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Solar Cooking in Tanzania. A collaboration between: Ben, Lindsey, Sara, Noel. Mission Statement. Our goal is to build a viable solar cooker for use in Tanzania. This would serve as an alternative to gas/coal/wood burning fires during daylight hours.
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Solar Cooking in Tanzania A collaboration between: Ben, Lindsey, Sara, Noel.
Mission Statement Our goal is to build a viable solar cooker for use in Tanzania. This would serve as an alternative to gas/coal/wood burning fires during daylight hours. We aim to empower local businesses with the means for this technology to be distributed widely throughout the region.
Goals • Have an understanding of the culture, particularly cooking customs, and traditions. • Having the ability to cook Tanzanian foods like Chapatti and lentils using a solar cooker. • Introduce the most fitting solar cooker based on quantity of materials, surface area, and quality of solar cooker. • Help out with problems in the area such as deforestation. • Utilize other materials to minimize the usage the energy. • Understanding what’s really working for the locals and their dynamics. • We want to have a coherent plan to start, construct, and run a solar cooker business using local materials and man power. • An alternative would be to collect donations and make solar cookers to send to a contact in Tanzania.
How does a Parabolic reflector work? • Its shape is that of a circular paraboloid, the surface generated by a parabola revolving around its axis. • The parabolic reflector transforms an incoming plane wave traveling along the axis into a spherical wave converging toward the focus. • Conversely, a spherical wave generated by a point source placed in the focus is transformed into a plane wave propagating as a collimated beam along the axis.
What Does That Mean? Light coming in goes to the focus. Light emitted from the focus is dispersed in a straight line.
Poverty and Welfare in Tanzania • Avghousehold size: 4.9 • Households with electricity: 12% (10% on elec grid, 2% other sources) • Firewood and charcoal are the most common cooking fuels – used by 78% and 14% of households respectively. • Households with protected water source: 55% • Overall, 44% of Tanzanian households still use unprotected sources of drinking water, including wells and springs and surface water such as rivers and lakes. Some 39% use piped water and another 16% use protected wells or springs • Adults who’s 1st activity is agriculture: 63% • Population below the food pov line: 19% • Below basic needs pov line: 36%
How the poverty line is drawn • The food poverty line is the minimum spending per person needed to provide 2,200 calories a day for one month, based on the foods consumed by the poorest 50% of the population. A higher, ‘basic needs’ poverty line allows for other essentials such as clothes.
A Diversity of Sources • The sale of agricultural products was the main source of cash income for 62% of households, compared with 67% in 1991/92. • Food crops are the most important single source • The importance of cash crops has fallen. They now provide the main source of cash for only 17% of households.
More Info… • The World Bank reports that in 2001 per capita household consumption (in constant 1995 US dollars) was $147. • Household consumption includes expenditures of individuals, households, and nongovernmental organizations on goods and services, excluding purchases of dwellings. • The richest 10% of the population accounted for approximately 30.1% of household consumption and the poorest 10% approximately 2.8%.
Food Practices • The country's food crops include maize, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, cassava, potatoes, bananas and plantains. • The cash crops include cashew nuts, cotton, coffee, cloves, sisal, tobacco, tea and pyrethrum. • Agriculture provides the mainstay of the Tanzanian economy, employing close to four-fifths of the economically active population. • Farmers grow food for subsistence and for sale. Minerals, precious metals, fish, timber, and meat are also important products.
Food Practices in Tanzania • For most Tanzanians no meal is complete without a hardy helping of carbohydrates. • Plantains are preferred in the northwest, ugali (a thick mash of corn or sorghum) in the central regions, and rice in the south. • This staple is accompanied by a fish, beef, goat, chicken, or mutton stew or fried pieces of meat, along with several types of vegetables or condiments. • Breakfast preferences depend on income levels and local tradition. • Finger foods sold on the streets are common.
How can you make one? Various methods can be used to construct the parabolic dish. • Plaster/concrete molds can be made then use that to make many reflectors. • Sheet metal can be formed to the molds. • Wood frames can be made and lined with reflective material. • Reusing old satellite dishes as parabolic reflectors is also a possibility.
Reflective Material Ideas Some very cheap and accessible products are: • Foils from cigarette packets. • Emergency blankets. • Tetra Pak juices, and windshield covers. • As a startup idea, we could collect these items and use them to benefit the project. • Another, very excellent one is aluminum backed tape.