| Cooking with a solar oven is an energy-efficient, pollution-free way to help fight global warming and take advantage of nature's free, inexhaustible energy supply.
As the world's population increases and nonrenewable sources of energy for cooking dwindle (e.g., firewood in Asia and Africa) or seriously damage the ozone layer (e.g., fossil fuels), the need to adopt clean, renewable energy sources and devices that utilize these sources grows ever more critical. solar ovens are one answer.
Home appliances are the world's fastest growing consumers of energy, second only to automobiles. Items such as stoves, ovens, and refrigerators account for 30 percent of electricity use in industrial countries and 12 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, an estimated 5 percent of its fossil fuel consumption is dedicated to the cooking and distribution of food. A portion of that energy expenditure could be eliminated by using solar ovens.
In developing countries, greenhouse gas emissions from cooking originate from sources other than fossil fuel, especially fuel wood. In recent years, several organizations have been setting up solar ovens for families in Africa, Asia, Mexico, and Central and South America, where people have long depended on the now rapidly vanishing firewood supply. Solar power cooking has significantly improved the lives of tens of thousands of people, allowing them to not only prepare nutritious food for their families but to purify drinking water, treat infectious medical waste, and preserve (dry) food. Yet many, many more solar ovens are needed in these countries to prevent further destruction of remaining forests, reduce pollution, and support family health.
The massive contribution to global warming by the United States and other major energy-consuming nations highlights the need for pollution-free alternatives to ozone-depleting technology. Solar ovens are just one part of the alternative energy picture, but one that is accessible to a great majority of people.
A reliable solar oven can be built from everyday materials in just a few hours or purchased ready made. Solar ovens can be used to prepare anything that can be made in a conventional oven or stove ?from baked bread to steamed vegetables to roasted meat. Solar ovens allow you to do it all, without contributing to global warming or heating up the kitchen and placing additional demands on cooling systems. Nearly 75 percent of US households prepare at least one hot meal per day; one-third prepare two or more, according to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey. You can make some of those meals in a solar oven.
Source: www.solarenjoy.com
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