Solar cookers and ovens – a simple way to reduce your carbon footprint

In the time when the world faces the threat of climate change, the idea of cooking with the sun’s energy does not seem as obscure as it did twenty years ago. The motive for the establishment of SCI was not primarily to help protect the environment, but to reduce world poverty. To this end, 30,000 families all over the globe have so far been given solar cookers and thus also a safe and healthy way to prepare food. Nowadays cookers like this could help reduce our carbon footprint.

PHOTO: www.blog.thesietch.org

Solar cooker or oven is designed to concentrate light and heat from the sun into a small area used for cooking or baking. Temperature in it can reach up to 200°C. As a downside, solar cooking is left at the mercy of natural conditions - sun strength, season, altitude and weather. In addition, cooking with the sun’s energy averagely takes twice as much time as coking in an open fire (except in the tropics or high altitudes), which is why it cannot be the only method used to prepare food. However, it can become an exciting addition in the kitchen. Apart from the fact that solar cooking is costless, one of its advantages is that it demands far less attention, as food cannot be burned and does not need to be stirred. It can be left in a cooker for several hours, so by placing it there in the morning you can have lunch waiting for you after you’ve returned from work.

With the culture of grilling, which incidentally poses a threat to the environment as well as our health, so widely spread in Slovenia, it makes sense to think about how we can make a solar cooker or oven ourselves and try it out at the first available opportunity. It can easily be done in these winter days, so we gain enough experience by summertime. This way we can prove we are not one of those who keep ascribing responsibility for all environmental problems to politicians and advocating environmental protection in principle, while sticking to old ways in practice. Each step in the right direction counts.

PHOTO: Jim Twamley; rvtravel.com

Solar cooker or oven can be ordered online for a couple of hundred euros, but judging from various web sites it can just as easily be made at home. Ideas on how to make a solar cooker may be found at The Solar Cooking Archive Wiki. Those of you who are particularly handy can make use of this comprehensive presentation, which results in a very attractive solar product.

PHOTO: www.solar.com