Concentrated Solar Cooking/Heating On A Small Scale

Solar heating is nothing new. Many people have known about it. You could see many videos in YouTube for example of people cooking eggs under the sun using nothing more than a skillet to put their eggs in.

There are a lot of egg cooking under the sun videos that I do not even have to specifically link a certain YouTube video. You can use for example the YouTube search keyword ”cooking eggs in the sun” and YouTube would already list related videos at the top of its rankings.

Whether big or small, solar heating is an effective way to heat up things even to the point of burning them up. If you remember your childhood experiments where you try to burn a piece of paper using nothing more than a pair of magnifying glass, then you know what I’m talking about.

This concept has existed for ages and has been nearly perfected over the years. If you are interested to know about the technology, Wikipedia has an entire article devoted to it. This technology when scaled has been used to power the energy needs of entire towns.

This proves the effectiveness of the technology if such a simple concept can be used to supply the energy needs of entire towns. Maybe someday this same technology can be available for the individual household to power their energy needs independently.

Common people like you and me may not have the budget to install our own concentrated solar system to power our own towns or even homes, but we can still benefit from this technology.

As I have said, people have been cooking using this technology which includes vegetables, fruits and meat. If a household can successfully integrate their cooking lifestyle such that they use solar ovens, they stand to benefit in terms of energy cost savings.

The average household eats about three times a day: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Then there are the occasional cooking whenever certain snacks are prepared. In our household alone in the Philippines, my mother usually complains about the price of the cooking gas.

When I was in Australia, it’s also the same thing. Cooking gas or electricity used for cooking can take up a lot of a household’s expenses. Another thing we also need to consider is that cooking with cooking gas can still be dangerous.

Imagine if the costs associated with cooking can be decreased or even eliminated. This would result in a lot of savings for the average household. Now imagine this savings being scaled up in the form of restaurants reducing their cooking costs.

I still imagine seeing the inside of a kitchen of an Asian restaurant where they have to boil their beef and pork bones continuously throughout the day so they can make soup out of it. Imagine if they can have a setup where they can use the heat of the sun instead of using cooking gas to boil their bones continuously.

This would not only be a huge savings for the restaurant but also a positive for the environment. As we know, cooking gas once burned emits substances which affects negatively our environment and people as well.

Perhaps the number one complaint that many people would say against concentrated solar cooking is that it takes a long time for the food to be cooked. The obvious answer would be: “Of course, nature takes a long time to deliver, but it’s free.”

Using the sun to cook or heat your food really takes a long time as compared to the relatively short cooking time we have been used to using cooking gas and electricity. But we fail to see that our conventional cooking methods are getting more and more expensive each day that passes.

Let’s assume that one day you find yourself that you have no more access to cooking gas or electricity. Maybe suddenly civilization just had a meltdown or for the simple reason that you have lost your job or don’t have enough money to pay for cooking gas or electricity.

Then cooking using firewood and the sun becomes your only choice. So do not underestimate this technology. You should in fact be seriously considering this technology as a part of your lifestyle.

There are people like some Africans for example who are greatly helped by integrating concentrated solar devices into their cooking lifestyle. In Africa where the sun is plentiful and powerful, these devices are particularly effective.

There are in fact several devices already available in Africa so I won’t concentrate on one. But if you are interested, you can simply type the YouTube search keyword “Africans using the sun to cook” and you would already see plenty of videos related to the subject.

If you are in a place where cooking using the power of the sun is not particularly effective because the power of the sun is not that effective, you can reschedule your time such that you begin cooking earlier than usual.

You can for example begin cooking for lunch during breakfast time so that when lunch time comes, lunch food would be cooked. It’s just really a matter of reordering your cooking schedule if you find cooking using the sun to be a long wait time.

If you did search YouTube for the search keyword “Africans using the sun to cook” then you would know that these concentrated solar cooking devices are affordable that an African from the rural areas can afford it.

I’m not trying to offend Africans from rural areas by giving the idea that they have limited buying power, but they are a gauge of how affordable these devices can be especially seeing how useful they can be in reducing the cooking costs of many people.

But let us assume that you are really short on budget right now but is still interested in cooking using the power of the sun, you can still do it using ordinary materials you can find at home or buy in your local stores.

Below is an easy to understand instructional video from the YouTube Channel TeachEngineering on how to build a simple concentrated solar cooking device:

Video: Cooking with the Sun - Creating a Solar Oven

As you can see from the video, creating your own concentrated solar cooking device is not really complicated and can be easily done using nothing more than ordinary household tools and supplies.

All you really need are reflective materials that can reflect the heat of the sun efficiently. This could be such simple household devices as mirrors, aluminum foils and so on. Of course you also need some tools and a few more materials but the reflective materials are the most important.

Of course trying to cook using the sun when the power of the sun and its frequency is unreliable is bound to fail. I have experience living in Australia and have experienced both the hot and cold seasons.

My car was parked in a roofless parking and what I have noticed was that even during the winter the roof as well as the exterior body of my car would be hot especially when it was midday. That is why I know that it is possible to cook some of your food even in the winter using the sun.

If the power of the sun is really weak in heating or cooking your food, you could try adding more reflective materials to your concentrated solar cooking device. A point to note is that it is even possible to cook your food using the heat of your car.

If you do your research online, you would find articles and videos online about people who have been able to cook their food using nothing only but the heat of their car. I myself found how effective a car can be when I forgot to remove the groceries I bought from the trunk of my car.

To make a long story short, after buying my groceries and putting them in the trunk of my car, I forgot to remove them in the trunk of my car which was parked in a roofless parking spot. After a few hours, I eventually remembered that I have left my groceries in the trunk of my car.

The once frozen meat portions I bought were already thawed and even hot while the candies I bought were already melted. The eggs I bought were also partially cooked. Imagine if I had left my groceries directly under the sun, my groceries could have been cooked.

Imagine if you heated water in your concentrated solar cooking device and the sun is not as strong that day. You might say to yourself that your concentrated solar cooking device is a failure and not worth it.

But think of it this way, if you partially heated your water everyday using the sun and heated it the rest of the way using conventional heating methods then you could have saved on cooking costs as well.

Apply this not only to water but also to the everyday food you cook. The sun might not be as strong that day but at least you can still continue cooking your food the conventional way. This also saves you money.

Perhaps one of the most common uses for heating would be to boil water. There are many ways we boil water. We use the stove, microwave and other heating devices just for this purpose.

We use hot water in our cooking. We drink coffee or tea in the morning and sometimes after every meal. In our household, not a day passes without us having to boil water in a kettle and storing it in a thermos.

This is the reason why it is a good idea to find a way to reduce your boiling cost. I have seen several YouTube videos online about boiling water using the sun and I have found one that is simple.

This video is from the YouTube channel of Jason Bagnell:

Video: Boiling water with a parabolic mirror. Fun with the sun!

If you watched his video, you would notice that his setup is simple. Although he has to occasionally readjust the position of his parabolic mirror, it only took him a few minutes to have a glass of boiling hot water.

Imagine if you could scale up this setup and store the boiling water in a large thermos. It is entirely possible that you could significantly reduce your water boiling cost especially if you like drinking a lot of hot beverages.

Perhaps one of the best videos that I have found regarding cooking times using concentrated solar cooking device is from the GoSun Sport solar oven. I just want to remind readers that I am in no way connected or being compensated by the said company by featuring their product.

The video is actually by the Insider YouTube Channel. They tested the product and based on what I have seen, this is a worthwhile cooking product to buy since it only takes a short time to cook even meat considering its size.

Video: The Solar Oven | It’s Cool, But Does It Really Work

The hosts of the video made a good analysis especially when they emphasized that the device is not for a big family. They say that the device is for one to two person use only. But imagine if you bought two of the devices, this could mean completely eliminating the cooking cost for a small sized family.

I checked the price of the product in their website. The product costs about $US 200, but I saw a competitor product selling for a steeply lower price of $US130. Considering that the materials for the product are long lasting, I think this is a good buy.

Concentrated solar cooking/heating technology is an old technology that has seen significant advancements due to man’s increasing knowledge in harnessing the power of the sun as well as the new reflective heat materials that are coming out in the market.

The technology has so advanced now that is possible in many instances to cook using the technology rather than use conventional cooking methods whose costs are ever increasing. You could even make your own device by following articles and videos you can find online about this technology.

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