Solar cooker facts for kids

Solar oven

Parabolic Solar Cooker

A solar cooker is a special device that uses the sun's energy to cook food. It works by capturing sunlight and turning it into heat. Solar cookers are great because they don't need any fuel like wood or gas, so they cost nothing to use!

Using solar cookers helps the environment. They slow down deforestation, which is when too many trees are cut down. They also help prevent desertification, where land turns into desert. Unlike cooking with fire, solar cookers don't pollute the air. They are also useful for cooking outdoors, especially when it's not safe to use fire or when fuel is hard to find. Solar cookers use renewable energy, which means the sun's energy will never run out!

Types of Solar Cookers

Solar cookers come in many shapes and sizes. Some are simple boxes you can make yourself from materials like cardboard. Others are made in factories and sold in stores.

• Box Cookers: These are often small boxes that can cook one meal. Some larger ones are even built into the sunny side of a house!
• Panel Cookers: These use reflective panels to direct sunlight onto a cooking pot.
• Parabolic Cookers: These look like satellite dishes. They focus a lot of sunlight onto a small area, making them very hot and fast for cooking.

Who Invented Solar Cookers?

The idea of a solar cooker is not new! A Swiss scientist named Horace de Saussure invented the first solar box cooker way back in 1767. That's over 250 years ago! However, solar cookers only started becoming popular around the 1970s. Today, you can find them in almost every country around the world.

Images for kids

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  Hot dogs being cooked with a solar funnel cooker

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  An Indian academic demonstrates a solar cooker in 1963

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  Solar oven in use

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  HotPot panel solar cooker

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  A Solar Oven made of cardboard, newspapers, and reflective tape

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  Solar tea kettle in Tibet

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  A Scheffler cooker. This reflector has an area of 16 m² (170 sq ft), and concentrates 3 kW of heat

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  The Solar Bowl in Auroville, India

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  A solar vacuum tube cooker

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  Students perform an experiment using a solar cooker built out of an umbrella

See also

In Spanish: Cocina solar para niños