One little solar cooker aims to take a big bite out of climate change. The Kyoto Box, designed by Norwegian entrepreneur Jon Bøhmer, is intended as an alternative for millions of people who burn wood to cook food and boil water. Using energy from the sun can reduce carbon emissions as well as deforestation in countries such as Kenya, where Bøhmer lives and runs his company, Kyoto Energy.
Bøhmer experimented with the concept for a decade, inspired by the simplicity of a solar device invented in 1767 by Swiss physicist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. The cooker, which consists of two boxes nestled inside each other and topped with Plexiglas to trap the sun’s rays, has evolved from a homemade cardboard contraption to a $6 plastic version that went into mass production this spring.
Environmental benefits aside, the Kyoto Box holds promise for human health, too, by allowing people to effectively boil unsafe drinking water and to avoid harmful smoke inhalation from toiling over sooty wood stoves. Bøhmer is also investigating whether the cookers could eventually pay for themselves or even become a source of income for families, if Kyoto Energy can qualify their use as a source of carbon-offset credits. “As the world gets more and more technically complex,” Bøhmer says, “there is a certain relief about something so basic
and direct.”
Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Cooking Goes Solar."
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7 Comments
Add CommentThis is excellent. Too bad there was no picture of the device.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI really like ideas like this.... simple, cheap devices that can be game changers. There should be more focus on this type of effort for out of the box (or in this case, actual box) thinking.
Solar cookers are great for anyone cooking during the day, however many people (societies) have day "jobs" including hunting/gathering during daylight hours, so these cookers have proven to be impractical in many cases. Hard to change when living on a very thin edge of life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne must consider the social angle when looking for solutions.
Commenter tharriss: No picture necessary, there's probably nothing special about the design (box in a box with plexi panel), just the manufacturing process.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHundreds of design with research-based notes can be seen at the Solar Cooking Wiki:
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/The_Solar_Cooking_Archive_Wiki
Commenter schwantjek: The thing about solar cookers, unlike combustion cookers, especially box and panel cookers, is that you can leave them, go to work/school, and come back to pasteurized water and cooked food. When you say "these cookers have proven to be impractical in many cases" are you speaking as a scientist who has studied such cases, or have you read other people's research indicating that? I estimate that a reasonable portion of the world population, cooking with combustion, including myself, could make the switch, somewhere between 1 billion and 4 billion people, allowing a maximum of 3 billion to be excused for "living on a very thin edge of life." Since only 2-5 million people worldwide are using solar cookers, much less than the population of people who have time to play games, I think the reason people don't use them is social but not societal necessity.
Science education should be the opposite of acculturation. I.e., question everything.
You don't have to buy the cooking unit. Just goto new Bloomsfield Missouri and they will show you how to make one easy. Or better then google missouri renewable energy to learn more.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPublic Service by analyst1
There should be a nice way to cook things by just taking a few of the billions of discarded CD-ROMs (they stay flat as mirrors, unlike foil) and gluing them to a concave surface (umbrella, for example). Bonus - great way to cook entire mounds of fire ants from a distance!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisschwantjek: "impractical in many cases"?? How so? Working all day is no problem. These solar cookers do not need to be attended. They can be started in the morning and left to cook all day with dinner ready at night. Also, most if not all societies have the old, children, disabled or otherwise unable to join in the daily activity. They stay behind and cook. Where did you get your info?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is not impractical and this is exactly what developing countries with abundance of sunshine need to have. In fact I saw a demo of a solar cooker at a science fair in India about 15 years ago. It was a concept and it took a long time to cook rice. But I am sure better efficiencies in harnessing the solar power to reduce cookign time etc can be achieved .
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