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Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Cooking Without Fire
Photo by Zhiliang Wan
Synopsis by Cindy Nawilis
This week we introduce an ingenious complement to the improved cooktsove. The Off-Fire Reboiling (OFR) pot is a cooking pot designed to save energy for daily cooking practices that require reaching boiling point and then simmering for a considerably long time, like cooking rice, porridge, soups and vegetables. How the OFR pot works is easy: it stores heat in a disc-shaped reservoir while the food reaches boiling point on the stove, after which the reservoir releases the stored energy slowly. Once the content inside the pot reaches boiling point, the pot is removed off the stove and placed on a thermally insulated base; here the pot can retain boiling temperature for tens of minutes, while maintaining a temperature of 85 degrees Celsius for several hours onwards--more than enough time for most food to be cooked. These pots have hit the market in China since 2005 and are growing in production, between 500,000 to 800,000 annually. And the savings are tremendous: it costs from as little as 12 USD, and using it can lead to savings in gas consumption of up to 40% when the household uses a gas stove.
Curious to know more? The article is available on HEDON or for download here.

Chandanpur












