A solar cooker is a device which uses the energy of direct

sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize drink and other food

materials. Many solar cookers currently in use are
relatively inexpensive, low-tech devices, although some
are as powerful or as expensive as traditional stoves,
[1]
and advanced, large scale solar cookers can cook for
hundreds of people.[2] Because they use no fuel and cost
nothing to operate, many nonprofit organizations are
promoting their use worldwide in order to help reduce fuel
costs and air pollution, and to help slow
down deforestation and desertification.
History[edit]

An Indian scientist demonstrates a solar

cooker in 1963
In ancient times, the use of solar energy was believed to
have existed in civilizations amidst
the Greeks, Romans and the Chinese, though not for
cooking.[3]
The first academic description of the principles of a solar
cooker is by the Swiss geologist, meteorologist, physicist,
and Alpine explorer Horace-Bénédict de Saussure,
in 1767. The principle of cooking meals by sunlight was
largely developed in the French Foreign Legion, in the
1870s.[4]
Working principles[edit]
1. Concentrating sunlight: A mirrored surface with
high specular reflection is used to concentrate
light from the Sun into a small cooking area.
Depending on the geometry of the surface,
sunlight could be concentrated by several orders
of magnitude producing temperatures high
enough to melt salt and metal. Such high
temperatures are not really required for most
household solar cooking applications. Solar
cooking products are typically designed to
achieve temperatures of 65 °C (150 °F) (baking
temperatures) to 400 °C (750 °F) (grilling/searing
temperatures) on a sunny day.
2. Converting light energy to heat energy: Solar
cookers concentrate sunlight onto a receiver
such as a cooking pan. The interaction between
the light energy and the receiver material
converts light to heat and this is called
absorption. The conversion is maximized by
using materials that absorb, conduct, and retain
heat. Pots and pans used on solar cookers
 should be matte black in color to maximize
absorption.
3. Trapping heat energy: It is important to
reduce convection by isolating the air inside the
cooker from the air outside the cooker. Simply
using a glass lid on your pot enhances light
absorption from the top of the pan and provides
a greenhouse effect that improves heat retention
and minimizes convection loss. This "glazing"
transmits incoming visible sunlight but is opaque
to escaping infrared thermal radiation. In
resource constrained settings, a high-
temperature plastic bag can serve a similar
function, trapping air inside and making it
possible to reach temperatures on cold and
windy days similar to those possible on hot days.
Below is the basic science for solar panel cookers and
solar box cookers. Another style of solar cooker is a
parabolic solar cooker. They typically require more
frequent reorientation to the Sun, but will cook more
quickly at higher temperatures, and can fry foods.
Evacuated tube solar cookers use a highly insulated
double-wall glass tube for the cooking chamber, and do
not require large reflectors
Operation[edit]
 Solar oven in use
Different kinds of solar cookers use somewhat different
methods of cooking, but most follow the same basic
principles.
Food is prepared as if for an oven or stove top. However,
because food cooks faster when it is in smaller pieces,
food placed inside a solar cooker is usually cut into
smaller pieces than it might otherwise be.[5] For example,
potatoes are usually cut into bite-sized pieces rather than
roasted whole.[6] For very simple cooking, such as melting
butter or cheese, a lid may not be needed and the food
may be placed on an uncovered tray or in a bowl. If
several foods are to be cooked separately, then they are
placed in different containers.
The container of food is placed inside the solar cooker,
which may be elevated on a brick, rock, metal trivet, or
other heat sink, and the solar cooker is placed in direct
sunlight.[5] Foods that cook quickly may be added to the
solar cooker later. Rice for a mid-day meal might be
started early in the morning, with vegetables, cheese, or
soup added to the solar cooker in the middle of the
morning. Depending on the size of the solar cooker and
the number and quantity of cooked foods, a family may
use one or more solar cookers.
A solar oven is turned towards the Sun and left until the
food is cooked. Unlike cooking on a stove or over a fire,
which may require more than an hour of constant
supervision, food in a solar oven is generally not stirred or
turned over, both because it is unnecessary and because
opening the solar oven allows the trapped heat to escape
and thereby slows the cooking process. If wanted, the
solar oven may be checked every one to two hours, to turn
the oven to face the Sun more precisely and to ensure that
shadows from nearby buildings or plants have not blocked
the sunlight. If the food is to be left unattended for many
hours during the day, then the solar oven is often turned to
face the point where the Sun will be when it appears
highest in the sky, instead of towards its current position.[7]
The cooking time depends primarily on the equipment
being used, the amount of sunlight at the time, and the
quantity of food that needs to be cooked. Air temperature,
wind, and latitude also affect performance. Food cooks
faster in the two hours before and after the local solar
noon than it does in either the early morning or the late
afternoon. Large quantities of food, and food in large
pieces, take longer to cook. As a result, only general
figures can be given for cooking time. With a small solar
panel cooker, it might be possible to melt butter in 15
minutes, to bake cookies in 2 hours, and to cook rice for
four people in 4 hours. With a high performing parabolic
solar cooker, you may be able to grill a steak in minutes.
However, depending on local conditions and the solar
cooker type, these projects could take half as long, or
twice as long.
It is difficult to burn food in a solar cooker.[6] Food that has
been cooked even an hour longer than necessary is
usually indistinguishable from minimally cooked food. The
exception to this rule is some green vegetables, which
quickly change from a perfectly cooked bright green
to olive drab, while still retaining the desirable texture.
For most foods, such as rice, the typical person would be
unable to tell how it was cooked from looking at the final
product. There are some differences, however: Bread and
cakes brown on their tops instead of on the bottom.
Compared to cooking over a fire, the food does not have a
smoky flavor.
Box and panel designs[edit]

HotPot panel solar cooker

A box cooker has a transparent glass or plastic top, and it
may have additional reflectors to concentrate sunlight into
the box. The top can usually be removed to allow dark
pots containing food to be placed inside. One or more
reflectors of shiny metal or foil-lined material may be
positioned to bounce extra light into the interior of the oven
chamber. Cooking containers and the inside bottom of the
cooker should be dark-colored or black. Inside walls
should be reflective to reduce radiative heat loss and
bounce the light towards the pots and the dark bottom,
which is in contact with the pots. The box should have
insulated sides. Thermal insulation for the solar box
cooker must be able to withstand temperatures up to
150 °C (300 °F) without melting or out-gassing. Crumpled
newspaper, wool, rags, dry grass, sheets of cardboard,
etc. can be used to insulate the walls of the cooker. Metal
pots and/or bottom trays can be darkened either with flat-
black spray paint (one that is non-toxic when warmed),
black tempera paint, or soot from a fire. The solar box
cooker typically reaches a temperature of 150 °C (300 °F).
This is not as hot as a standard oven, but still hot enough
to cook food over a somewhat longer period of time.

A Solar Oven made of cardboard,

newspapers, and reflective tape
Panel solar cookers are inexpensive solar cookers that
use reflective panels to direct sunlight to a cooking pot
enclosed in a clear plastic bag.
Solar Oven science experiments are regularly done as
projects in high schools and colleges, such as the "Solar
Oven Throwdown" at the University of Arizona.[8] These
projects prove that it is possible to both achieve high
temperatures, as well as predict the high temperatures
using mathematical models.
Parabolic reflector[edit]
Main article: parabolic reflector
Parabolic solar cookers concentrate sunlight to a single
point. When this point is focused on the bottom of a pot, it
can heat the pot quickly to very high temperatures which
can often be comparable with the temperatures achieved
in gas and charcoal grills. These types of solar cookers
are widely used in several regions of the world, most
notably in China and India where hundreds of thousands
of families currently use parabolic solar cookers for
preparing food and heating water. Some parabolic solar
cooker projects in China abate between 1–4 tons of
carbon dioxide per year and receive carbon credits
through the Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) and Gold Standard.
 Solar tea kettle in Tibet

Solar cooker in rural Uganda

Some parabolic solar cookers incorporate cutting-edge
materials and designs which lead to solar energy
efficiencies >90%. Others are large enough to feed
thousands of people each day, such as the solar bowl at
Auroville in India, which makes 2 meals per day for 1,000
people.[9]
If a reflector is axially symmetrical and shaped so its
cross-section is a parabola, it has the property of bringing
parallel rays of light (such as sunlight) to a point focus. If
the axis of symmetry is aimed at the Sun, any object that
is located at the focus receives highly concentrated
sunlight, and therefore becomes very hot. This is the basis
for the use of this kind of reflector for solar cooking.
Paraboloidal reflectors[edit]
 A parabolic solar cooker with segmented
construction .[10]
Paraboloids are compound curves, which are more difficult
to make with simple equipment than single curves.
Although paraboloidal solar cookers can cook as well as
or better than a conventional stove, they are difficult to
construct by hand. Frequently, these reflectors are made
using many small segments that are all single curves
which together approximate compound curves.
Although paraboloids are difficult to make from flat sheets
of solid material, they can be made quite simply by
rotating open-topped containers which hold liquids. The
top surface of a liquid which is being rotated at constant
speed around a vertical axis naturally takes the form of a
paraboloid. Centrifugal force causes material to move
outward from the axis of rotation until a deep enough
depression is formed in the surface for the force to be
balanced by the levelling effect of gravity. It turns out that
the depression is an exact paraboloid. (See Liquid-mirror
telescope.) If the material solidifies while it is rotating, the
paraboloidal shape is maintained after the rotation stops,
and can be used to make a reflector.[citation needed] This
rotation technique is sometimes used to make
paraboloidal mirrors for astronomical telescopes, and has
also been used for solar cookers. Devices for constructing
such paraboloids are known as rotating furnaces.
Paraboloidal reflectors generate high temperatures and
cook quickly, but require frequent adjustment and
supervision for safe operation. Several hundred thousand
exist, mainly in China.[citation needed] They are especially useful
for individual household and large-scale institutional
cooking.

A Scheffler cooker. This reflector has an

2
area of 16 m (170 sq ft), and concentrates 3 kW of heat
A Scheffler cooker (named after its inventor, Wolfgang
Scheffler) uses a large ideally paraboloidal reflector which
is rotated around an axis that is parallel with the Earth's
using a mechanical mechanism, turning at 15 degrees per
hour to compensate for the Earth's rotation. The axis
passes through the reflector's centre of mass, allowing the
reflector to be turned easily. The cooking vessel is located
at the focus which is on the axis of rotation, so the mirror
concentrates sunlight onto it all day. The mirror has to be
occasionally tilted about a perpendicular axis to
compensate for the seasonal variation in the
Sun's declination. This perpendicular axis does not pass
through the cooking vessel. Therefore, if the reflector were
a rigid paraboloid, its focus would not remain stationary at
the cooking vessel as the reflector tilts. To keep the focus
stationary, the reflector's shape has to vary. It remains
paraboloidal, but its focal length and other parameters
change as it tilts. The Scheffler reflector is therefore
flexible, and can be bent to adjust its shape. It is often
made up of a large number of small plane sections, such
as glass mirrors, joined by flexible plastic. A framework
that supports the reflector includes a mechanism that can
be used to tilt it and also bend it appropriately. The mirror
is never exactly paraboloidal, but it is always close enough
for cooking purposes.[citation needed]
Sometimes the rotating reflector is located outdoors and
the reflected sunlight passes through an opening in a wall
into an indoor kitchen, often a large communal one, where
the cooking is done.[citation needed]

An oblique projection of a focus-

balanced parabolic reflector
Paraboloidal reflectors with their centers of mass
coincident with their focal points are useful. They can be
easily turned to follow the Sun's motions in the sky,
rotating about any axis that passes through the focus. Two
perpendicular axes can be used, intersecting at the focus,
to allow the paraboloid to follow both the Sun's daily
motion and its seasonal one. The cooking pot stays
stationary at the focus. If the paraboloidal reflector is
axially symmetrical and is made of material of uniform
thickness, its centre of mass coincides with its focus if the
depth of the reflector, measured along its axis of symmetry
from the vertex to the plane of the rim, is 1.8478 times its
focal length. The radius of the rim of the reflector is 2.7187
times the focal length. The angular radius of the rim, as
seen from the focal point, is 72.68 degrees.[citation needed]
Parabolic troughs[edit]
Parabolic troughs are used to concentrate sunlight for
solar-energy purposes. Some solar cookers have been
built that use them in the same way.[11] Generally, the
trough is aligned with its focal line horizontal and east–
west. The food to be cooked is arranged along this line.
The trough is pointed so its axis of symmetry aims at the
Sun at noon. This requires the trough to be tilted up and
down as the seasons progress. At the equinoxes, no
movement of the trough is needed during the day to track
the Sun.[12] At other times of year, there is a period of
several hours around noon each day when no tracking is
needed. Usually, the cooker is used only during this
period, so no automatic Sun tracking is incorporated into
it. This simplicity makes the design attractive, compared
with using a paraboloid. Also, being a single curve, the
trough reflector is simpler to construct. However, it suffers
from lower efficiency.
It is possible to use two parabolic troughs, curved in
perpendicular directions, to bring sunlight to a point focus
as does a paraboloidal reflector.[citation needed]The incoming
light strikes one of the troughs, which sends it toward a
line focus. The second trough intercepts the converging
light and focuses it to a point.[citation needed]
Compared with a single paraboloid, using two partial
troughs has important advantages. Each trough is a single
curve, which can be made simply by bending a flat sheet
of metal. Also, the light that reaches the targeted cooking
pot is directed approximately downward, which reduces
the danger of damage to the eyes of anyone nearby. On
the other hand, there are disadvantages. More mirror
material is needed, increasing the cost, and the light is
reflected by two surfaces instead of one, which inevitably
increases the amount that is lost.
The two troughs are held in a fixed orientation relative to
each other by being both fixed to a frame.[citation needed] The
whole assembly of frame and troughs has to be moved to
track the sun as it moves in the sky. Commercially made
cookers that use this method are available. In practical
applications (like in car-headlights), concave mirrors are of
parabolic shape.
Spherical reflectors[edit]
 The Solar Bowl in Auroville, India
Spherical reflectors operate much like paraboloidal
reflectors, such that the axis of symmetry is pointed
towards the Sun so that sunlight is concentrated to a
focus. However, the focus of a spherical reflector will not
be a point focus because it suffers from a phenomenon
known as spherical aberration. Some concentrating dishes
(such as satellite dishes) that do not require a precise
focus opt for a spherical curvature over a paraboloid. If the
radius of the rim of spherical reflector is small compared
with the radius of curvature of its surface (the radius of the
sphere of which the reflector is a part), the reflector
approximates a paraboloidal one with focal length equal to
half of the radius of curvature.[13]
Vacuum tube technology[edit]

A solar vacuum tube cooker

Evacuated tube solar cookers are essentially vacuum
sealed between two layers of glass. The vacuum allows
the tube to act both as a "super" greenhouse and
an insulator. The central cooking tube is made from
borosilicate glass, which is resistant to thermal shock, and
has a vacuum beneath the surface to insulate the interior.
The inside of the tube is lined with copper, stainless steel,
and aluminum nitrile to better absorb and conduct heat
from the Sun's rays. Solar cooking tube systems use a
reflector to enhance the thermal energy capturing. There
are models of tube cooking system in India which has
energy storage devices installed at the bottom of the tube
to store heat for cooking or heating food during night.
These vacuum tube solar cookers can cook a meal in as
little as 20 minutes.[14]
Advantages and disadvantages[edit]
Advantages[edit]
 High-performance parabolic solar cookers and
vacuum tube cookers can attain temperatures
above 290 °C (550 °F). They can be used to grill
meats, stir-fry vegetables, make soup, bake bread,
and boil water in minutes. Vacuum tube type
cookers can heat up even in the clouds and
freezing cold.
 Conventional solar box cookers attain temperatures
up to 165 °C (325 °F). They can sterilize water or
prepare most foods that can be made in a
conventional oven or stove, including bread,
vegetables and meat over a period of hours.
  Solar cookers use no fuel. This saves cost as well
as reducing environmental damage caused by fuel
use. Since 2.5 billion people cook on open fires
using biomass fuels, solar cookers could have large
economic and environmental benefits by reducing
deforestation.[15]
 When solar cookers are used outside, they do not

contribute inside heat, potentially saving fuel costs

for cooling as well. Any type of cooking may
evaporate grease, oil and other material into the air,
hence there may be less cleanup.
 The thermal efficiency of a typical coal furnace is

15%, where solar cookers boast a thermal

efficiency of 65%.[16]
 Reduces your carbon footprint by cooking without

the use of carbon based fuels or grid electricity

from traditional sources.[17]
Disadvantages[edit]
 Solar cookers are less useful in cloudy weather and
near the poles, where the Sun appears low in the
sky, so an alternative cooking source is still
required in these conditions. Solar cooking
advocates suggest three devices for an integrated
cooking solution: a) a solar cooker; b) a fuel-
efficient cookstove; c) an insulated storage
container such as a basket filled with straw to store
heated food. Very hot food may continue to cook
for hours in a well-insulated container. With this
three-part solution, fuel use is minimized while still
providing hot meals at any hour, reliably.
  Some solar cookers, especially solar ovens, take
longer to cook food than a conventional stove or
oven. Using solar cookers may require food
preparation to start hours before the meal.
However, it requires less hands-on time during the
cooking, so this is often considered a reasonable
trade-off.
 Cooks may need to learn special cooking
techniques to fry common foods, such as fried eggs
or flatbreads like chapatis and tortillas. It may not
be possible to safely or completely cook some thick
foods, such as large roasts, loaves of bread, or
pots of soup, particularly in small panel cookers;
the cook may need to divide these into smaller
portions before cooking.
 Some solar cooker designs are affected by strong
winds, which can slow the cooking process, cool
the food due to convective losses, and disturb the
reflector.[18] It may be necessary to anchor the
reflector, such as with ring and weighted objects
like bricks.

Using Light to Cook

In most cases, sunlight isn’t hot enough to heat
water or food. Here, solar cookers convert light
energy into concentrated heat energy, and this
energy is used for cooking food. The conversion of
sunlight to heat energy occurs when the photons of
light waves interact with molecules of the
substance. The electromagnetic radiation emitted
by the Sun have energy in them. When they strike,
the energy causes the molecules of the matter to
vibrate. The molecules get excited and jump to
higher levels. This activity produces heat.

Working Principle

Concentrating Sunlight:
A mirror surface with high specular reflection is
used to concentrate and channelise light from the
sun into a small cooking space. The sunlight can be
concentrated by several orders of magnitude,
producing magnitudes high enough to melt salt
and metal. For household solar cooking
applications, such high temperatures are not
required. Solar cookers available in the market are
designed to achieve temperatures of 650C to
4000C.

Converting Light Energy to Heat Energy:

The concentrated sunlight is focused onto a
receiver such as a cooking pan. The interaction
between the light energy and the receiver material
helps to convert light into heat by a process
called conduction. The conversion is maximised by
making use of materials that conduct and retain
heat. Pots and pans used in solar cookers should
be matte black in colour to maximise absorption.
Trapping Heat Energy:
The occurrence of convection is reduced by
isolating the air inside the cooker from the air
outside. Using a glass lid on the pot enhances light
absorption from the top of the pan and decreases
the convection energy loss along with improving
the heat holding capacity of the cooker. The
glazing taps the incoming sunlight but is opaque
for escaping infrared thermal rays.

Box-Type Solar Cooker

The most commonly used form of solar cooker is
the box-type solar cooker. In this section, we will
be discussing the construction and working
principle of a box-type solar cooker.
A box-type solar cooker consists of the following
components:
 Black Box – The box is an insulated metal or
wooden box which is painted black from the
inside to absorb more heat.
 Glass Cover – A cover made of two sheets of
toughened glass held together in an aluminium
frame is used as a cove for box B.
 Plane Mirror reflector – The plane mirror
reflector is fixed to box B with the help of
hinges. The mirror reflector can be positioned
at any desired angle to the box. The mirror is
 positioned so as to allow the reflected sunlight
to fall on the glass cover of the box.
 Cooking Containers – A set of aluminium

containers blackened from the outside are kept

in box B.
The solar cooker is placed in sunlight and a plane
mirror reflector is adjusted in a way such that the
strong beam of sunlight enters the box through the
glass sheet. The blackened metal surfaces in the
wooden box absorb infra-red radiations from the
beam of sunlight and the heat produced raises the
temperature of a blackened metal surface to about
100°C.
 Solar Cooker
The food absorbs heat from the black surface and
gets cooked. The thick glass sheet does not allow
the heat to escape and thus, helps in raising the
temperature in the box to a sufficiently high
degree to cook the food.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Solar Cooker

Pros
  Solar cookers use no fuel. This saves cost as
well as the environment by not contributing to
pollution.
 Reduces carbon footprint by cooking without
carbon dioxide-based fuels.

Cons
 Solar cookers are less useful in cloudy weather.
 Some solar cookers take longer to cook food
than a conventional stove or an oven.
 Some solar cookers are affected by strong
winds which can slow the cooking process.
 It might get difficult to cook some thick foods
such as large roasts and loaves of bread.

Working Principle
The concentration of sunlight: Sunlight is
concentrated and directed into a small cooking
area using a mirror surface with a strong specular
reflection. Concentrating sunlight by multiple
orders of magnitude makes it possible to create
magnitudes powerful enough to melt metal and
salt. Such high temperatures are not necessary for
solar cooking applications used in homes. Market-
available solar cookers are made to reach
temperatures between 650C and 4000C.
Light Energy to Heat Energy
Conversion: Concentrated sunlight is directed at a
receiving device, such as a frying pan. The contact
between the light energy and the receiver material
aids in the conversion of light to heat via a process
known as conduction. The conversion rate is
increased by using materials that conduct and hold
heat. To maximise absorption, the pots and pans of
the solar cooker should be matte black.
Heat Energy Capture: Convection is decreased
by isolating the air within the cooker from the air
outside. Using a glass cover on the pot improves
the absorption of light from the top of the pan,
reduces convective energy loss, and increases the
heat storage capacity of the cooker. Glass allows
light to pass through while blocking infrared
thermal radiation.
Types of Solar Cooker
Solar Box Cookers
Solar Box cookers (box ovens) can cook the same
food as a normal oven or slow cooker. They have
an internal chamber (“box”), as the name implies,
even though it does not have to be square.
Reflectors are used to focus glazing to let more
sunshine into the box is used to let sunlight into
the box, trapping heat, and insulating is used to
keep as much heat as possible. On a bright sunny
day, commercially produced box ovens may
achieve 400o. Box ovens are suited for classroom
building and cooking and may be quickly created
from inexpensive or recyclable materials.
Solar Box Cooker
Stuff required
 Storage box for files or equivalent box
approximately 12′′ x 15′′ x 10′′
 1/2 sheet foil-backed foam insulation board
per oven
 12″ x 15″ pre-cut plexiglass
 20 feet of aluminium duct tape
 Aluminium foil, 18″ x 21″
 a wooden stick, dowel, or pencil
 A pair of scissors
 Construction paper in black, 12″ x 15″

Box solar cooker DIY

1.Cut insulation material. Every oven needs:

o 12″ x 15″ (1 piece)
 o 12″ x 9 1/2″(2 pieces)
o 15″ x 9 1/2″(2 pieces)

2.A piece of insulation should be placed at the

bottom of the box.
3.Put insulation pieces all the way around the
box’s inside walls.
4.Tape all seams, including those at the box’s
bottom, sides, and top.
5.For a reflector, line the interior of the box lid
with foil.
6.Use black construction paper to line the oven’s
inside bottom.
7.Put the glaze on the oven’s top.
8.Utilising an aluminium tape “hinge,” fasten the
box lid to the oven along one long side. The rod
or stick is used to tilt this top in order to let in
more light.
Outcome:
In order to heat up the box before the food can be
cooked in the solar cooker, the glass sheet helps to
trap heat inside the box, and the mirror
concentrates light onto the box.
Parabolic Reflector Cookers
Parabolic cookers achieve the greatest
temperatures and may be used to fry or grill food
without the need for cooking bags or pot covers.
Reflectors are used in parabolic cookers to focus a
significant quantity of sunlight onto a single point
of focus, where temperatures can approach 500o.
Parabolic-shaped cookers may be created in the
classroom using discarded satellite dishes or huge
umbrellas. But the temperature is at the focus
point and can reach extremely high levels. While
cooking, certain safety precautions should be used.

Parabolic umbrella cooker

Materials
 huge umbrella (minimum diameter: 120 cm)
 (From an emergency “space” blanket) Mylar
 aluminium duct tape
 hacksaw
 handmade paper
 White glue or spray-on adhesive
 A pair of scissors
 a pot holder (metal plant stand, small tripod,
etc.)
Parabolic solar cooker DIY

1.Open umbrella. Using one of the triangle

templates, portions of the interior of the
umbrella are out of craft paper.
2.Trace enough pieces to cover onto the mylar
the interior of your umbrella made from the
template you created. Sections should be cut
out.
3.Working outside or in a well-ventilated
environment, spray glue one portion at a time
to the interior of the umbrella (putting the
mylar pieces after spraying the umbrella). Try
to get rid of as many wrinkles and bubbles as
you can. A rubber roller or a plastic card (such
as a credit card or driver’s licence) might be
useful. If you’re White glue is used to thin it
with a paintbrush until it spreads freely.
4.Wrap the aluminium tape over the outer edges.
5.Use aluminium tape to seal up any exposed or
slack seams between pieces.
6.On a sunny day, take the umbrella outside, cut
the stick, and handle where the pot stand will
be. Set the umbrella on the ground and direct
the stick at the Sun. Mark the location on the
handle where the Sun’s rays reflect the most.
7.3″ below your target, cut the stick (shorter).
This will allow you to position your pot at the
umbrella’s focal point.
 8.When cooking, place your cooker on the
ground, facing the Sun. To keep your cooker
pointing toward the Sun, you may need to put
something behind it.
9.Because you want the bottom of your pot to be
in the focus point (3′′ above the top of your
stick), the plant stand or tripod must rest on
top of a portion of the cooker. Make tiny slits
with scissors to allow the legs to pass through
the cooker and rest securely on the ground
below.
How to prepare food in a parabolic cooker
1.Following the recipe, mix or prepare the food
for the cooker.
2.Put the cooker in a position such that the
umbrella faces the Sun. Set up your pot stand,
so the pot is the centre of attention. Keep in
mind that anything at the centre of your cooker
will heat up quickly! Additionally, it is
suggested that you put on sunglasses when
using a parabolic cooker.
3.You may use open frying pans with parabolic
cookers; fill your pot or pan with your food.
4.The pot holder should be situated on top of the
frying pan. Monitor what you eat. You may burn
it using a parabolic cooker.
 5.Move the cooker periodically for 10 minutes
and observe the Sun as it crosses the sky if
you’re cooking for a long period.
Solar Pressure Cooker
To explain how solar pressure works, let’s build a
parabolic solar cooker.
Materials needed:

1.Take an old TataSky receiver’s parabolic dish.

2.Cut solar reflective film into small equal-sized
pieces.
Construction:

1.Now, sanitise the dish’s outside.

2.Apply the reflective films to the full receiver’s
surface, as shown below:
3.Make sure there are no bubbles caught inside
the films.
4.Connect the reflector to the stand now.
5.Place the cooker on a holder that has been set
up in front of this place.
We may prepare food in a pressure cooker using
the parabolic solar cooker in this manner.
Result
The sun’s energy is concentrated using parabolic
solar cookers.
This tip may quickly heat the bottom of a pressure
cooker to exceptionally high temperatures if it is
pointed towards it.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are Solar Cookers and their
importance?
Solar cookers are among the most basic cooking
tools. It is also safe because it does not utilise fire
and is environmentally beneficial because it does
not need fuel. It cooks meals by harnessing the
force of the sun. It is often constructed as a basic
box into which you serve your food. The box has a
lining made of reflective metal and is topped with
glass. Then it employs the sun’s energy to cook
your meal according to the specified temperature.
The meal was prepared completely. Solar cookers
are so economical, environmentally benign, and
simple to operate.
2. What are the advantages of a Solar
cooker?
Advantages are
 Pollution-free.
 They are fuel-free.
 Solar power is a free resource.
 low cost of management.
3. What are the disadvantages of a Solar
cooker?
Disadvantages are:
 At a specific period of the day, we may use
solar energy.
 We are unable to utilise it at night, during
inclement weather, or in the winter when it is
foggy.
 Compared to conventional cookers, it takes
longer.

Materials Used
Solar cooker making can be done using a
cardboard box with less cost in a few hours. This
solar cooker works very well. Solar cookers are
classified into three types such as solar panel
cooker, solar parabolic cooker and solar box
cooker. From these three kinds of cookers,
parabolic cooker is most used advanced cooker
and it is more efficient to use.
The Required Supplies
 Two cardboard boxes (one bigger and one
smaller) and the dimensions of the
smaller box must be 38cmX38cm
whereas bigger box must be 1.5cm bigger
than the smaller one. These two boxes
can be adjusted by cutting & gluing it.
But, the distance between these two
boxes shouldn’t be equal.
 4 to 8cms cardboard sheet one for the lid,
that should be larger all the way than the
outer box.
 A reflective external to trap such as a
mirror, one aluminium foil roll, white gum,
box knife and scissors.
 One can of flat black spray paint used as
a nontoxic when it gets dry.
 Plastic bag to seal the closing or opening
the cooker from all sides
 A newspaper for proper insulation inside
the cardboard box

Required Supplies of a Solar Cooker

Steps To Make a Solar Cooker
Step-1
Fold the top pads closed on the larger box and
place the inner box on top and drop a line
everywhere it onto the top of the larger box.
Remove the smaller box & cut end to end to make
a hole in the top of the larger box. Maintain I inch
space between these two boxes.

Step-2
Using a scissor or knife, cut the corners of the inner
box(small box down to that height. Fold every side
of the box down to form extended flaps. Folding is
simple, if you first draw a fixed line from the one
cut end to another.

Cut The Corners of the Inner Box

Step-3
Some twists of creased newspaper into the
external box so that when you fix the smaller box
down inside the hole in the external box, the pads
on the inner box touches the top of the external
box. Paste these pads onto the top of the external
box and cut the extra pad’s length to be even with
the edge of the outer box.
Lastly, to make the drip pan, cut a part of
cardboard similar to the bottom of the inner of the
oven and apply foil to one side. Paint black spray
paint at foiled side and let it dry. Place this in the
oven so that it rests on the end of the small box,
and place your containers on it when cooking. Now
the base of the cooker is completed.

Building the Solar Cooker Lid

Step-4
Reflector pad of the cardboard box can be
designed by drawing a line on the lid. Making a
rectangular cut three sides around the box and fold
the resulting pad up to make a reflector. To design
a 30cm prop bend part of hanger wire as specified
in the diagram, then it can be injected into the
corrugations as shown.

Lay the Pencil Against the Side of the Box To Make

The Lid Fit
Finally, turn the lid from upside to down & attach
the bag in the place, that makes a double plastic
layer These two layers tend to detach from each
other to form an airspace as the oven cooks.
  Solar Pasteurisation

Executive Summary

Contrary to belief, it is not necessary to boil certain water to

make it safe to drink. Heating water to 65°C (149°F) for 6
minutes, or to a higher temperature for a shorter time, will kill
all germs, viruses, and parasites. This process is called
pasteurisation (ANDREATTA 2007). Solar pasteurisation has
proven to be a very low-cost disinfection method to produce
drinking water out of non-turbid fresh water. However, solar
pasteurisation is not that easy to implement and monitor, thus it
is not a wide spread method for point-of-use water treatment.
Advantages
The system requires no additional inputs (electricity, chemicals
or fossil fuels) after installation
Simple designs are available at very low cost, and this device
may be built with parts available in most countries
Anyone can be trained to construct a solar cooker and there are
no specific manufacturing hazards
Solar pasteurisation boxes can also be used as solar cookers for
cooking meals
Compared to boiling, the pasteurisation process does not
consume wood, charcoal or other biomass as energy supply
(environmentally more sustainable) and does not take time and
energy for its procurement

Disadvantages
Requires sunny weather and does not work during continuous
rainfall, on very cloudy days, or under freezing conditions
Recontamination is possible after the water has cooled because
it contains no residual disinfectant; subsequent safe storage is
essential
Does not reduce turbidity, odour, taste or colour and does not
remove chemical pollutants from water
While construction is low-cost, the life-cycle costs (chlorination,
sand filters, UV treatment) are relatively high compared to
competition (BURCH & THOMAS 1998)
Users require a thermometer or pasteurisation indicator device
Users need to keep track of containers to know which ones have
been treated and to ensure that they always have treated water
(batch process)
Users may need to wait for water to cool prior to use.  Cookers
are made from lightweight and easily breakable materials
Boiling is sometimes preferred because it provides a visual
measure of the water reaching sufficient temperature without
requiring a thermometer

Simple techniques for treating water at home and

storing it in safe containers (see HWTS) could
contribute to the MDGs (see access to water and
sanitation). Pasteurisation is one of many
techniques to disinfect drinking water and is
applicable to developing countries. Other
techniques such as chlorination, ozonation or
operation of wells may be more suitable
particularly if a large amount of water is needed.
Conversely, if a relatively small amount of water is
needed, pasteurisation systems, like
other HWTS methods have the advantage of being
able to be scaled down with a corresponding
decrease in cost. In other words, if only little
money is available, you can use pasteurisation to
get a little clean water, perhaps enough for a
family, but not a village (ANDREATTA 2007).
A solar cooking device with the black pan
containing the water, and the reflecting panel
increasing the efficiency of the pasteurisation
process. Source: METCALF (2006)
 A
solar pasteurisation device in the shape of a box
with a glass cover and a reflecting interior and
folding lid. The water container is put inside the
box and heated with solar heat. Source: CAWST
(2009)
 Together with boiling, the WHO Guidelines
for Drinking Water call pasteurisation a thermal
heat technology, but do not directly recommend
pasteurisation to be applied for producing drinking
water (WHO 2011).
Alternatively to boiling, solar energy might have a
role to play in improving water quality in those
regions that enjoy a hot, sunny climate (JOYCE et
al. 1996). Today, the solar disinfection (SODIS)
technique seems the most widely applied when it
comes to using solar energy for water disinfection.
SODIS focuses on a combination of the
antibacterial role of solar UV radiation and elevated
temperature, while solar pasteurisation is making
use of the thermal solar energy only (SAFAPOUR &
METCALF 1999).
Today, throughout the world, beverages such as
milk, fruit juice, beer and wine are disinfected
through pasteurisation on an industrial scale.
Consumers are familiar with and trust the process
of pasteurisation. Apart from water, milk can also
be pasteurised at home, a procedure used to make
it more durable. In case of milk, pasteurisation is
reached when heated above 63 °C for 30 minutes
(WHO 2011).
What is solar pasteurisation?
Factsheet Block Body
(Adapted from CAWST 2009)
Pasteurisation is the process of disinfecting
water by heat or radiation without boiling. Typical
water pasteurisation achieves the same effect
as boiling, but at a lower temperature (usually 65-
75°C/ 149-167°F), over a longer period of time. A
simple method of pasteurising water is to put
blackened containers with water in a solar cooker.
The solar cooker reflects sunlight onto the
container, which heats up the content. The cooker
may be an insulated box made of wood, cardboard,
plastic, or woven straw, with reflective panels to
concentrate sunlight onto the water container. It
may also be an arrangement of reflective panels,
or a reflective “satellite dish”, on which the water
pot sits. The box cooker should be frequently
repositioned to ensure it is catching all available
sunlight (and never in shade). A thermometer or
indicator is needed to tell when the required
temperature is reached for pasteurisation to
monitor the required exposure time of six minutes
(ANDREATTA 2007). Common devices for
monitoring the water temperature use either
beeswax, which melts at 62°C (143.6°F), or
soybean fat, which melts at 69°C (156.2°F). A
simple device known as the Water
Pasteurisation Indicator (WAPI) has been
developed at the University of California. Water
may take one to four hours or more to heat to
those temperatures.
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