Solar Cooking
Register
Searchbox
Last edited: 31 December 2017      
This article is about an entity that either no longer exists or that may no longer be active in solar cooking promotion. It is retained here for archival purposes.

P1020242

Sola Kooka

Noel Bourke has tried many solar oven designs over many years and, being a Joiner/Patternmaker by Trade, have developed a patio model which he calls a Sola Kooka. Its cooking chamber has a yearly average temperature of 167°C. It reaches 200°C constantly (212°C max) with all reflectors focused in high summer here in Western Australia and fries foods because it gets so hot. Noel has failed to find another "passive" (black collector) that attains the same high temperatures that this model reaches for its size. He describes it as very user friendly as it sits on a free moving trolley, and is rapidly being taken up by people who live in the hotter country areas of Australia as well as the city dwellers.

The design has been Patent applied for in many countries and can be made in any width (up to 2350 mm wide) without compromise of user friendliness. Noel makes them wider for less sunlit countries like England for example, (1200 mm width) with the standard width for Australia being 750 mm wide. It can have an electric, gas, or flamed fire as a back up, as the design is so useful for multi-tasking.

For a solar cooker to gain wide use, Noel says it has to be user friendly, get hot and retain the heat, be inexpensive to build. and be durable. He asserts that this design gets very hot quickly and retains and replaces heat more efficiently than any other passive solar oven for its collection area. The design can be made for less in developing countries, with basic construction for costs, yet not compromise its user friendly facts, or its high temperatures, or can be made from more durable materials (e.g., steel) for the more affluent western countries.

See also[]