Reva Jhingan Malik’s morning begins with chopping greens, soaking lentils, and cleansing the rice for the meal of the day. However, as a substitute of heading in direction of her kitchen, she heads to the terrace of her off-grid residence in Bengaluru the place she has a small setup that cooks her meals with out requiring cooking fuel, kerosene, electrical energy, coal or wooden.
Apparently, the meals is cooked utilizing direct daylight!
Each morning at 9, she units up her photo voltaic cooker and locations all of the greens, lentils, and rice in respective trays for a two-course meal. The meals is cooked slowly within the daylight and is prepared inside two hours.
Such is the impression of the photo voltaic cooker that Reva has not purchased an LPG cylinder previously 4 years.
At present, she makes use of the photo voltaic cooker to cook dinner quite a lot of meals from poha (spiced flattened rice), baati (stuffed complete wheat dough balls), common greens and lentils to baking muffins and breads, roasting peanuts, boiling milk and making tea.
We sat down along with her to know the way she is harnessing the photo voltaic power for cooking and doing her bit in direction of sustainable residing.
For depleting pure fossil fuels
Reva, who runs Primalise, a consulting agency within the metropolis, was motivated to scale back her carbon footprint amid the talks round defending the planet.
“We now have been conscious of the depleting fossil fuels. Whereas it stays within the headlines for a number of days, I consider not sufficient is basically being completed at particular person family ranges,” she shares with The Higher India .
Up to now 5 years, India’s imports of LPG surged 60 p.c as demand elevated quickly whereas home provides stagnated. Imports elevated from 11.4 MMT in 2017-18 to 18.3 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 2022-23.
Home LPG manufacturing grew barely 4 p.c within the 5 years to 2022-23 whereas consumption expanded 22 p.c.
Reva says, “If we’re speaking about sustainability and instructing it to our youngsters, are we ourselves adopting it? On the subject of environmental safety, we hold anticipating the governments to behave, however what have we completed at our personal particular person ranges in direction of the trigger? That thought got here as a turning level for me.”
She explored other ways to scale back her dependency on fossil fuels and go with out it, at the very least on the every day residing stage.
“We have been utilizing fossil fuels in our vehicles and at residence for cooking. So, we first eradicated this utilization by getting an electrical automobile which was a simple alternative. Second step was to go with out LPG, and photo voltaic cooking was the choice,” she provides.
Reva determined to discard LPG cylinders fully in 2020. Previous to that, she was utilizing LPG cylinders that required to be refilled as soon as each 2-3 months. Together with LPG, she was utilizing her dad and mom’ photo voltaic cooker intermittently.
“I realised we are able to truly go with out LPG. In our nation, the solar is so abundantly accessible to us, why not harness this power as a lot as we are able to?” she provides.
Since then, photo voltaic cooking has develop into a major supply of cooking for Reva.
Cooking on LPG vs photo voltaic range
Speaking concerning the execs of photo voltaic cooking, Reva says, “As soon as, I add greens and different substances within the photo voltaic cooker then I don’t must hold stirring the pan and monitor it. You simply have to drag out the tray and every part is finished. This method is extra handy for us than an LPG range,” she says.
Reva’s photo voltaic cooker is about 2-feet in size and has three rectangular formed containers to put numerous dishes like daal, greens, and rice individually.
“To scale back the cooking time, I exploit chana and rajma soaked in a single day. One of many cons of this technique is that we can not make chapatis and add tadka to the daal. As a substitute, now we have began consuming wheat within the type of daliya and baati. Additionally, we roast and add cumin and coriander to make the lentil style higher,” she provides.
“It’s simply simplified meals decisions for us now. The style has now develop into secondary for us. Nonetheless, we personally discover the style to be barely higher because the meals is cooked slowly and the style of the vegetable is retained,” she says.
Speaking concerning the limitation of the arrange, Reva says, “Whereas we do many of the cooking within the photo voltaic cookers, now we have additionally stored firewood chulha (range) as a backup for cloudy and wet days. We accumulate firewood from timber round our home and likewise use coconut shells and cow dung muffins as gas. We use firewood chulha solely a couple of times a month.”
One other backup for cooking that they use throughout cloudy days and at night time is their saved photo voltaic power. Their home has a small 850 VA photo voltaic inverter that delivers sufficient cost for low-wattage electrical home equipment.
She fondly talks about how she repurposed and transformed an previous box-type photo voltaic cooker right into a meals dehydrator. They use it to dehydrate and protect extra fruits after they have a bounty. The contraption can be used for roasting grains, nuts and even drying homegrown turmeric.
For Reva, photo voltaic cooking can be cost-effective. “Initially, we’d be compelled to refill the LPG cylinder each 2-3 months. It could price Rs 1,200 per refill. We invested Rs 18,000 for the photo voltaic cooker. This was a one-time funding as there isn’t a different recurring expense and upkeep price,” she says.
In India, the vast majority of households use LPG for cooking functions and add to the emission burden. Reva urges folks to harness photo voltaic power that’s abundantly accessible within the nation.
“Most individuals assume photo voltaic cooking is just not handy. With our expertise of fully switching to photo voltaic cooking, we discover it extra handy and simpler than an LPG range. Secondly, it’s guilt-free cooking. There may be an immense satisfaction understanding our meals is cooked in daylight effortlessly. We’re not exploiting our planet’s assets anymore,” says Reva.
“We now have managed to shut this power loop for ourselves. If this turns into aspirational and households use daylight as power then collectively we will mitigate the local weather disaster. All of us can consider adopting photo voltaic cooking as our first step in direction of power self-sufficiency,” she provides.
Supply: LPG imports surge 60% in 5 years: By Sanjeev Choudhary for Financial Occasions, revealed on 16 February 2024.
Edited by Padmashree Pande. All pictures: Reva Jhingan Malik.
