The Kundu Kaar Cardboard Parabolic Solar Cooker

The cooker: The name Kundu Kaar means solar cooker in a local Chad dialect. It is a parabolic device with 70 cm diameter, thus absorbing 385 Watts of global insolation. The support parts are made of local wood and aluminium. The reflector carrier is made of cardboard, punched by heavy hydraulic presses . After having the reflector in shape the self-adhesive mirror foil is applied. The most important part is the rim around the reflector which gives it the necessary stability, granting utmost flexibility at the same time though.

What's so special about the Kundu Kaar?

• First of all the price: it costs 59 Euros including tax in the EU. The export price to all other countries is 51 Euros ex works Offenheim, Rhineland-Palatinum, Germany. The DIY-kit includes everything, even the glue and the clamps. The Kundu Kaar is considered as the cheapest real working solar cooker world wide.
• The reflector material: it is a self-adhesive mirror foil. It reflects a lot better than ordinary aluminium foil and has a price of just 14 Euros per square meter.
• Easy adjusting: The reflector has a hole right in the middle of the parabola. Once the shadow of the pot covers the hole completely the cooker is adjusted correctly. In case a light bow in the shape of a half moon appears, the cooker needs to be re-positioned again.
• The wood: it comes from the carpentry Friedrich Renner (www.friedrich-renner.de) located in the village Blaufelden, near Rothenburg. Renner is certified with the so called "blue angel" for using local low emission wood. Cheap wood, imported from tropical countries, will not be taken into consideration.
• The construction: the support is just one rod; most parabolic solar cookers have their supports outside of the parabola, making them bulky and unhandy. No special tools are required. Just 7 screws need to be tightened.
• The weight: the Kundu Kaar weights just 2.2 kg (4.8 lbs) granting very low shipping costs world wide. It comes in a well matching shipping carton with the dimensions 60 by 20 by 11 cm.

The description: it is made up in English, French and German language, has 10 pages with photographs instead of drawings. The client sees the parts as they appear after unpacking them. The parts itself are not marked by numbers but by letters allowing even analphabets or people with eye problems to assemble the cooker correctly.

Summary: One can cook small meals easy with this low priced product. The support construction includes a number of unique inventions. The materials have been chosen to find a tolerable compromise between low prices and environment protection. This cooker is perfectly suited for study purposes and can be bought on-line at the homepage www.mueller-solartechnik.com and sent to all countries where PayPal is an accepted payment method.

A short multi-lingual description with all necessary information can be found at http://www.mueller-solartechnik.com/download/preliminary.pdf

The constructor, B. Siegfried Mueller (mueller-solartechnik@gmx.net) , has now 60 years and leads the research and development department of Mueller Solartechnik, located in the small village Offenheim, between the cities Mainz and Kaiserslautern. He is more known to his friends as "Bernie". He is assisted by the Dipl.-Inf. Heiko Bott in case of overwhelming technical problems. The company exists for 10 years already. At the beginning the product range included solar water purification as well but as the company grew rapidly this branch had to be sold for the benefit of solar cookers production.

Bernie has a slogan which is strict law in his company: "No technical compromises". His invention, the solar box cooker Pil Kaar, for example, is made of the best available materials for 10 years already. He studied physics, information technology and business ethics. In younger years he made an apprenticeship as shipping and forwarding agent, to obtain all the knowledges about transportation, customs clearance and interstate documentation requirements. Bernie is a founding member of Mueller Solartechnik, a commercial solar cooker producer.

The company does not only sell, but is involved in development aid programmes with international governmental and NG organizations. In the Chad, where they have to suffer a heavy influx of refugees from the Sudanese Darfur region, they have a local helper by the name of Lazare Laokolé (erazala_num2@hotmail.com) who instructs, supervises and manages the production and installation of solar cookers. Lazare also works for the UN's World Food Programme in the area of Abeche. He is as well a founding member of the local solar cooker NGO "GIRAFD".

What comes next? Bernie is on the way to construct an extremely cheap solar box cooker for two human aid organizations who are doing a great job in Sudan. This cooker will not be available for sales purposes, with the exception, that a sophisticated version with built-in microcomputer to control the reflectors will be offered to the world market by February 2007. The current working name of it is "Pil Kaar 2". This box cooker's glass slope is especially constructed for the use in the area between the topics of Capricorn and Cancer throughout the year but it can be used as far as 46° North and South once there is summer. One can expect that this solar cooker will again be of a revolutionary design and include a lot of new inventions.