There’s sunshine when the gas is gone

Expatriate comes to town to teach families how to use the solar box cooker.

KARACHI:

An expatriate is here to teach families in rural Pakistan the ‘technology’ of the solar box cooker. All you need is cardboard, a reflector sheet and a heavy micron polythene bag.

Afzal Syed, a Pakistan-born American, says familiarising people with this home-made and cheaper solution is his social responsibility. “This is a simple technology using sunlight to bake and cook rice, lentils and other food in a covered casserole,” he explains.

Syed is also a volunteer associated with a non-profit American organisation, Solar Cookers International. He said the solar box cooker can be made at home at a cost of less than Rs100. “To make this, we need a folding cardboard, a reflector sheet and a heavy micron polythene bag. A clip is needed to tighten the mouth of the bag so that the heat is not lost,” he explains.

Anybody can copy this design as it is not patented. The temperature of this simple solar box cooker can reach 135 degrees centigrade in half an hour. This cooker is convenient and useful in those areas where piped gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electricity is not available. “I have held presentations at FPCCI and other organisations to introduce this technology,” says Syed.

These cookers are very popular in African countries and especially in the rural areas of Afghanistan and Bangladesh, he adds.

Afzal Syed is not looking for credit. He wants to give this technology to social work organisations so that they can donate it to the needy. “I will teach volunteers the knowhow and give them guidelines. They can set up a small factory or unit with the help donations for mass production.”

He visited Mai jo Dero village in Gharo to demonstrate how the cooker works.

Syed pointed out that other solar cookers, including parabolic cookers or concentrators, are also easy to make for cooking more food - fast.

Used dish antennas can be turned into heavy solar cookers with the help of either aluminium foil or tinted sheets. Unlike other cooking appliances, the solar cookers do not cremate the food, he emphasised.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2011.