Sun Pan

	Figure 1: SunPan

The "SunPan" was specifically designed to be built in any country with local materials and hand tools, a home-town solar cooker. This solar cooker can be mass produced. (Click here or at left for a larger version of this photo)

It is light weight for moving, easy to store, easy to clean, user friendly and stacks for shipping. The material cost for the unit and six pans (rectangular pots) is less than $10.00. Materials can be purchased with local currency and minimum capital is required to start a business. The unit should be profitable for a manufacturer and its distributors. Local NGO's, service organizations, religious groups and the government are needed to assist in the verbal promotion and demonstrations so necessary in rural areas. The key to the "SunPan" is scrap aluminum lithograph plates. Every government printing office, printer and newspaper uses these plates. The cost of printing plates for one solar cooker is approximately $2.00. (about $1.25 per kilogram). These printing plates are used for the outer case, the interior and the reflectors. The printing plates are cut to size and attached to a rectangular wood frame, 385 mm x 960 mm; insulation is 30 mm of scrap textile ends, rug, carpet, blanket or natural fibers (wool, jute, etc.), mineral wool, Fiberglas, etc.; and the solar window is a 370 mm x 955 mm glass or plastic sheet (or film). It is recommended that the frame and printing plates be screwed together. Approximately 2,400 square centimeters of scrap aluminum plate will make one 20 cm x 27.5 cm x 5.5 cm pan, with cover. The material cost is less than $0.30 per pan! The aluminum printing plate is relatively hard. Therefore, all bends should have a radius-- rebending can cause the metal edges to crack.

The drawings are based on a Heidelberg #102 printing plate, 770mm x 1030mm which is a common printing plate (3 plates per cooker). Another common printing plate is 610mm x 740mm; (five of these plates could make a cooker and six pans). Newspapers commonly use a 380mm x 630mm aluminum plate; (ten of these plates would make a cooker and six pans). The scrap value of aluminum used in the solar cooker and pans is approximately $2.00 to $2.50 whether 3 large plates, 5 smaller plates or 10 newspaper printing plates.

Figure 2: Pans (Pots) (Click here or above for a larger version of this photo)

This unit should be used as a guide to build your unit with the aluminum plates available in your country. The size of plate will dictate the size of the cooker. You could find that a smaller or larger unit is more economical. Also the available glass or plastic could determine the size and shape of the unit. The area of the solar window and reflector will determine the amount of food that can be cooked. When the solar energy is 4kw/sq.meter or more, a window and reflector of 0.1sq. meter width can cook 1 to 2 kg of grains, meat, vegetables, etc. A reflector that adjusts to the angle of the sun will improve performance.