Why Are Solar Ovens Helpful?

Resource Use

Virtually every type of cooking device in use in the world today uses resources of one kind or another. Electric stoves, gas stoves, whether propane or natural gas, and wood stoves all require the input of planetary resources. Solar ovens require a resource as well, but it comes directly from the sun, and if not used for cooking in a solar oven simply falls upon the earth. In a time of constricting resource availability, solar ovens could be a very effective means of decreasing resource use if they were widely used.

With conventional cooking methods, all of the resources that they use are converted into emissions of one kind or another. Electricity has few emissions at the point of use, but most of it is produced in coal power plants or unsafe nuclear plants. Solar ovens, in addition to using no resources, create no emissions other than the delicious smells of cooking food. The widespread dissemination of solar ovens could help to reduce many of the emissions that contribute to the problem of climate change.

Solar ovens are an effective substitute for conventional ovens in situations where no other cooking source is available. Remote cabins, campsites and sailboats are all ideal applications for the use of solar ovens. Small solar ovens don't weigh very much, and can be constructed so they can be folded up and stowed away when not in use.

Millions of people in poor countries use firewood as their only source of cooking heat. This is one of the primary causes of catastrophic deforestation in many parts of the world. Ironically, many of the places where firewood use is at its most intense, such as Africa, also have large amounts of sunshine throughout the year, and are ideal locations for the use of solar ovens. Solar ovens are also excellent candidates for use in poor countries because they can be built out of materials as simple as a cardboard box, some tinfoil and a piece of scrap glass.