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Making a Better Solar Cooker
New submitter jank1887 writes "Back in 2010, the aid organization Climate Healers gave a number of solar-powered cookstoves to rural Indian villages. The stoves were rejected by the communities, mainly because they were useless when they were wanted most: for the evening meal sometimes after the sun goes down, and for breakfast before the sun has risen. Following this, the group issued a challenge to EngineeringForChange. Details of the challenge include the need to provide 1kW of heat at about 200C for two hours in both early morning and late evening, and the users should be able to cook indoors, while sitting. A number of groups, mainly at U.S. and Indian engineering institutions, accepted the challenge, and developed potential solutions. Now, almost a year later, the ten finalist designs have been selected. The actual papers have been posted to the E4C challenge workspace. The goals of most of the designs are to keep the technology simple, although there are a few exceptions, and many include sand-, oil-, and salt-based concentrated thermal storage. Many reports include some level of discussion on the social and economic considerations, barriers to acceptance and sustainability, and how to overcome initial resistance to adoption."
Solar panel, a bunch of lead-acid batteries and a George Foreman grill and they're good to go.
If these villages can afford to be picky as to when they eat
Perhaps the problem is they can't afford to be picky when they eat. Ever consider they might need to be working during daylight hours.
There are actually government subsidies on kerosene in place in India specifically to prevent deforestation. The kerosene stoves are actually quite safe, efficient, clean burning and relatively inexpensive (by developed nation standards). Now before you start with the "OMG fossil fuels BAD!!!", remember that the grid-connected electric ranges that are so popular here in the USA are running on varying percentages of power derived from nasty, dirty coal - with the added bonus of generation and transmission losses. Since we're talking about a point-of-use fuel, these "third world" kerosene stoves are actually a pretty green solution. Perhaps instead of providing these people with pie-in-the-sky solar stoves that we wouldn't even use ourselves, we should offer good old kerosene stoves and maybe take a closer look at our own wastefulness.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Reading the article, the first contender came with a proposal to give them efficient wood stoves first, to displace the open fires they're currently using. Doesn't imply that they have gas.
Of course, it makes me want to point out that a modern high efficiency wood stove might sufficiently solve the problem to the point that it renders the solar stove unnecessary. Wood is a renewable resource, they apparently have sufficient quantities of it, and from what I remember, ye old wood stoves were ~10x as efficient as open pit fires at heating and cooking, and modern high efficiency ones are ~50% more efficient than the ye old varieties.
So you're lookng at using 1/15th the wood. At which point you have to convince people that using the solar stove is more convienient/valuable than dealing with the much smaller amount of wood the solid fueled stove needs. Well, don't forget cleaning requirements.
Let's see, stove rating areas:
The more you get, the better the product.
I don't read AC A human right
I wrote the article for Engineering for Change and I'm so glad to see this discussion on Slashdot. I've been a fan reading the daily email for a while now. It's interesting to see that, in a just a few comment strings, some of you came to the same conclusions about the best ways to introduce new technologies that it has taken maybe decades for people who are educated in development issues to reach. Also, your discussion of better solutions other than solar (efficient wood stoves) and better materials (why olive oil?) is the same kind of thing that the community at Engineering for Change struggles with. Our members find different answers that sometimes conflict, and often a solution depends a lot on the place where you use it. So, a universally perfect cook stove might not exist. Just a few thoughts. Thanks again! Rob