Comment

Comment by Smooth on January 26, 2009 at 1:55am

There are only 3 things you need to understand to make a solar oven that will use the power of the sun to cook your food for you.
Be aware that you're concentrating and reflecting the suns rays. It's wise not to look directly into the reflected light and it helps if you wear sunglasses

1. Reflect the sunlight onto your cooking area. You make a reflector with cardboard covered with alfoil or a windscreen shade, mirrors...anything that reflects the sunlight will work.

2. Trap the heat inside your cooker using a sheet of clear glass, a sheet of clear plastic, a large glass cooking pot, a sheet of clear plastic, a clear plastic oven roasting bag, a clear plastic bag...the possibilities are endless. See what you have already in your house.


3. Convert the light to heat with something black. It could be a black pot you put your food in (with or without a lid), a black frying pan, coloring the inside of your solar oven black...get creative.



Often using just two of these principles is enough to successfully cook food in a solar oven and you can often create a solar oven in minutes using stuff you have in your house now.


Cooking with a solar oven is different to conventional cooking in several ways:

# It can take a little longer. Usually you prepare your meal early in the day or the middle of the day and allow 2-4 hours for it to cook. But there is good news...

# Food doesn't burn in a solar oven so you can put your food in there and leave it all day or eat from it when you're ready...put it back in the sun and it will stay hot for you.

# There is no need to turn or stir food in a solar oven. It will cook evenly without any turning (so you don't need to watch the food cook...just put it in there and leave it for a few hours until you're ready to eat).

# The food tastes better. It's cooked slowly and some people even say that the food is ehanced with the sun's energy.

# Food that takes longer to cook like sweet potatoes or other root vegetables should be cut into bite sized pieces to cook.

# When you cook food like rice you use as little water as possible to help the temperature get as high as possible.

# If you want to fry an egg you may have to preheat an iron skillet in your oven then add oil or butter till it's sizzling hot then fry your egg on the skillet.

# Be aware that you're concentrating and reflecting the suns rays. It's wise not to look directly into the reflected light and it helps if you wear sunglasses when you're putting the food into the oven and taking it out.

# If you're worried about ants forget it. Solar ovens are too hot for ants and most bugs, birds and insects. They will usually avoid your oven even when it's full of food.


p.s. alfoil reflects 75%
if you take inverted chips bags, they`ll reflect 95% at no material costs

Comment by Smooth on January 26, 2009 at 1:40am

here you will find blueprints for many solar coocking devices

Plans