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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #345894
Research Project: Enhancing the Quality, Utility, Sustainability and Environmental Impact of Western and Long-Staple Cotton through Improvements in Harvesting, Processing, and Utilization

Location: Cotton Ginning Research

Title: Solar cooking

Author
item Funk, Paul

Submitted to: Resource Magazine
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/20/2017
Publication Date: 4/27/2017
Citation: Funk, P.A. 2017. Solar cooking. Resource Magazine. 24(3):8-9.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Over two billion people face fuel wood shortages, causing tremendous personal and environmental stress. Over 4 million people die prematurely from indoor air pollution. Solar cooking can reduce fuel wood consumption and indoor air pollution. Solar cooking has been practiced and published since the 1700’s, but not yet on a wide scale in less developed countries. There are three categories of solar cooker, concentrating, panel, and box-type; each has a niche in meeting much of the world’s primary domestic energy need. Hundreds of designs now exist; some have been mass produced in the thousands and tens of thousands, and two designs exceed half a million copies. Solar cookers serve microenterprises and make a good project for introduction to engineering classes. Agricultural Engineers have the technical knowledge and collaborative relationships to further solar cooking, and our professional society hosts the international standard for testing and reporting their thermal performance.