The BYU Solar Cooker/Cooler | Page 8

be possible in this way to cheaply make ice for Hutus in Rwanda and for aborigines in Australia, without using any electricity or other modern "tricks." We are in effect bringing some of the cold of space to a little corner on earth. Please let me know how this works for you.

XI. Conclusion: Why We Need Solar Cookers
The BYU Funnel Cooker/Cooler can:
-Cook food without the need for electricity or wood or petroleum or other fuels.
-Pasteurize water for safe drinking, preventing many diseases.
-Save trees and other resources.
-Avoid air pollution and breathing smoke while cooking.
-Use the sun's free energy. A renewable energy source.
-Cook food with little or no stirring, without burning.
-Kill insects in grains.
-Dehydrate fruits, etc.
-Serve as a refrigerator at night, to cool even freeze water.
(Try that without electricity or fuels!)
The burden for gathering the fuel wood and cooking falls mainly on women and children. Joseph Kiai reports from Dadaab, Kenya: "Women who can't afford to buy wood start at 4 am to go collecting and return about noon... They do this twice a week to get fuel for cooking... The rapes are averaging one per week." From Belize: "Many times the women have to go into the forest dragging their small children when they go to look for wood. It is a special hardship for pregnant and nursing mothers to chop and drag trees back to the village... they are exposed to venomous snakes and clouds of mosquitoes." (Anna K.) (Quoted by Solar Cookers International from a newsletter.)
And the forests are dwindling in many areas. Edwin Dobbs noted in Audubon Magazine, Nov. 1992, "The world can choose sunlight or further deforestation, solar cooking or widespread starvation..."
Americans should be prepared for emergencies, incident to power failures. A Mormon pioneer noted in her journal: "We were now following in their trail traveling up the Platte River. Timber was sometimes very scarce and hard to get. We managed to do our cooking with what little we could gather up..." (Eliza R. Snow) Now there's someone who needed a light-weight Solar Cooker!
Here's another reason to use a solar cooker. Many people in developing countries look to see what's being done in America. I'm told that if Americans are using something, then they will want to try it, too. The more people there are cooking with the others will want to join in. A good way to spread this technology is to encourage small local industries or families to make these simple yet reliable solar cookers for others at low cost. I've used this cooker for three summers and I enjoy it. Cooking and making ice with the funnel cooker/cooler will permit a significant change in lifestyle. If you think about it, this could help a lot of people. The BYU Solar Funnel Cooker uses the glorious sunshine -- and the energy of the sun is a free gift from God for all to use!

XII. Answers to commonly-asked questions
Will the cooker work in winter (in the United States)?
As the sun moves closer to the southern horizon in the winter, the solar cooker is naturally less effective. A good measure of the solar intensity is the "UV index" which is often reported with the weather. When the ultraviolet or UV index is 7 or above--common in summer months--the solar cooker works very well. In Salt Lake City in October, the UV index was reported to be 3.5 on a sunny day. We were able to boil water in the Solar Funnel Cooker during this time, but we had to suspend the black jar in the funnel so that sunlight struck all sides. (We ran a fishing line under the screw-on lid, and looped the fishing line over a rod above the funnel. As usual, a plastic bag was placed around the jar, and this was closed at the top to let the fishing line out for suspending the jar.)
The solar "minimum" for the northern hemisphere occurs on winter solstice, about December 21st each year. The solar "maximum" occurs six months later, June 21st. Solar cooking works best from about March 20 to October 1 in the north. If people try to cook with the sun for the first time outside of this time window, they should not be discouraged. Try again when the sun is more directly overhead. (One may also suspend the jar in the funnel, which will make cooking faster any time of the year.)
It is interesting to note that most developing countries are located near the equator where the sun is nearly directly overhead all the time. Solar Cookers will then serve year-round, as long as the sun is shining, for these fortunate people. They may be the first to apply fusion energy (of the sun) on a large scale! And they may accomplish this without the expensive infrastructure of electrical power grids that