What about extreme northern locations? Will solar cookers work there?

by Barry
(Edmonton, AB)

I live in Canada in Northern Alberta. It gets very cold and the sun is low in the sky during mid-day hours. How well does a solar cooker work then as opposed to summer months? Will it work at all?


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Greetings Barry,

Thank you for your inquiry, you have a great question that I am sure many others have wondered about as well.

Yes, you can use a solar cooker in the far northern, (and southern) latitudes. Of course as you indicated, the sun is very low in the sky in the winter time, especially where you are located.

The lower that the sun is on the southern horizon in the winter, the less UV rays (energy) you have for effective solar cooking, and this because the suns rays have to travel, or penetrate more of the earth's atmosphere at an angle.

Winter time would definitely be a challenge for you to be able to solar cook effectively, but in the summer time you should have a good period of time in the north where it is quite feasible to solar cook.

Your optimum cooking time would probably be between the hours of 10:00 AM-4:00 PM in the summer.

Experimenting with your solar cookers under different conditions and situations where you live will give you the best data and information on how effective you can be with a solar cooker.
Making modifications and enhancements to your solar cookers can give you added effectiveness and efficiency in your cooking.

For your information, we have sold solar cookers to people that live in Great Britain, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Japan and Alaska, Denmark and Canada.

Of course they too are under the same challenges that you face in regards to location, but they take advantage of the optimum sunny days and even the not so ideal days and have been able to find solar cooking success.

I hope this is helpful to you.

Nathan
Admin.