Home Made Solar Funnel Cooker

by N K Srinivasan
(Bangalore, India)

Solar Funnel cookers are efficient, improved Panel cookers---with a line of focus instead of a point or circle of focus as in parabolic cookers.I have been fascinated by this concept of Prof Jones of BYU, Utah.
I made a small one with cardboard and got some results.Then I made a large one with cardboard of 42in by 21 in. Just fold this sheet as given by Prof Jones' procedure and pin the lower ends using a stapler and three small nuts to secure the ends firmly.After this, I pasted Reynolds heavy duty aluminum wrap with white glue.I used a metal ring to form the support at the bottom.
In Bangalore, in late winter December 2011 and Jan 2012 I could cook rice, lentils and vegetables in small black
stainless steel containers wrapped in polythene bags...It took about an hour between 10 AM and 1PM....
I am regularly using this funnel cooker for heating 2 to 3
quarts of water for pasteurizing and for preparing tea for a family of four!---saving lot of electrical energy.
It is easy to scale up the funnel cooker...but keep in mind the ratio of width to length of cardboard : 1:2 before bending and folding!
Comparing with box cookers, funnel one is faster and easier to make.


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Greetings NK,

Thank you again for your great write up, for sharing your homemade solar funnel cooker experiences and successes.

This is the kind of information our visitors and customers like to read about, it gives great ideas and motivation to others to go and do the same.
People can see how easy it really is to take advantage of the free power of the sun to cook their food.

...and if you ever have any photos of your cookers we would love for you to share them if you can.

Thank you,

Nathan
Admin.