REVIEW OF SOLAR COOKERS

1959, SSLC with First Class, from SRI RAMAKRISHNA VIDYA SHALA, Yadavagiri, ( a Residential School ) at Mysore.

1964, B.Sc.,( Botany, Zoology, Chemistry,) with FIRST CLASS, from St. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE, Bangalore ( MYSORE UNIVERSITY )

1966, M.Sc. ( ZOOLOGY, with Embryology ) with 58.9 % from CENTRAL COLLEGE, Bangalore, ( BANGALORE UNIVERSITY )

1968, Training in REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY, at ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, ( AIIMS ), New Delhi.

1970 -71, Training in ELECTRON MICROSCOPY, at CANCER RESEARCH INSTITUTE, Bombay.

1972, Ph.D., ( in Applied Biology, Long Term Studies with ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES on MICE, Histochemical and Histopathological Studies), from INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN REPRODUCTION, ( IRR ), ( UNIVERSITY OF BOMBAY )

1976, TRAINING IN QUESTION BANK, under Prof. Natarajan, University Grants Commission.

1979, Course on ENERGY ALTERNATIVES, at ASTRA of INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, ( IISc.,) Bangalore.

1961 to 1966 Govt. of INDIA, Merit Scholarship for Orthopedically Handicapped, ( I am an Ectrodactyle, but exceptionally functional in all aspects )

1971,Research Grant from WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, Geneva, for Ultrastructural Study on effects of Ural Contraceptives on Mice )

1976 -77,Research Grant from UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION, for ECOLOGY of St. MARY's Island.

1976, prize, for IMPROVED DESIGN OF BULLOCK CART, in a National Level Competition conducted by SYNDICATE BANK, Manipal.

1980, JAYCEE National PRESIDENT'S SPECIAL RECOGNITION AS OUTSTANDING PROJECT MANAGER.

1971 to 1972, Incharge of Photographic Department, At Inst. for Research in Reproduction, Bombay.

1972 to 1980, Staff Adviser of Photograhic Club, College Wall Magazine,M G M College,

1975 - 80 Technical Advisor of M/s Adithya Enterprises, (manufacturing Solar Cookers and Water Heaters,)

1981-82, DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, New Delhi, for studies on LOW COST SOLAR WATER HEATERS OF PLASTIC.

1986 - 99, Co Convener, INTACH, Udupi-Manipal Chapter,( Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, A Regd. NGO with HO. at New Delhi with over 150 branches all over India )

1995- current. President of Udupi Taluk Parisarasaktara Okkuta, ( A local NGO concentrating on Environmental Protection )

I am also an active Volunteer for various organizations especially VITA, PARISARASAKTARA OKKUTA, INTACH, SAVE WESTERN GHAT GROUP, OPPOSING COAL GROUP, AND MANY INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATINS.

1972-2002, Worked as Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, MGM College, and retired on September 2002.

I was married in the year 1972. My wife Smt. PRAMEELA KUNDAPUR, is an exceptional house wife, Cook and above all a SINGER of repute. She sings Bhajans, Gazals, Film songs, in 5 languages, Sanskrith, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Konkani our mother tongue. She has one solo commercial cassette to her credit, and has sung in FOUR other cassettes along with singers of repute.

I love music. Consider myself fortunate as I like all types of music, but the preference is for Hindustani Classical. Can also play, but not so well, musical instruments like Harmonium/ Electronic Organ, Mouth Organ, and also Tabla on table/pot.

I prefer to read detective novels, but haven't found time to read any books for the past couple of years.

I like and play Foot ball, Cricket, and the Indian National game Kabbadi, not an expert but enjoy playing.

I believe in a lot of Indian traditional wisdom, the four 'purusharthas' Dharma, Artha,Kama & Moksha, Yoga, and a whole lot of wisdom prescribed in Bhagavathgeetha. I am now practicing Yoga as being prescribed by Sri Sri Ramdevji Maharaj, and our own guru of Saraswaths, Sri Sri Sadyajath Shankarashram .

Though an Optimist, I can not refrain from thinking that we have woken up to our (present day human civilization as awhole) misdeeds rather too late, and hence have reached the point of no return and so, there appears to be no future for mankind and a lot of other Animals on this planet. However I am contributing my might towards long term sustainability and this has led me to organization like VITA, Solar Cooker International, INTACH and OKKUTA. My preoccupation with Alternate energy sources, especially Solar, is a off shoot of this thought and action

Since 1972 I have been teaching ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY, and has been very much worried with the ever spiraling Human population and its assault on the Environment. But it is only in the year 1992 I joined some of the erstwhile Environmental Movements and have been taking active part . At present I am President and Incharge of Technical Information Cell of Udupi PARISARASAKTARA OKKUTA, and President of UDUPI TALUK OKKUTA,

Co Convener of INTACH which is a NGO at national level, and is actively involved in preservation of NATURAL & MAN MADE HERITAGE.

Since 1972 I am in active research but on account of nature of studies, ie., long term studies involving mice, number of Technical papers published are rather small. But I have to my credit lot of Radio talks, and articles in popular journals and news papers on diverse subjects.

Failure in extension of Grants prevented me from publishing papers on Ecology of St.Mary's Island, a set of 4 Continental Islands off the coast of Malpe.

Another interesting research project I had taken up with the help of Dept. of Science & Technology, was on low cost Solar Water Heaters of Plastic. Of the plastics available in our country LDPE and HDPE pipes appeared to be very ideal. The former lasted for over two years and the latter lasted for over three years under the Indian Sun. However results could not be published for want of suitable standard equipment for measuring Insolation.

First Paper in 1971, " Effects of long term administration of Ovulen on reproductive organs of inbred strains of Mice " Ashok Kundapur, Safia Munshi, Shanta S Rao, in Indian Jor.of Expt Biology, 9, 121-131, 1971.

Second paper in 1973, " Long term effects of Chlormadinaone Acetate - Ultrastructural Studies on the Uterine Epithelia of Mouse " Ashok Kundapur, Shanta S Rao, Akhila B Vaidya, S.M.Sirsat, Indian Jor.of Expt. Biology. 11, 292-294, 1973, ( Mouse which were treated for over one year showed myelenoid degeneration in the Mitochondria of Uterine Epithelium )

Third Paper in 1980, " Plastics in Solar Industry " Documentation Notes, TERI, 16- 21, Feb. 1980, ( it was a small article on various plastic that were being used in Solar devices during '80, the only synthetic material which showed some promise then was EPDM, but I haven't been able to keep track of its present status )

Fourth Paper in 1995, " SOLAR COOKERS - A Review " in Proc. of Alternative Energy Sources - All India Seminar, 134 - 157, MIT, Manipal 1995.

Fifth Paper in 1998, " Review of Solar Cooker Designs " TIDE, TERI information Digest on Energy, 1-37, Vol 8 ( 1 ), 1998. ( Click here to see this paper available in this site. I have reviewed 59 major designs of Solar Cookers and 60 variations. The article has over 100 drawings and 100 references. )

Sixth paper in 2009, Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 4, No. 3 (2009) 272 - 281, PROPOSAL FOR NEW WORLD STANDARD FOR TESTING SOLAR COOKERS Ashok Kundapur, Sudhir C V.,

Seventh paper in 2020, Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies (JMESS) ISSN: 2458-925X Vol. 6 Issue 4, April - 2020 (www.jmess.org JMESSP13420632 3138) 250 years saga of solar box cookers. Ashok Kundapur

Eigth paper in 2020, Solar Energy, 207, 903-916 Cost-effective solar cookers: A global review U.C. Arunachala, Ashok Kundapur,

BOOK in 2018, 'A TREATISE ON SOLAR COOKERS' Full color 278 Pages, over 260 designs of solar cookers. Ashok Kundapur. https://iaetrust.in/Treatise.html

Several Blogs and PPT especially on slideshare.net https://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=Ashok+Kundapur

I started with Gosh type Solar Cooker, worked on it to improve its 'looks' and reduce its weight. As regards its weight I had managed to bring it down to just about 15 kg. without any loss of its efficiency.

I had collected lot of information on plastics and other materials that go into Solar Water Heater and had built several large Solar Water Heaters working on thermosiphon principle. In an attempt to build low cost Solar Water Heaters such that it would be within the reach of low income group persons all over the world, I had experimented with Water Heaters of Plastic. The ones I had built on thermosiphon principle using Plastic pipes worked well, cost was very low, it could heat 100 lit of water to about 60⁰ C in a day. But the plastic setup did not last for long not over 2 years. But the replacement cost is cheep too, but there are other problems and the water cannot be used directly for bathing or cooking.

Hence I prefer BOX-in- Box type Solar Cookers which are excellent compared to other types especially with reference to Cost.

Though I have been blessed with a creative mind, (or at least that is what I think ) lack of Engineering training has prevented me from 'cashing on' this faculty but I haven't given up as yet, wish to create a new type of ladder, a Electricity generator which would work on muscle power, and a Electric Scooter which would work exclusively on Solar Energy.

My new venture aims at harnessing Energy from Ocean to generate power on 24 x 7 basis all 365 days, at over 80% of installed capacity. Prilimnary trials indicate it is a very promissing, most eco friendly device. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trv1ByhyTys)

Contact Information

Office address
'Kalashree',Hayagreva Nagara, Udupi 576 102

Email
arkundapur@yahoo.com

Please add Solar or Solar Cooker, Scooter in the subject to prevent your mail getting deleted as scam

Comments and Suggestions

Please mail me as to what you think about this page and how I might improve it. You may please also send your design of Solar Cooker, or your suggestions on Solar Cooking, as this is an active site I shall incorporate it in the Review Paper.

Current Projects

For details please see my paper on Review on Solar Cooker Designs ( Click here )

I prefer a Box-in-Box type Solar Water Heater, this is a low cost version and could easily become popular.

At present I have collected lot of information on Electric Vehicles through regular route as well as through Internet. I have evolved a design and am on the threshold of building a working model. Only thing that is preventing me is to a major extent funds.

( Note : I would appreciate letters of this type too informing me of the designs I have missed, once I have all the designs it would be easy for the reader to select the type he likes or the inventor or designer to improve upon the existing designs. Deris's ' Clear Dome Solar Cooker ' has been added to this site. She is a prolific inventor, has a wonderful site too and you could find URL under other links )

PREVIOUS PART Authors home page

NEXT PART Introduction

S 1 - PROLOGUE	S2 - INTRODUCTION	S3 - CLASSIFICATION CHART
S4 - Light from below	S5-Light from below-2 & 0thers	S6 - Light from above
S7 - Box type designs	S8 - Indirect types	S9 - Chemical types
S10 - Selection of best design	S11-Recommendations	S12 - References and links
Authors home page	INDEX	Comments received

For details regarding testing standards for Solar Cookers ( International Standards ) please click here

Please add Solar or Solar Cooker in the subject to avoid your mail being erased as spam

AUTHORS HOME PAGE

ASHOK KUNDAPUR

Biographical Information

Back to Top

Personal Information & Interests

Back to Top

Contact Information

Back to Top

Comments and Suggestions

Back to Top

Current Projects