Lowtech Graph lists low-tech options for every need of a home. Here you can compare them, find tutorials to build them, and link them together into a circular system. Why low-tech?
Cooking energy supply
The energy that actually cooks the food, and the device that turns it into heat in a pot. Cooking is one of the few daily uses that cannot be postponed to a sunny day, which is why a household usually keeps more than one way of doing it. The options differ in the fuel, in how much of the heat reaches the food, and in whether they work on a grey day or in a power cut.
Ranked by fuel/energy-to-food efficiency. Induction is highest; rocket and gasifier stoves are high; an open wood fire is lower; a solar cooker is free but weather-limited.
Solutions
Wood cookstove: A stove that burns wood, with a hot top for pans. The same fire that cooks also warms the kitchen and, in cold weather, the house. It can be a bought cast-iron
Solar cooker: A reflective box or dish that concentrates sunlight onto a dark cooking pot. The pot absorbs the light and heats up enough to cook food. It cooks for free, with
Rocket stove cooker: A small cooking stove with an insulated L-shaped chimney that draws air through a very hot fire. The fire burns sticks and twigs so completely that little smoke
Household anaerobic biodigester (biogas cooking fuel): The gas from a household digester piped to a cooker burner or lamp, in place of firewood or bottled gas. Once stored in its bag, it burns on demand like any bot
Induction cooktop: A cooking hob that heats the pan itself with a magnetic field, instead of heating a flame or a plate that then heats the pan. Almost all the energy goes into th
Haybox / retained-heat cooker (fireless cooker): A heavily insulated box that a pot is put into after being brought to the boil. The heat already in the pot keeps it simmering for hours with no more fuel, and
Micro-gasifier (TLUD) cookstove: A small cooking stove, lit from the top, where the wood first gives off gas and that gas then burns cleanly in a second flame above. It gets two to four times m
Solar-powered insulated electric oven: A heavily insulated cooking box with a heavy lining of tiles, cork or mortar and a homemade electric element, powered straight from solar panels. The panels hea
Gas hob / cooker: A hob or cooker with gas burners. The flame heats the pan straight away and responds instantly, and it keeps working in a power cut. But burning gas indoors fil
Insulating pot skirt: A sleeve around a pot while it is on the heat, leaving a narrow gap so the heat stays against the pot’s sides instead of escaping around it. Over a wood or gas
Earth wood-fired bread oven: A domed oven of clay, sand and straw, built outdoors on a raised base. A fire burns inside until the thick earth walls are hot, the embers are raked out, and br