Solar Oven Designs: Which Kind Is The Best?

For several decades various solar oven designs have typically been used in third world regions where electricity or other fuel sources are hard to find. Solar cookers have been used effectively in sunny African countries like Sudan to not only cook food, but also for water purification and pasteurization.

With energy supplies coming under threat, first world countries should get more involved in using solar cooking in households. The nice thing about a solar cooker is that is uses an abundant fuel source – the sun – so it helps to conserve the non-renewable sources of energy. Though it takes about 4 times longer than conventional ovens, it is worth the wait if you think how much it is benefiting the environment.

Over time many solar oven designs have been mastered, but they generally fall into three main categories: parabolic solar cookers, panel cookers, and box cookers.

Parabolic Shape:

With the parabolic shape, reflective metal alloy is put into a bowl-like shape, where the sunlight is then focused on a single point. The advantage of this type of design is that it efficiently uses the sun’s energy to cook food in the shortest time possible. The only drawback is that it is usually a fixed structure that is hard to transport, and it is the most expensive of the three.

Panel Cooker:

This shape usually is in a bowl-like shape, and direct the sun’s energy to one area. But it differs to a parabolic cooker in that it is put together with a number of reflective, flat panels and is less rounded.

Although not as effective as a parabolic cooker, it is safer, easier to make, and can be folded up for portability. Panel cookers come in a number of innovative designs, the simplest being made from a fold-able, reflective windshield shade.

Box Design:

Very different to the other two designs, the box cooker works by trapping the sun’s heat, instead of simply focusing it on a central point. It is designed in such a way that it let’s light in, but stops that heat from escaping. As more sunlight comes in, the hotter it gets.

This results in the entire area of the box to get hot and be able to cook larger portions of food at a time. This design is by far the simplest to put together – all you need is a black cardboard box with one side covered in tin foil and a sheet of clear perspex or glass on top to hold in the heat.

What’s great about most solar oven designs is that they can be built from everyday materials in a few short hours. Like a conventional oven or stove, they can be used to prepare anything – such as roasted meat, steamed vegetables, rice, fried eggs, and baked bread. And since a solar cooker is used outside, it will not heat up the kitchen and place stress on your cooling system.

And since over two-thirds of Americans (according to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey) cook food on a daily basis, just imagine how much power we could save if more of us used solar oven designs during the sunny months.

So get started cooking with solar today. There are a number of commercially available solar cookers on the market. Alternatively you can make your own at home by searching online, where a variety of free solar oven designs with full building instructions are provided.

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