Our Story
Global Cooking
Sun Buckets is a for-profit social business that develops portable cookstoves that store the sun's energy, making cooking easier and more affordable for off-grid families around the world.
For more than 3 billion people on our planet, cooking dinner is not as easy as turning the dial on a gas or electric range, or pressing buttons on a microwave. In many parts of the world, cooking is very expensive - purchasing solid fuels like charcoal can eat up more than a quarter of a family's income, and the time-consuming job of collecting free fuel, like wood and animal waste, keeps women from paid work and children out of school.
At Sun Buckets we believe that cooking a meal for your family should be enjoyable and affordable. And since the sun delivers more energy in one hour than all of humankind needs in an entire year, we figured that we'd harness that energy and make it portable. Letting you cook with the sun, even at night.
Designed for People
Easy to use, day or night
We like to cook and we like to eat. This is essentially our guiding principle at Sun Buckets. We understand that if fried chicken is your favorite food, then the process of dipping, and flouring, and frying is worth the effort. But we also get that if you can only make fried chicken using a odd shaped pan and it will take you all day, you're not going to make it. Cooking is personal and deeply rooted in culture, and no one likes cooking in unfamiliar ways.
This is true for a cookstove as well - if it's complicated and uncomfortable, then no one is going to want to use it. Which is why we ask our users for their opinions, incorporating their feedback into each iteration of the Sun Bucket, making a better, more human-centered, product at each step. We don't believe in asking you to change your cooking traditions and preferences to match our product; we believe in designing a product that easily slips into your life.
So when our users told us that they wanted a solar solution that is hot like fire, and can be used inside and at night - well, that's just the kind of challenge we thrive on!
A Sustainable Solution
High temperatures without fuel, fire, or emissions
Using the sun's energy, Sun Buckets alleviate the burden of expensive fuel, and improve air quality indoors or out. Sun Buckets use renewable energy and create no emissions, letting you breathe easy and cook well.
A Sun Bucket is "charged" in the sun, and in about an hour is ready to cook. Need to wait a few hours and make dinner after the sun has set? No problem! Just put a lid on it and store the energy - Sun Buckets are ready when you are.
Sun Buckets pack a lot of energy into a small space. And while the inside of the Sun Bucket is blazing hot, the outside is cool to the touch, letting you carry your bucket of energy wherever you need to go.
The best part is that you can make all of your favorite dishes using solar energy without sacrificing the heat and high temperatures you're used to when cooking over a flame. Anything that you can make on a traditional stove or grill, you can make on a Sun Bucket.
Our Cooking Community
Off-grid in the U.S., Haiti, and Kenya
Families in the Navajo Nation, USA, Les Cayes, Haiti, Kakuma, Kenya, and Hargeisa, Somaliland are cooking with Sun Buckets, and we are expanding our global cooking community!
