The Solar Oven

Box cooker

3 Sept'10: I have dissertation students on my Master course, and most of them are from India and write on 'sustainability' issues. So recently I became aware of a solar thermal device that exists by the million in India and Africa - the Solar Oven. Humble, cheap, portable, cheap, but if you have enough Sunshine and patience, they can be very energy saving.

Collapsible card and baking foil cooker

I realise that there is a very close analogy between the Surya Sunboxes and the Solar oven, and it has given me ideas for improving their performance, in Winter and in Summer. If you can cook a full chicken in 4 hours using a solar oven homemade from waste materials, we should be able to use REFLECTION to increase the temperature in the Sunboxes. There are plenty of websites telling you how to make your own oven from cardboard boxes, a sheet of glass or plastic and reflective windshield protectors, or other reflective metal. No great cost is involved.
If it is hot enough to safely cook food, it is hot enough to increase the air temperature inside my Sunboxes.

Links

http://solarcooking.org/plans/ 

http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Minimum_Solar_Box_Cooker 

http://www.solarcooking.org/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cooker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-_4g0Omtsw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFMl26gVeTM