The Improved Sun Basket

Oppen, M. von (1981). The Improved Sun Basket. IIASA Professional Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: PP-81-013

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Abstract

In recent years and months prices for fuel and light have rapidly increased in India, so that housewives and others interested in saving fuel have shown renewed interest in alternative sources of energy for household use. This is especially true for regions of India where, on the one hand, low rainfall and limited vegetative growth restrict the availability of firewood so that prices are high, but, on the other hand, sunshine is relatively abundant so that solar powered devices such as box cookers or sun baskets do hold a potential.

The Sun Basket was proposed for cooking with solar energy several years ago. This was a low cost papier machee made parabolic mirror in a bamboo frame equipped with a simple automatic tracking device, synchronizing the adjustment of the parabolic mirror with the sun's movement during the day. This tracking device operates on a simple principle: a weight floating on a gradually descending water level pulls a string, which turns the basket. However, because of a number of drawbacks at that time the original low cost Sun Basket found only limited acceptance.

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