Solar Cookers and their Infinite Possibilities

I still clearly remember this one photograph that Dr. Bruce Becker showed us in class last week; the one where there are numerous solar cookers laid out under the sun. I have come to believe that solar cookers are one of the best products that have been designed in this world. The solar cooker systems can be implemented in basically anywhere, including the refugee camps, less developed countries, or even, the most developed countries.

I had a chance to attend the conference, “A Better World by Design,” which was held between Brown University and RISD this weekend. The main theme of the conference was to discuss sustainability and social design, and it offered various panels and workshops. Among the workshops, there happened to be a workshop about the solar cookers, and I, being greatly interested in solar cookers, had to attend the workshop.

The Solar Cookers workshop was hosted by Virginio Mendonça and Eric Fedus, the two active professionals in the field. They discussed the simplicity, practicality, and the infinite possibilities of solar cookers.

Solar cookers are not just solar cookers. They can be implemented anywhere, and depending on the context they are put into, they can transform into various other useful things. First of all, the benefit of using solar cookers is that they save tremendous amount of energy. There is no need for gas, wood or electricity, but the sun light (all you need is 20 minutes of sunlight every hour.) Virginio Mendonça explained that solar cookers can be adapted to producing charcoal as well, to save wood. To make charcoal, you need to burn a lot of wood in order to heat up the wood that becomes charcoal. This process requires a lot of wood to be wasted, and solar cookers can help to better this situation. Plus, he also pointed out that solar cookers can solve a lot of health problems that women and children in the third world countries face. In those places, they mostly burn wood to cook, and the kitchen is oftentimes located in the corner of the house, without any chimney or proper ventilation systems. So, the women and the children’s health are often affected by the smoke produced during cooking. This problem can be easily helped with solar cookers, as they do not require any wood-burning, and therefore no smoke! I was struck by these ideas, as I had never thought about this kind of potentials of solar cookers.

As the workshop continued, Eric Fedus explained how solar cookers are changing their forms and functions over the years, adapting to the context they are in. For example, he mentioned that in India, they made some adjustments to the solar cookers and added an electrical backup cooking option for in case there is not enough sunlight. This reflects that solar cookers are starting to become something that is more permanent, rather than just a temporary cooking option.

Eric Fedus also introduced the Scheffler Reflectors, invented by a German inventor, Wolfgang Scheffler. What is different about Scheffler Reflectors is that they transfer the energy/heat to the indoor kitchen so that people do not have to go outside to cook. (One of the questions he raised about solar cookers was that nobody is really used to cooking outside these days.) His parabolic reflectors have been distributed worldwide, serving in community kitchens, bakeries, etc. A number of these reflectors can be installed on the roof of a building, and boil water using solar power. The boiled water produces steam, and that steam gets transferred to indoors and provides energy for cooking. According to Eric Fedus, the current largest working system in the world is in India, where there are 104 of Scheffler Reflectors on the roof of a temple, providing 30,000 meals a day.

I also learned at the workshop that there are such things as solar water boilers, solar dryers, solar washing machines, and even, a solar cremation! I was thrilled when I heard these possibilities, especially when I heard solar cremation. There really is NO limit whatsoever! Those options were all developed based off of solar cookers. I find it astonishing that something as simple as solar cookers can be transformed and evolve into something else, meeting many different needs.

I believe design should be that way, too. It should be simple but concrete. It should be practical and meet people’s needs. It should solve problems – not just the problems of the users, but also the environmental problems. It should be able to adapt to many different contexts, and evolve from there. Design should be beautiful, not just in a formal sense, but also in the way it addresses and solves problems.

Now I am a huge fan of solar cookers. I believe in its bottomless potentials, and I would love to invest in one in the future. Actually, perhaps I could just make one myself, because all I need is a couple of boxes of different sizes, some newspaper for insulation, some aluminum foil, an absorber plate, and a few other materials. It will cost me about $5, according to Virginio.