Fashion Crime: Socks and Sandals

Solar cookers (known as parabolic cookers) can heat up food quickly using nothing but reflective light from the sun. They look like a prop from Dr Who in the 1970’s but they’re actually very efficient.

Basically they’re nothing more than a bunch of reflective mirrors which bounce sunlight and heat radiation at one particular point – the point where you food sits.

The good news is that they’re remarkably powerful (in summer) method of cooking your food or heating liquids. The bad news is that they’re weather dependent and need constant “jiggling” as to stay aligned with the sun.

Once you’ve got your mirrors all sorted out and providing the sun’s shining, you can pot a pot in the central focal point of the cooker.
For best results the pot should be as dark as possible to conduct heat – and preferably dark on the inside as well if possible, and the thicker the pot is, the better! You should also have a lid (black both sides also) to keep heat in. This will reduce the cooking time.

Aluminium pots (pronounced “Aloo-minim” in the USA) are often recommended as ideal cookware for parabolic cookers – but they’re very, very wrong. Cooking with aluminium pots & pans has been linked to Alzihmers disease so please throw away that old aluminium cookware.

Your cooker will need to be realigned towards the sun every 20 to 30 minutes, though some have experienced their cookers heatng up a cup of water in the same time it takes to boil the kettle!

If you’re keen on making your own solar cooker there are a handful of very different designs & ideas at this page here: http://solarcooking.org/plans/
Some are made from tin-foil and cardboard boxes, some from wind-shield sun-guards, and others carefully constructed using polished silver or mirrors.

Whatever your skill level there’s bound to be something to fill up your afternoon and impress your neighbours & friends.