I’m asking mostly because I want to include them in some solarpunk art I’m planning, but I can see building one at some point - it lines up well with my interests in making things and getting more self-sufficient - I like the idea of being able to cook without fuel.

But if I’m going to show them, I want to make sure I’m depicting them accurately and doing my world building decently. I’m hoping someone here has some experience with them,

I have a few scenes in mind where I’d like to include some form of solar cooker or smelter:

• A work crew outside, possibly people salvaging cars, fixing a road or track. They’d probably be using a small, foldable parabolic cooker to make tea or heat soup?
• A cookout with a bunch of different people making different things
• An offgrid homestead (possibly combined with above)
• A scrapyard which is smelting for large projects (it sounds like some very large reflector projects can get this hot but I’m not clear on how to turn that into molten metal yet)
• Small workshops using some kind of reflector or concentration lens to smelt for sand casting.
• Maybe just a kitchen.

My questions:

• What’s the best design for different jobs? It sounds like the functionality of these cookers varies pretty heavily by design, so a scene of a cookout would probably have different ones doing different jobs - maybe one or two bigger ones built in to the yard or house, and portable ones people brought? A small workshop can probably build a good enough lens-based solar concentrator or reflector (not sure which would work best from what I’ve read yet) but the junkyard would probably need the giant reflector setup, right?

• How do you picture changes to cooking infrastructure? At least around here, kitchens are kind of built around gas or electric stoves, and woodstoves before them. A solar cooker would need to be close enough to be practical (I’d currently be carrying whatever I’m working on down several flights of stairs to reach good sunlight) Would we see more kitchens with attached decks? Built at least partially in glass sunrooms? Built on the roof or with some kind of rig that lifts up through the roof? Or just more cooking outdoors? Maybe these would be closer to a grill, where taking your food outside is part of it, and how often you use it depends on household

• What safety mechanisms can I show? It sounds like depending on the design, it wouldn’t be hard to accidentally point the light at something flammable (even if it’s not at the ideal focal length could it still ignite?) Is there a risk of eye injury, sunburn, or anything else I should add precautions for?

• It sounds like these take longer, and are perhaps closer to a crockpot, where you just leave them cooking for a long while. Worldbuilding-wise, how different would the cooking experience be, and are there any interesting impacts on a solarpunk society (which might already be lived in at a different pace, or placing emphasis on different things).

Thank you very much for any input!