Solar Cooking
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Last edited: 7 May 2018      
SK1

The SK1.4 frame with one reflective panel installed

The SK1.4 parabolic solar cookers was developed by Dr. Dieter Seifert for a pilot project of INTERSOL (Salzburg, Austria) and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) for manufacturing in Afghanistan. The documentation of the SK1.4 is freely available (Open Source Appropriate Technology - OSAT). Of course, liability is excluded.

Use of solar energy combined with efficient cookstoves (like Ben 2 and Ben 3) and with thermos technology (cooking with retained heat, e.g. thermos baskets and thermos flasks) makes possible to reduce traditional firewood consumption to 1/10 (see D. Seifert: How to Overcome the Firewood Crisis, p. 15)

The SK1.4 solar cooker consists of the reflector, made from 24 reflector sheets, and a supporting structure, made of 8 mm round steel for the reflector carrier and for holding the pot or pan reliably in the focal area (pot support not shown in the picture above). The devices for production are described in Annexes C and D below.

SK1.4 is designed to be produced in a modest workshop using small manufacturing devices (D1 to D9). Each of the devices corresponds to at least one work station when the cookers are mass produced. The workshop is to be equipped with electric equipment for simple welding work and for drilling holes up to a diameter of 17 mm. Because the components to be bent are made of round steel with a diameter of only 8 mm (diameter of 4 mm for the embedded pot support), the bending devices are simple and the bending with a tube as lever is easy. Device D9 serves for welding a precise Reflector Carrier to which the 24 reflector sheets are attached with plastic-coated wires.

With the exception of the reflector material (highly reflecting aluminium with a thickness of 0.4 or 0.5 mm), usually the material for the production of the SK1.4 is locally available.

Construction plans[]

View this information in Spanish[]

Contact[]

See Dieter Seifert.