Solar Cookers

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Bitser

Senior Cook
Joined
May 30, 2021
Messages
379
Location
Woods Landing, Wyoming
Built the first one 40 years ago, for my mother who didn't want to use the oven on hot days. When she died, I got it back and still have it. The reflective stuff is from a discarded wildfire shelter.

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Here's a similar one built for a recycling contest (it won). The top is polycarbonate instead of glass.

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GoSun sells a range of solar stuff. Here's their Pro Cooker, based on an evacuated glass tube originally designed for heating water. I built a simple mount to aim it sunwards.

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Bought a kit and built a reflector with a plastic bucket.

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Just got a GoSun Fusion cooker, which is larger and has an electric element so it works after dark or on cloudy days, powered by a battery.

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Loading it with stuffed red bell peppers and rice, which cook in a bit over an hour.

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Using the Parabolic equation, and graph paper, you could draw a parabola with the focal point where you needed it, transfer it to wood, cut it with a jig, or scroll saw, and use reflective Mylar film to increase your solar oven's heat potential greatly. Here's an interactive link for the solar equation - https://www.mathwarehouse.com/quadratic/parabola/interactive-parabola.php

Nother version of the same - https://www.mathwarehouse.com/quadratic/parabola/interactive-parabola.php

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
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You should build one. On another forum, someone asked if there was a solar pizza oven available. I remembered a portable oven/pizza cooker I have that fits on a backpacking stove.
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Out the window is a small satellite dish that's no longer in use: a circular parabolic reflector. It could be easily covered with heavy-duty foil. With a dense, heat-absorbing base (a circular cast-iron griddle) and a means to adjust the height/focus, it might make a good solar pizza oven.

I love this sort of crazy improvised stuff.
 
Definitely worth building one. It's a fun process (if you like woodworking that is!). I recently built a solar oven for my wife and I and documented the build process as a video for anyone who is interested to do the same. It works surprisingly well. Perfect for the Portuguese heat!

 

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