A three-dollar cardboard panel solar cooker for low-income communities

Abstract

Brazil is a tropical country which has an average of 250 sunny days per year. Unfortunately, very little solar energy is used for both heating water, and for food cooking with solar cookers. Traditional cooking process demands fuel consumption while solar cooking takes advantage of the abundant, free solar energy. This article proposes the use of affordable panel solar cookers, with a sustainable design, based on waste materials, such as cardboard and potato chips metallized plastic bags as alternative materials to commercial reflective aluminum foil or reflective plastic films. Our work is an example of the feasibility of simple, fast and low-cost solar cooking apparatus and techniques dissemination among underprivileged communities