I know, the winter seemed like it would never end. The constant over cast skies and white fluffy stuff can put a damper on anyone’s mood. Fear not however, as the days of sunshine and outdoor activities are upon us! Now there are plenty of things that I think of when I hear the word summer, but outdoor cooking is definitely one of the first. My friends and I have cookouts all the time, and it is one of the best ways to spend a summer afternoon. Cooking outdoors also goes along with camping, another of our favorite summer plans. When cooking outside though, sometimes you have to improvise and work with what you have. Well if you have a little time on your hands and a small amount of cash you can create your very own solar oven! You can can take this thing anywhere and use it too cook almost anything you want! Check out the plans below and get cracking!
The first thing you’ll need is an insulation box. Always make sure that the walls of the box are not too high, otherwise they can block the suns rays. This person chose to use styrofoam.
Grab some wood and build a box around your insulator. This will allow for the oven to have some durability and make it weather resistant.
Set a glass plate, or some other type of transparent material over the insulator. Anything that lets sunlight through will do really.
Do not bolt down the piece of material on top of the insulator.
Creating these flaps on top of the oven will allow the cooking time to be adjusted. The more open the flaps, the more sunlight that is allowed in which means the inside will heat up faster.
Grab some reflective material and line the inside of the oven with it. This will allow the solar energy inside to be used more efficiently.
Lining the bottoms of the flaps will amplify this effect even more when you close them.
Using black cooking ware will allow for even more heat to be absorbed and transferred into the food.
Experiment with different cooking techniques to perfect the use of the solar oven!
You won’t want to ever go without one of these again after you make and use one!
This thing is incredibly easy to make, and to use! You can scale down the size of the oven if you feel like the size would be an issue. What I love about this project is the minimum amount of money invested in its construction. You can make this thing on almost any budget, and if you do a little more research I’m sure there are techniques and adjustments that can be made to maximize any type of cooking you want to do!