Send me a note to the email listed in my "about" section, and I can forward to Andy :)

Thank you! It is a labor of love :)

Unfortunately as Dave announces in the video, he has retired and is hoping to sell the business. You can contact him through the web site, email is listed here: www.sunbdcorp.com/

I wonder if the glass back then was higher quality... borosilicate? tempered? I hear so many cases where the thermal shock imploded tubes, maybe it was carelessness with a heated tube and sloshing cold soup like the disaster on one cooking show on cable...

@@SolarCookingMuseum never had that issue…yet.

De acuerdo, la mejor de ambos mundos--solar fotovoltaic y termal!

Good idea, what would you do to make it last in high humidity countries? Or, like in Minnesota where we have really dry air winters but high humidity summers? I imagine papercrete would last longer, how vulnerable is it to moisture?

@@SolarCookingMuseum I have no experience with that yet, my first test sample still needs to dry, but I'm thinking of waterproof paint.

If I were to hazard a guess it would be, they wish to cook with the cleanest energy possible using the materials for a cooker that have the least impact on the environment. Aluminum already smelted, vs. PV panels with their many metals plus the extra copper for cabling, etc. etc. Since they can cook with pure unmediated sunlight, why complicate matters? But that's just my guess.

What does a Scheffler mirror with tracking system cost vs a PV system that does the same? My guess would be thousands vs tens of thousands, and let's not forget that batteries have only a limited lifetime. There's a German startup Solarbakery you can look up for comparison, their installations cost several hundreds of thousands which is insane. Meanwile, you can get a Lytefire for $5000 or diy for much less.

I don't know the cost, you could contact Pierre-Andre via their website. Apparently they felt it was cost effective for a restaurant doing dozens of entrees and hour, and they will have 2 at their restaurant slated to open June 11. The tracker for the one unit we saw needed only occasional adjustment, per Clement's tour of the cooker on its trailer. I doubt that the Scheffler costs in the six figures or even close to it.

@@SolarCookingMuseum I know the smallest Scheffler reflector with 2m² costs €2000, I couldn't find a price tag for the 2.7m², 10m² or 60m² models on Simply-Solar. As I understand it people can also get the instructions and diy, same with Lytefire.

Yes, it tastes better, or I would say, all the tastes are preserved, for many reasons: First the temperatures in a solar box oven or panel cooker rise slowly, and without circulating air like a gas oven, the moisture in the food is not drawn out quickly. Most food is intended to stay moist but "modern" cooking methods can dry out just about anything, sometimes before the food has had a chance to really cook. Second the often somewhat longer cooking time at lower overall temperatures mean the proteins, sugars, and other components of the food do not cook to fast and thus char or skip steps in property breaking down proteins etc. While visiting you'll see Pierre-Andre pull out a spectacular batch of baked eggplant--it smelled like butter-baked mushrooms!

Different at times as Luther says. It cab be a different approach. Like using less moisture so it cooks faster or as fast depending on preheating and heat limits. If any, of cooking method.

It tastes like sunshine

Actually my take is the opposite--I have a daily feed of offers of solar cookers on eBay, and since I set it up 3 years ago, the # of cookers offered have increased. Plus, restaurants like Le Presage are bound to pave the way for more cafes, commercial food dryers, etc. Regarding a group on the internet, the comments are increasing on the largest group, facebook.com/groups/SCWNet -- I see you are signed up for it, do you have it bookmarked or follow it? Lots of new interest and innovative designs are being posted there.

I guess we could all be cynical and stop bothering to make life more than bearable while we can. But I choose hope rather than despair.

I agree, wish I had more time and could've spent all day with Larry but had to try and beat the wildfires as I made my next appt in Oregon! Regarding radiative sky cooling, I'm definitely no good at the science behind it, this is the first link that came up via a web search, pubs.aip.org/aip/apr/article/6/2/021306/570227/Radiative-sky-cooling-Fundamental-principles which is still a bit over my head but covers a lot of ground. I see there are numerous other YT channels with folks who've explored this topic, I wouldn't be able to judge which are best though the ones that reach down to my 6th grade science level would probably work! :D

​@@SolarCookingMuseum thanks for the link. I'm afraid, it's well above my head as well. I'm more of a rule of thumb tinkerer. I saw something online a few years back which looked similar to a solar box cooker which could trap coolth at night. Unfortunately it was one of those occasions where I must have had a gazillion tabs open to look into one-by-one, only to then loose it in a crash or oversight. I thought Larry's box may have been something along that line. Will just have to experiment. I did find out one thing when putting some small tubs out on a frosty night to make ice blocks. It was just borderline frosty, so I had to try and maximise the cold I could trap. My assumption that putting them on the the ground where the cold air would run down the slope would do it best was wrong; it did not freeze the water. A tub I forgot sitting on a box a couple feet above ground, but more exposed to the open sky, froze. The tubs on the ground had some overhanging vegetation blocking some of the sky. The contraption I saw online had a funnel like top to it, if I recall correctly, and it may have had a reflective surface. What I am not sure about is, does it just allow a greater surface area of cold air to drop into the box, or, does the reflective surface bounce any warmth from the ambient air into space, whilst simultaneously allowing the cold to drop in? Does the interior have to be black or reflective - those kind of questions. Things like ∑1/4≧√3 does my head in. I'll have to check out YT for its tinker base, instead of google search which tends to present those scientific papers.

Thanks for subscribing and your kind words! I try to include as much broadly considered info about solar energy, for food processing, and Alexis' insights are incredibly helpful. Planning my 8th solar video road trip soon and have a backlog I'm editing up to the point I leave, so stay tuned!

The former, I'm sure. I would have liked to see the ducts and blower more closely to get a better sense of how it works.

You can look up the reports and writings of Pete Schwartz at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo--Pete's ISEC (Insulated Solar ELectric Cooker, same as Alexis') for how such cookers work. I'm still mystified by refrigeration in general but I think the main point is that the tub fridge is superinsulated so does not need constant, regular cycles of on-off for the refigerant pump. It'd be a good subject to run by Alexis and his companions on the farm, check out livingenergyfarm.org

Right now, the only one I'm aware of is the GoSun with its Fusion and Sport-E models, and the Go model has an electric heating element as an option. gosun.co

Thanks!

I would be obliged if the WhatsApp group number could be shared that he mentioned in the video. So other solar enthusiast could benefit! Thanks!

They may be limiting it to his market area but you can contact Johna via his page - sungenius.co.za/contact/

Thanks for asking--the Robinson cooker plans are on the SCI wiki - solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/Robinson_Cooker I will add the link to the video comments.

Yeah I took way too long to finally use lavalier mic's, they make a world of difference!

Thanks! You are probably already signed up for Solar Cooking UK? Great group, I interviewed two of their moderators last July, Dave Oxford's posted, still working on Stew MacLachlan's, recorded in the plaza by the British Library!

I'm a firm believer in solar solutions for just about every energy or environmental conundrum :)