Consumer Concerns
In the March 2009 No: 3 issue of Gapevine the newsletter of the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers, there is an article on cardboard cooking. Here it is:-
“A solar-powered cardboard cooker will today be announced the winner of a $75,000 competition to tackle climate change
“The Kyoto Box uses the sun’s rays to cook and boil water. It is targeted at the people who use firewood. The box costs just $5… to make and will be given away free.
“Jon Bohmer, the cooker’s inventor, said: ‘It’s a great feeling. The prize is just what’s needed to get this project off the ground. There’s only so much I can do on my own.’ The FT C1imate Change Challenge sought to find and publicize the most innovative and scalable solution to the effects of climate change
“Sponsored by Hewlett Packard, the technology company, the competition was organized by Forum for the Future, a sustainable development charity, and the Financial Times. Sir Richard Branson and D. Rajendra Pachauri, a Nobel Prize winner were among the judges, who chose the winner in conjunction with a public vote.
“That public support helped the Kyoto Box beat nearly 300 entries to win the competition. The cooker consists of two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, with a clear acrylic cover on top that lets in and traps heat from the sun, and acts as a hob. Black paint, foil and insulation work together to raise the temperature high enough to boil water.
“The box is appealing because of its simplicity. ‘There are too few people looking at simple research,’ said Mr. Bohmer. ‘We need the basic stuff too.’
“The box is so easy to make that it can be produced in existing cardboard factories. A more robust version has been developed in corrugated plastic, which costs the same and is ready for testing across 10 countries.
“By replacing firewood, the cooker could save up to two tonnes of carbon emissions per family per year. Mr Bohmer hopes the box will be eligible for carbon credits, hence the name Kyoto Box, making a yearly profit of… $26-40… per stove, which would enable further expansion and easily cover the cost of replacing the cooker after five years.
“The stove could also save lives; it can boil 10 litres of water in two hours, destroying the germs that kill millions of children each year.”