Lytefire Technology

Lytefire is designed to generate heat directly from the sun.

Compared with what’s out there, Lytefire stands out by its buildability (see DIY) and its performance: It delivers the energy and temperatures needed for serious baking and cooking activities.

This design is much more powerful than common solar cookers and easier to maintain than any existing community cooking systems. When it comes to baking, it is perfectly adapted to power a small profitable activity.

The basis of the Lytefire technology is the simple concept of solar concentration. Using mirrors, the sun’s rays are focused on a small area (called the focal point), where the energy comes together to form heat.

The heat is then transferred to the application and distributed. Depending on the sun, it takes 45min to 1 hour to the Lytefire 5 to reach 300°C (572°F). The tracking is manual and we strongly invite you to read the Frequently Asked Questions to understand how to use Lytefire.

We like to say that Lytefire is a mid tech product because we promote both humanitarian and DIY use (and for the humanitarian sector we produce Lytefire with our manufacturer). In both cases, Lytefire is a maintainable technology: Maintainance is key to ensure real energy autonomy.

At the very beginning of the adventure, the first ideator wanted to create a solar system that could be:
1) as powerful as an open fire (it would later on be called a “solar fire”),
2) built with materials available locally,
3) easy to use and maintain by the users intuitively.

The Lytefire Tech as you see it today is the result of years of development by passionate people on the ground and by engineers. Of course, not everything will run with Lytefire tomorrow and that is not the goal but this tech and its patented applications can fulfill many needs. The team is constantly innovating and welcoming new partners to push the boundaries further.

If you have more technical questions, we have answered quite a lot in the FAQ. Let us know if we’re missing something!

All our customers have access to the Lytefire Hub where different forums allow people to share more directly about the tech.

To build yourself, check the DIY page. To see all sorts of users in action, check the Users page. For the hardware products we manufacture for the humanitarian sector, go to our Humanitarian page.