Have you tried it? Did it work for you? Did you make your own or buy a
premade one?

Last year the kids and I made a solar oven ... while it worked, it didn't
get hot enough IMO. The premade solar ovens are a lot of $$ so I'm
considering making another one.

I was just wondering if anyone else had made a solar oven and if it worked
well for you.
Thanks.

Woolstitcher wrote:
> Have you tried it? Did it work for you? Did you make your own or buy a
> premade one?
>
> Last year the kids and I made a solar oven ... while it worked, it didn't
> get hot enough IMO. The premade solar ovens are a lot of $$ so I'm
> considering making another one.
>
> I was just wondering if anyone else had made a solar oven and if it worked
> well for you.
> Thanks.
>
>
I started investigating these a year or two ago. I doubted I could make
a decent one, and, as you said, the premade ones are pricy. Now that we
are in a heat wave, the thought has returned--along with thoughts of
summer kitchens!

--
Jean B.

Woolstitcher wrote:
>
> Have you tried it? Did it work for you? Did you make your own or buy a
> premade one?
>
> Last year the kids and I made a solar oven ... while it worked, it didn't
> get hot enough IMO. The premade solar ovens are a lot of $$ so I'm
> considering making another one.
>
> I was just wondering if anyone else had made a solar oven and if it worked
> well for you.
> Thanks.

Some expertise is at: alt.energy.homepower

I've made solar cookers years ago and may make one again now that I'm in
sunny Texas.

It is certainly possible to make a solar oven or cooker that gets hot
enough, but it takes more effort and materials than most of the simple
instructions you'll find that were designed more for classroom
demonstration projects than for real world use.

A parabolic collector design with a stock pot or dutch oven enclosed in
an insulating box with the bottom exposed and at the collector's focal
point is one of the best designs I believe. You'll get much higher heat
levels than a lot of the other collector designs, with the drawback
being the need to re-aim the collector periodically.

Woolstitcher wrote:

> Have you tried it? Did it work for you? Did you make your own or buy a
> premade one?
>
> Last year the kids and I made a solar oven ... while it worked, it didn't
> get hot enough IMO. The premade solar ovens are a lot of $$ so I'm
> considering making another one.

Last month, I was shooting something at the local PBS affiliate here in
Hollywood, and happened upon a solar oven one or more of the other techies
there had made. It was set up, and the oven thermometer in the cooking
box was showing, IIRC, 240F. Wooden box lined with metal foil, with a
glass top. Reflectors of large pieces of corrugated cardboard from
appliance shipping boxes lined with foil. An vertical pivot for the
reflectors for sun tracking. Lots of gaffers tape. Some cardboard
tubing. Voila. Oven. Later I smelled chocolate, and found some brownies
baking in it at 270F. The cook <g> was there, and he said that yeah, that
wasn't as hot as he'd be doing at home, but he just cooked longer.
He/they'd also done chicken in it, and I don't know what else. I had a
brownie before we wrapped our show.

Two images taken with the point'n'shoot digital camera that lives in my
car, because the best camera for you is the one you have with you:

http://blinkynet.net/stuff/solar1.jpg

http://blinkynet.net/stuff/solar2.jpg


--
Blinky
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project --> http://improve-usenet.org
Found 5/08: a free GG-blocking news *feed* --> http://usenet4all.se

On Jun 10, 7:05*am, "Woolstitcher" > wrote:
> Have you tried it? Did it work for you? Did you make your own or buy a
> premade one?
>
> Last year the kids and I made asolaroven ... while it worked, it didn't
> get hot enough IMO. *The premadesolarovens are a lot of $$ so I'm
> considering making another one.
>
> I was just wondering if anyone else had made asolaroven and if it worked
> well for you.
> Thanks.

I cook a lot with solar. I own 2 Global Sun ovens, a parabolic cooker
and several homemade ones. The Global Sun Ovens are very good reaching
temps of 350 F routinely....right at noon they get to 400. The
parabolic is a lot of trouble to move around which I need to do, and
the heating area is small, but quite hot. Of the homemade ones, the
one that works best is the Cookit, which is made from tinfoil and
cardboard and costs almost nothing to build. Plans are on the
internet. Temps of 240 is max for mine, but 200 is routine. I cook
steel cut oats, potatoes and lentils everyday. I also use the ovens to
reheat food...quickly in the Global Sun Oven because you can preheat
it, then just place your food inside. Black, covered cookware is
essential. Cheap, black bowls with matching saucers, which you can
just use as a lid are available in places like Walmart very
inexpensively. You can buy black enamel covered pots as well. The Sun
Oven comes with 1, and if you buy a second, you can stack 2 inside.
The best features of the Sun Ovens is the automatic levelor, so your
food doesn't spill as you adjust the angles. The oven can be adjusted
to always point toward the sun. The thermopane and tight-fitting lid,
excellent insulation, relectors, and ease of operation make the Sun
Oven perhaps the best purchase for serious solar chefs. They cost
about $225 including shipping. The Cookit takes longer to cook, but it
will cook almost anything including baked potatoes. It just takes
longer. I cook beans though in the Sun Oven because certain beans like
Kidney beans and others have a toxin they say which requires 10 min of
boiling (and presoaking) to get rid of. Cookit temps. often do not get
high enough to boil them. Lentils work fine in the Cookit. With the
Cookit, I bake 2 Med potatoes in 5 hours, but it works fine. The Sun
Oven bakes them in about an hour. I leave my Sun Oven up and pointed
South all day, so it stays hot at least by noon. That way I can use it
to cook frozen dinners for my daughter or reheat something anytime,
before about 6 PM this time of year in S. Texas. With Cookit, there is
no hot box, so you can't preheat. Preheating is important also for
cooking meat, since otherwise it might allow bacteria to grow while it
is heating up. One added bonus to solar cooking is that you aren't
heating up your house during the summer, so it helps in lowering AC
usage a little. Drying clothes outside rather than in a dryer makes
sense for the same reasons. It just makes me feel better to do these
easy couple of things. dkw