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The Sunseed Trust is a UK registered charity that does research intended to help peoples living in arid and near desert areas. Sunseed Desert Technology is their research centre near Almeria in south eastern Spain, the region with the most parching climate in Europe.

I attended Sunseed's Desert Technology Research Centre in June 1996 to learn about their research and to test the Anahat type of solar cooker designed by Anna Pearce of Box-Aid. The cookers are essentially a 90 degree cone of Mylar, 40cms across the opening, oriented towards the sun, the food being placed in a blackened container, covered by a clear plastic baking bag, sitting in the centre of the cone.

Three variants of the Anahat were tested:

• A-1: the Mylar was backed with 1cm thick polyurethane foam. The cooker was sat in a "Wonderbox", a polystyrene filled cushion. The container was an open, black painted, tin can of approx. 900cc capacity.
• A-2: the Mylar was backed with 1cm thick polyurethane foam. The cooker was sat in a large cooking pot. The container was a black painted tea kettle of approx. 750cc.
• A-3: the Mylar was supported by a similar aluminium cone. The cooker was sat in a "Wonderbox". The container was an open, black painted, tin can of approx. 1300cc capacity.

I conducted the tests on Wednesday the 26th of July, 1996, at the Sunseed Desert Technology research centre near Sorbas, Almeria, Spain (36°N, 2°W) in line with their testing methodology. Sunseed's ULOG and Adobe cookers were used for comparison.

500cc of sunflower oil was placed in each test container. Weather conditions were 1 to 4 eights cumulus cover with 1 to 3 force winds. Each cooker was aligned once an hour on the hour.

        Environment   ULOG Box Cooker    Adobe Ref. Cooker   Anahat Cookers
        Amb.   Wind   Small Large Base   Small Large Base
 Time   Temp. Speed    Pot   Pot  Plate   Pot   Pot  Plate   A-1   A-2   A-3
11:00    25                                                                    a
12:00    25            102   108    95     87    67    67    117   103   117   a
13:00    27             40    67    78     28    34    70     38    25    29   b
13:15                                                                          b
13:30    28   1.04      60    72    90     48    55    75     68    38    53
13:45    29   1.71      73    87    96     58    63    79     81    60    70
14:00    29   1.91      80    92    92     61    61    79     83    65    73
14:15    29   2.39      89   101   103     67    69    76     99    75    86
14:30    29   1.80      97   108   110     68    70    80    110    86    94
14:45    29   1.91     102   116   112     70    75    81    116    94   102
15:00    28   1.59     106   120   116     74    76    80    117    97   102
15:15    29   2.52     109   121   116     79    80    93    120   104   104
15:30    28   2.13     112   124   114     83    83    92    120   107   103
15:45    27   1.94     116   126   116     88    86    92    117   109   101
16:00    27   2.76     116   128   117     91    90    92    114   109   100
16:15    27   2.09     118   129   116     88    91    93    114   112   100
16:30    26   2.99     119   132   119     89    94    94    114   114   100
16:45    26   2.53     121   133   120     88    93    98    111   114    99
17:00    26   3.01     120   133   120     89    94    94    104   111    95

a) Cookers and pots were preheated for two hours before adding the oil.
b) Due to operational difficulties the 13:00 readings may be inaccurate, and the 13:15 readings were missed.

All temperatures are in degrees Centigrade. Wind speeds are in metres per second. Times are local time (CET), being solar time plus approximately one hour.

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