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Solar cooking enthusiast

For the past year, Carl Peters, a retired machinist, has been experimenting with solar oven designs. “I love to cook with the solar oven,” Peters said.

He first became interested in solar ovens when his daughter called to tell him about a solar cooker a good friend donated to her and her boys to sell at a yard sale to raise money for attending chess tournaments. When the solar cooker didn’t sell, Peters purchased it.

After the purchase of his first solar cooker, he began to do research on solar cooking. Peters visited local libraries to look for books about solar cooking and did not find much information in print. Peters said that he found commercial solar cookers usually cost $200 and up.

According to the book “Heaven’s Flame,” solar cookers have a history with modern day cookers evolving in the 1950s through the1970’s.

The United Nations and other major funding agencies initiated many studies to design solar cookers that could alleviate someof the reliance on plant life for fuel.

The studies concluded that properly constructed solar cookers not only cooked food thoroughly and nutritiously, but were quite easy to make and use.

On the Solar Cooking History web site it states people in the early 1200s used the sun to dry fruit, vegetables and meats with the first solar cooking device being built in 1767. Peters said there are three basic types of solar cooking devices. There are solar box ovens, parabolic and funnel cookers. Peters owns eight cookers that he has built.

One of the solar cookers is an old C-band satellite dish converted into a parabolic cooker. Peters says when it is sunny and 55 degrees outside, the cooking area inside the parabolic cooker can reach 370 degrees. Peters has cooked in his solar cookers at high altitude, in the snow, and said cooking is possible with clear skies.

Peters suggests using dutch ovens and black pots and pans, which absorb heat better, to do the cooking in the solar cookers. He also suggests the use of tempered glass, instead of regular glass,
when building solar ovens.

Some of Peter’s solar ovens are built out of wood. Peters also built a temporary solar oven out of cardboard. Though, he said the cardboard would not hold up in the winter weather.

Peters said there are some important key points to consider when cooking with a solar cooker of any shape.

A clear sky is a must. According to Peters, the clear sky has the better quality light rays. The time of day you are cooking is important too, because you need to consider the angle of the sun.

Peters said the pros of cooking with a solar cooker are the fact that it preserves the natural nutrients by cooking slower. The fact they cook at lower temperatures means it is almost impossible to burn food in the solar ovens because cooking is slow, with no need to stir the food being cooked.

Peters does say there are some downsides to solar cooking. He says the cost of a solar cooker, the need to reposition the cooker for the best focus of the sun’s rays and the cooking takes longer than conventional cooking.

Peters has cooked many different meals in his solar cookers. He has made pioneer biscuits, brownies,
chicken and macaroon cookies. “It works. It can be taken to a higher level,” Peters said about the future possibilities for the use of the solar oven.

Peters said consumers can save money on their utilities by using a solar oven. “It is free fuel energy without having to pay for electricity,” Peters said.

Peters had a booth set up during the Sanger Blossom Days event and has had subsequent meetings
for starting up his new Central Valley Solar Cookers Club. According to Peters, the purpose of the cooking club is to learn how to solar cook, promote solar cookers as a way to save money and a way to save the environment.

For more information please visit the Central Valley Solar Cookers Club group page on Green Fresno.

Source

Tags: cookers, food, solar, thermal

Comment by John Warner on April 27, 2010 at 11:37pm: As a proponent of Peak Oil Theory my interest in solar cooking focuses more on survival options than fun. Peak Oil is serious business and the latest out there, within the past couple of months, are similar reports from the US Department of Energy and another from the military that call for the peak hitting at any time within the next couple of years. So it boils down to how we are going to cook when the lights go out, the gas is down and propane no longer delivered. These reports have been ignored by the mainstream media but are widely circulated on peak energy websites such as the Oil Drum.

When we consider that African women often walk for miles every day to gather fuel wood for cooking having alternatives having alternatives in cooking fuel becomes imperatively important. Shelves at the convenience store will likely be bare and we're going to have to cook up stuff like cracked wheat berries, dry beans, turnips and garden greens.

I bought my solar cooker three or perhaps four years ago. A commercial model for something in the neighborhood of $250, made of insulated plastic and fold out semi parabolic polished aluminum reflectors. When it arrived I gave it a brief test and found it worked although more slowly than conventional cooking. Also solar cookers require clear skies and continuous adjustment to keep the sun focused in the box. Frankly, I found it hugely inconvenient and packed it away for the day the grid goes down [hopefully a sunny one!] And when the grid goes out industrial civilization goes out with it causing some serious inconveniences far more weighty than eating one dish meals and adjusting the cooker to the earth's rotation.

So having a back up solar oven is part of my family's food security strategy built mostly on stored grain, dry legumes, flour, hydrogenated vegetable shortening {Crisco} and basics like that. Cooking options include the regular electric range in the house, a commercial six burner propane range with oven [with up to 500 gallons of stored propane] a rocket stove [search], also a commercial model and also put away for future service just like the solar oven. Today I've just prepared for service a small wood cookstove with oven for outside cooking in the summer In the winter we can cook on the fireplace insert inside which will also accomodate a cast iron dutch oven inside.

You can find more information on food security with a search on that topic or by visiting my website at http://www.wholesystemsag.org. Don't be fooled by corporate media. Get real news and viewpoints from alternative sources, mostly on internet. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse are on their way but, unlike the scriptural imagery, they come from different directions. One is Peak Energy or the decline of resources in general. Another is the failure of government to act in the interests of regular people. A third might be climate change and attendant species extinction and a fourth, perhaps, the crisis in debt accumulation. Take your pick or add some more. Yes, don't forget carrying capacity of humankind exceeding what can be supported by several times the number that can be supported without cheap oil.

Time's running short but it's not too late to start preparations.

Good wishes, John