PCC Geography: Mr. Lee

Low-Cost Emergency Solar Cooker

Dec 07, 2007

When a disaster strikes, it is too late for emergency preparedness. Los Angeles is earthquake country. Fortunately, we don't experience major earthquakes very often. Unfortunately, this tends to lull many into complacency.

Though there are many sites with suggested lists of what should be in your emergency kit, cooking is something most people tend to forget about. For those of us who are avid campers, we usually have a stove of some sort. Most use some sort of liquid or bottled petroleum fossil fuel. The stove and fuel are bulky and not easily carried around. And, not knowing how long it will take for emergency services to arrive, there is a concern as to how long these supplies will last.

"It never rains is southern California" is borne out with the continuing 9-year drought. And the abundance of sunshine could be a way to replace or at least extend your camping stove supplies---that is, IF you have a solar cooker.

There are numerous models available for sale, and free plans abound to make your own. But many of us are technically or handicraft challenged, or have such busy schedules it is difficult to find the time to build anything elaborate. Well, we found a low-cost, low-tech/no-tech solar cooker that makes it easy for just about everyone to have an emergency solar cooker. The plans and description are posted in the "Our PDFs" section of the website.

This solar cooker is so easy to make that only the lazy and those choosing to ignore common sense to prepare will be without an emergency solar cooker. And if you know someone that falls into those categories, get these plans to the friends of those folks! Or better yet, make one and give it to them as a holiday or birthday gift. It might literally turn out to be one of the brightest gift ideas they may see in a long time!

At the end of the PDF document are some handy web sites for other solar cookers. So if you want a free and clean emergency cooking system, give this a try. And if you are so inclined, try to bring solar cooking into your daily routine, too with a more sophisticated solar cooker.

Happy holidays. And may the upcoming new year be a cleaner and greener one for you and yours.

Photo: with permission from www.solarcookers.org