the different models of solar cookers. The engineers concluded that when properly built, solar cookers were simple to construct and use, and they cooked food completely and nutritiously.

In northern climates, solar cookers are effective for six months out of the year-in Sacramento, the sun generally shines 200 days each year. In tropical areas, solar cookers can be used year-round. Generally, the solar cookers take twice as long to cook as conventional methods; preheating requires thirty minutes. Cooking early in the day to take advantage of the sun is important. One advantage to cooking with solar ovens is that there is no risk of overcooking food.

Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole are the inventors of the cardboard solar box cooker, with Kerr Enterprises originating the solar box cooker. Kerr Enterprises currently distributes plans, kits, and fully assembled cookers.

Kerr-Cole Solar Box Cookers
PO Box 576
Taylor, AZ 85939
bkerr@cybertrails.com  

Solar Cookers International (SCI) is a nonprofit organization that strives to increase the popularity of solar cooking to help people and environments worldwide. Originating in January 1995 in a camp in northwestern Kenya, SCI began as a pilot project to teach the method of solar cooking to refugees. SCI publishes the Solar Cooker Review two or three times a year to provide solar cooking information from around the world.

Solar Cookers International
1919 21st Street, Suite 101
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 455-4499 (phone)
(916) 455-4498 (fax)
info@solarcookers.org
www.solarcooking.org

On the Web site "Teaching for a Better World," Sue LeBeau describes the benefits of building and using solar cookers for classroom projects. Most cookers are simple enough to be built by children, according to LeBeau. While students may question the possibility of cooking pizza, hot dogs, or baking cookies using only solar heat, they will quickly understand how such a task is accomplished when they see how a solar cooker operates. She explains simplicity of the theory: harness the heat of the sun in a container long enough to cook food. LeBeau describes a solar box cooker as a "one-foot deep container, with an aluminum foil interior, a glass or plexiglass top, and a reflector lid" which is capable of reaching 200-300°F.

LeBeau suggests that a cooker constructed from a used cardboard pizza box or potato chip can with a silver metallic interior is a good way to introduce solar cooking to students. She encourages people to cook simple recipes such as hot dogs, nachos, or cookies when first using their cooker.

"Once students realize that cooking with sunlight is both easy and fun you may want to capitalize on this enthusiasm by holding sun bake offs or solar-cues," LeBeau suggests. In this way, children can consider ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the cookers.

The Web site for Solar Now, Inc. provides instructions on how to construct a solar oven from used materials, such as a pizza box. The Pizza Box Solar Oven is capable of reaching temperatures of 275° F, which enables it to cook many types of food and even kill bacteria in water.  The Pizza Box Solar Oven can be used to heat English muffin pizzas, hot dogs, s'mores, or even bake cookies or biscuits.

On the Solar Cooking Archive's Web site, Bob Culbertson provides instructions on how to construct a "Lazy-Susan" for a solar cooker using scrap materials. The Simple Solar Cooker Rotator helps your solar cooker maintain alignment with the sun, and it is easy and inexpensive to make.

With the wide array of reuse materials available to build solar cookers, the future of solar cooking is indeed bright.

Information for this article came from sources below:

Teaching for a Better World (No longer being published)

International Communities http://www.ic.org/resources/cdir1995/KerrEnterprises.html )

The Solar Cooking Archive http://www.solarcooking.org  

A History of Solar Cooking http://www.solarcooking.org/history.htm  

Solar Box Cookers—A Hit in Rio http://www.solarcooking.org/rio.htm  

Simple Solar Cooker Rotator http://www.solarcooking.org/rotator.htm  

Solar Now, Inc. http://www.solarnow.org/pizzabx.htm  

Patricia Green, Information Exchange (305/294-5786)

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Last updated: February 27, 2008