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December 05, 2008



Butterfly Community Solar Cooker from TinyTechIndia

Tiny Tech India has come up with a new version of a parabolic solar reflector called the Butterfly Community Solar Cooker.

According to the web site, it's advantages are:

  • As there are two equal reflectors - one on each side-, weight is balanced and hence it does not require foundations in the ground. It is mounted on 4 castor wheels and can be revolved and shifted in any direction at any moment even while cooking. In Scheffler Reflector, it is essential to fix the cooker with ground by RCC foundations.
  • It is not necessary to find out north south direction. In Scheffler Reflector, it is essential to fix north-south line and fit the cooker on that line.
  • It does not require to install on polar axis. So no latitude of the location is necessary to know. In Scheffler Reflector, it is essential to fix entire structure to revolve around polar axis and hence latitude of the location must be known.
  • It does not require any seasonal adjustment. In Scheffler Reflector, it is essential to make seasonal adjustment every week.
  • It is dispatched in dismantled condition and it can be assembled at site very quickly without any expert guidance. So installation staff is not necessary. In Scheffler Reflector, it is essential to send expert person for installation.
  • 100% reflector area is utilized as aperture area as against 70 to 80 aperture area is used in Scheffler reflector. So 8 sq mt butterfly is equivalent to 10 sq mt Scheffler reflector.
  • Both wings (reflectors) can be folded vertically on hinges very quickly. Hence when not in use, it will occupy very less space.
  • It can be quickly adjusted against focus by any layman without any training.
  • The cost of Butterfly cooker of equal capacity is only 50% of Scheffler reflector.

Learn more about TinyTechIndia at http://www.tinytechindia.com

November 19, 2008



John Grandinetti's Indirect Solar Cooker

Mr. Grandinetti's oven can be made for about $21 dollars and here's the kicker: he is giving it away. He doesn't want to sell the plans, he wants a company to take it and mass produce it for third world countries so that forests won't need to be cut down for things like cooking fires. A noble idea indeed. It will be interesting to see if any company, anywhere steps up and takes him up on his offer.

John Grandinetti is a solar contractor out of Honolulu, and the owner of Grand Solar Inc. This isn't his first foray into the solar cooking/pasteurization field. He also has created similar devices for the purpose of pasteurizing water in the late 90's for third world installations in Tanzania and Guatemala.

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November 05, 2008



Solar Cooking Workshop in Nyala, Darfur

Nyala was the headquarters of the Daju empire, which was established around Jebel Um-Kurdós, until the fall of the Daju rule at the end of the 15th century, according to an account of sultan Daju Kassi Furok or Kassifrogé who mounted the Antelope from Darfur then perished in Dar Sila.

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November 03, 2008



Green Power Science: Pasta Cooked through a Fresnel Lens

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November 01, 2008



Bander Beyla: Successful Solar Cooking in Somalia

Bander Bayla was the first village in Somalia to be helped after the tsunami with solar cookers. Stoves were distributed to over 950 people. See pictures of this beautiful, remote, tsunami affected village.

Continue reading "Bander Beyla: Successful Solar Cooking in Somalia" »



Bander Beyla: Successful Solar Cooking in Somalia

Bander Bayla was the first village in Somalia to be helped after the tsunami with solar cookers. Stoves were distributed to over 950 people. See pictures of this beautiful, remote, tsunami affected village.

Continue reading "Bander Beyla: Successful Solar Cooking in Somalia" »

October 07, 2008



GreenPowerScience Flash Cooks An Egg

It's pretty cool that this video isn't sped up or cropped in anyway. She simply shows you how easily and quickly an egg can be cooked using the power of the sun, some oil, and an excellent Fresnel lens.

That's just neat.

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October 06, 2008



BuildGreenTV shows How To Use A Solar Cooker

Kevin Contreras from BuildGreenTV shows how to cook a great chicken dish in one of his favorite innovations, a solar oven.

This video shows a box cooker with mylar panels that fold out very easily.

Info on where to find an oven is here on GreenJoyment.

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October 05, 2008



Crazy Canucks Cooking With Solar Ovens

"This is our first solar box oven ever. Here is an account of a day of cooking in winter (Feb 24/08) in Ontario Canada. Enjoy!"

This guy's a little boring to listen to, but he got his temperature up to 360 F/170 C, when it was 40 F/5 C outside, and cooked what appears to be a VERY yummy chicken!

That's pretty darn impressive.

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October 02, 2008



Engineers Without Borders: Solar Cooker Challenge

These are solar cooker ideas from the Engineers without borders solar cooker challenge.

Maybe you can get some ideas here for building your own solar cooker!

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How to Make a Solar Smoker in 30 seconds or less

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October 01, 2008



A Meal from solar cookers

A Meal from solar cookers

Carrie and I decided that it would be fun to eat an entire meal cooked by the sun.

So, we took our three cookers. In one, we placed leftover chili. In another, we placed potatoes.

And in a third, we placed Joan's rice pudding (for dessert). Thanks Joan!

All three videos are posted below (we made them for YouTube as individual videos, but we ate this as a full meal).

Other than the mildly disappointing results from the sun not cooking the rice pudding (simply because we didn't get it outside early enough in the day, we were very pleased with how this meal turned out!

Baked Potatoes wrapped in foil and cooked in an eagle solar cooker

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