Solar Cookers | Cooking With The Sun
Solar Cookers or
Solar Ovens are very simple, easy to build
cookers that use the power of the sun to cook food.
Open fire wood cooking is a huge problem in developing and poor
countries. Cooking in a poorly ventilated kitchen on an open fire
can cause respiratory diseases and premature death over time. Many
poor countries are in hot climates where the population receive many
hours of bright daylight for much of the day.
Solar cookers are a
simple, clean, environmentally responsible way of cooking hot
vegetables and meat.
The principle is simple enough. Create a box or enclosure with an
open top that is well insulated and has a reflective / mirrored
finish on the inside of the container. Inside you place a blackened
/ very dark, non reflective pot with your raw vegetables and meat in
and finally place a clear (Glass / PVC) lid on the top and pop the
box in bright sunshine until your food is thoroughly cooked.
More reflective shutters can be added to direct more sunshine into
your
solar cooker for better results. The preferred material for the
reflected surface is Mylar or Melinex but can be substituted with
tinfoil, turkey foil or polished stainless steel.
Notes on Mylar: DIY Solar Cooker enthusiasts usually utilize Mylar
as it claims a 65% reflectivity. Something I have recently come
across is
Diamond Reflective Mylar that claims a 99% reflectivity,
how true this claim is I have no data on it.