Solar box cooker
Posted by Solar energy guru | Filed under Solar thermal solutions
You may not have heard about a solar box cooker before, but they are an efficient and interesting way to cook by harnessing the power of the sun. In addition, these small little machines can be assembled fairly easily and hassle free. The good news is that they can be put together by anyone who can read and understand some basic instructions, and this is important for people who do not think that they are mechanically adept. All you really need to make this a possibility are two cardboard boxes and some tin foil. Just think, for very little money, time and effort you will be able to put together a solar box cooker that works well in areas that have access to direct sunlight.
One of the first things that you will have to decide is how big of an oven you want to construct. While larger ovens will get hotter and have the potential to cook more food at once, you will still have to deal with the potential of the amount of food you are looking at putting in the solar box cooker versus the amount of time it will take to actually cook everything properly. Another thing that you should know about a solar box cooker is that it actually works better when it is shallow. This means that you should look for a wider, shallow box to construct your cooker from. The reason for this is because if there is too much wall space that is not being used properly then the cooker will be losing more heat than it is using and it will become inefficient. A good estimate to use when putting together your solar box cooker is that ideally it would be the height of a normal cooking pot.
You will also need some tin foil and a plane of glass to go over the top of the box. However, people have found that using Reynolds cooking bags that are designed for the oven stretched out over the top of the box will often work just as well as glass when it comes to gathering the solar heat and focusing it to the interior of the box in order to make it cook the intended meal. You will also need to have regular white glue and some black paint, as well as two cardboard boxes and a separate sheet of cardboard. These are all items that you can find with relative ease, so putting together a solar box cooker that will work for your needs should be something that you can do with little or no hassle. While the cooker may not last indefinitely if the cardboard starts to wear or fall apart then they are not difficult to repair or rebuild once you have the basic set of instructions.
If you are interested in finding a solid way to construct a solar box cooker then you can find the instructions easily enough on the internet. Many of these will help to guide you step by step through the process. Putting together a solar box cooker could turn out to be a fun family project that you can do with your kids, and some people have even found that this is a wonderful thing for their children to do for science fairs and other school science projects. Not only will you be able to have something that can cook outdoors safely by using completely renewable solar energy, you will also be working to teach your children the cause and effect situations that are so important when learning science. In short, solar box cookers can be put together using simple construction techniques and it is fun and interesting for the entire family. So next time you are thinking about cooking outdoors you should consider using a solar box cooker.
