A more Durable Solar Cooker for Desert Refugee Camps 

The designs for solar cookers have greatly improved since this video was made. The Haines Solar Cooker, for example, was voted best in its type by several evaluators. A five-year survey of household users in Mexico, carried out by Solar Household Energy, showed that Haines Cookers were durable and powerful.

You're right, we do need to take care of the problems in our own country, but one of our biggest problems is our reliance on fossil fuels for energy. The solar cooking device in the film is actually kept in emergency kits by some people in the U.S. including those who are concerned with being able to survive after a regional or national disaster. Even is the power is out and the gas lines are cut you can still cook your food and make your water safe to drink with one of these solar cookers.

I only just now discovered SCI and this video and shared it to my FB bookmarks. I was chocked that this Revolutionary tech is still not mainstreamed. Aluminium is available as paint, and I think so is Chrome, but I would create an oven with the help of the old japanese Abanico (Hand fan) technique, but with a suitable bend to create a parabole , and stretching about 300 degrees of the circle tied together with strings or similar. Of course a cheaper more sustainable way would be to use some kind of reflective paint, or glue glitter on parabolic hand made pottery locally.

This is a great video and the challenge is, well, challenging. The All Season Solar Cooker is your answer for the panel cooker. An unbreakable greenhouse??? Unbreakable means plastic and plastic means off-gassing. Please consider the tempered glass bowls that are used with the ASSC. With minimal care they will last for many year - and can be multitasked. Great video Thanks again

They should do this for all equatorial, dessert, sun plaster areas along with solar panels for electricity; also they can make a sand-solar-oven; use the sand with some binder to build an outter casing, line the interior with mirrors/reflective material to direct the sun's ray to a focused interior area. When 3rd world cooks they are not concern with *oven* temperature--there's only one temperature--when it's done. Using a sand composite casing is last longer, plentiful resource, and easily rebuilt. When moving just take the interior material to be reinstalled in the new area. The natural sand casting will deteriorate on it own. We need to think more outside the established education to be better.

So much good information, in the form of history, social issues, rationales, science, engineering, and tips. One correction: Black pot, mentioned at 3:56-4:01, is black to absorb all available light, not just infrared.

Awesome overview on Solar cookers 😎

Thank you for the video. I have a lot to learn and give to this community. Hopefully I will help this cause in the future!

The only solar cooker that meets the characteristics that this challenge requires is a reflective parabolic shaped cardboard. That can be accommodated in a hole in the desert sand and that is supported by the weight of the cooking pot. This system doubles the temperatures of a passive solar ccoker. It is easy to store for mass transportation and would not cost more than 8 dollars. A durable version would be laminated. So you have an idea. It is almost similar to the plastic cone that dogs are put on their neck. When they are hurt. Just imagine that they endure without breaking. while a dog gives them a bad life. when they want to take it off to scratch!

wonderful........................

Thks for the thorough survey of the problem especially the requirements. This is more a wholistic/integration problem than a technology/academic problem. I think I have a solution. If it work-out, I'll let you know.

thank you 🍲

thank you !

Have you tried thermal plastic? Sometimes painter's plastic or plastic sheeting about 3mm thick, worked well to keep my tent warm. This was during some really nasty cold temperatures here in pennsylvania. We stayed warm though. I was also thinking, couldn't you coat the back of the cardboard with plastic or mod podge gloss? Crafters use it as a sealant or their cardboard projects to keep them from being affected by weather. Diamond glaze may be an option too. I was also thinking that maybe you could attach a sheet of 3mm plastic with paper clamps like you see in an office setting. They would hold the plastic in place to keep them from being affected by weather an would keep the heat in too. I wish you guys and gals all the luck in the world. I myself am working on solar cooking using mason jars. Maybe one day we can discuss theories and such. Take care.

NGO: ADET with you for Africa.

Great

Or another option would be placing one pan inside a larger pan that has a glass top or black top? Plastic bag serms to be a hassle to me

You may try thermal camera (e.g. Flir One) for testing the heat.

If only the news focused on the human stories

What about using a sugar cane plastic bag as the greenhouse? It doesn't meet the specifications in the video - but it eliminates possible underlying concerns about creating un-biodegradable waste (but not the longevity of materials). Then we wouldn't have to wait for someone to create a better mousetrap.

Well I see that this video is over three years old so I hope the problems outlined in it have been resolved by now. I was going to suggest fewer, much larger cookers for greater efficiency but I see someone else already mentioned that. It would help with the cost and also the number of people needed to tend to the cooking and cleanup chores, probably require less water for cleaning the cookware, etc. And it would also be easier to disassemble, transport and reassemble a few larger ones.

Would a Crock-Pot liner that is ceramic and it slid be equivalent to the pot that is in a bag? Therefore don't have to bother with cleaning a bag.

That,s great! Let's take care of this country first! We have a great many problems right here at home.

Instead of using heavy duty card board, use corkboard as its sorta water resistant.

Maam is there anyways I can turn Arabic captions on for the benefit of Syrian refugees? I am an activist trying to draw attention to the plight of AlRukban camp in syria. Thank you so much for permission for captions. Blake

Hello how can I get this solar cooker I need it,

Hot pepper in the wax may stop animals or insects.

glassine or cellophane could be burned. However there is still the problem of joining these materials to form bags. Also, a solar box cooker might be less prone to food getting on the glazing.

no denying the importance of using solar power but open fire cooking is n o way responsible for the vanishing tree lines or other vegetation... it is paper, tobacco, hydel projects, furniture and construction material, growing population density and the spreading urban concrete jungle.

Politicians compromise and fail everyone. 😎

those bags don't last for weeks in my experience, even useless after one use

dats really great .............. and ya wat the previous guy tld was really ri8 .firstly we need to overcme our trobles ..den electricity cmes first.if we increase good support for electricity den we can plan for sme more devices, for dat government can only take a step........

This video is just confusing. 🤷‍♂️ It defines the problem and tells you to invent a better solar cooker for a specific purpose. It even gives you the design parameters. Then there is no indication at all who produced the video, what organization is looking for this particular type of solar cooker, or tell you who to contact after you invent one. I am not going to waste my time and resources inventing something when I do not even know who wants it. Just confusing. 🤷‍♂️

Why did you not show any African designs here?

Give a man a loaf of bread he will always go hungry show him how to make a loaf of bread and he will never go hungry. We have been there for over 70 years and we are still feeding them , there has to be a time to say enough. Israel has said that they would show them how to grow there own food and sustain them selves other countries have tried the same thing nothing seems to work. why is that?

The meat consumption is a problem n cooking fruit is stupid also . I recommend an education