Great Solar Design Innovation

O’Malley and Jonathan Stoumen of Healdsburg, CA, have invented a brilliant inflatable solar oven that weighs less than five ounces. Hammacher Schlemmer, the 151-year-old retailer of unique and innovative consumer products recently announced that their company Soltac's CookSack® is among the top 10 inventions for 1999 in their prestigious annual national competition. These designs, selected from over 350 entries, represent innovative products that uniquely solve existing lifestyle problems.

CookSack® is a solar device that is used to capture the heat energy of the sun and focus its power on a heat absorbent, lightweight, highly thermally conductive pot filled with water to be used for purification, cooking or washing. Other uses include melting snow or ice for water, warming batteries, signaling and radar locating. CookSack® will heat water to 190 degrees Fahrenheit / 88 degrees Celsius at sea level.

The heart of this solar powered oven system is the CookSack®, a polyester film bag with a clear top panel and a reflective base panel. The two panels are welded around their perimeter and are open at the base of the throat. The CookSack® is oriented so its open end is toward the sun. When the stand and pot are placed inside, the bag is inflated with the fan (also included in the kit). The inflated CookSack® forms a parabolic reflector that focuses the suns rays on the black pot allowing it to absorb the heat energy.

On sunny days the CookSack® significantly reduces your dependency on limited reserves of fuel, saving weight and space. Depending on weather conditions, you could use 30% to 75% less fuel. For the backpacker, the weight/volume reduction enables either a lighter load or additional supplies and equipment to be included. Under emergency conditions, your limited fuel reserves are extended providing additional hours, even days, of precious water heating capacity. And for the environmentalist, it means you’ve decreased your dependence on non-renewable resources.

Soltac's CookSack® is available at select REI retail stores in the US, and on the Internet at www.fogdog.com. Keep checking for an updated listing of retailers proudly offering this patented solar oven for sale.

http://www.soltac.bigstep.com/

Soltac  

134 Matheson Street,  Healdsburg, CA  95448

phone: 707 431-2550 •  fax: 707 431-1826 • 

Product reviews in:

Sierra Magazine http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200001/toc.asp,

Outside Magazine http://www.outsidemag.com/