Testing my solar oven today

[prairiemom]

I made the Heaven's Flame box style.It's a little big--17" square, inside dimensions. But I wanted to fit my dark cake pan inside. Today it is in the upper 50's and there are scattered clouds. It heated up to 325? in about 35 min, the temps plunge a good 25-50? each time the clouds pass in front of the sun. But it's working nicely. I can't wait for a real summer day with real summer temps to put this to good use.

Design note: it calls for glass, but the first thing I did was drop one of my cans that I'll use for cooking on it and broke it. I had duct tape around the edges, so the glass held together long enough for me to put clear tape over the cracks. Also the glass gets too hot to handle. So I think I'll get clear fiberglass and put a handle on it. Unbreakable and easier to remove when it's hot. But will it stand up to the heat?

Now I'm going to finish sewing the Wonderbox. A co-worker gave dh a bunch of fabric for free. The polystyrene bead filling is just way too expensive, so unless I can find someone selling a bean bag chair for cheap, I'll be filling it with sawdust. I got a bunch free at our local lumber yard.

[LEVE]

Pictures? Plans? Etc.?

[prairiemom]

I just came back to add pictures--you beat me to it.

This shows the whole box, perfectly aligned to the sun. You can see the funnel is collapsible. I put self-stick velcro on the cardboard and then velcro on the ends of elastic. The elastic holds it together.
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs082.snc1/4555_115268136279_546991279_3282080_3930326_n.jpg

It holds a 5 qt pot plus others. It's almost 300? in this picture. A cloud was just obscuring the sun, allowing me to take a glare-free picture. You can see how I put duct tape around the edge and to make a handle.

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs102.snc1/4555_115268141279_546991279_3282081_2541074_n.jpg


I got the plans from this site: http://solarcooking.org/plans/ I'm also making the CooKit and the Windshield shade models and will compare how they all work.

[Earthling]

I have just made the Wonder Box too and am waiting to put the polyestrene beads in it. They are being bought by others in bulk in Salt lake so hopefully they will have enough for me. I am attaching a cookbook I found on the internet and some info I compiled from the internet.

I bought a solar oven this winter - also excited to try it out. I wonder how Corningware would do in it?

[waif69]

So I have to precook the food before putting it in the wonderbox?

[Earthling]

You need to bring it to a good boil and with the lid on put it in the Wonder Box to finish cooking. It is kind of like a crock pot only you just get it up to the initial temperature and don't need to keep a heat source going - it cooks in the residual heat it is retaining. Pressure cookers work really well in them as they maintain their heat so well.

[waif69]

Are any solar ovens out there where all the cooking can be done in it?

[Aldon]

Most Solar ovens are able to do such.

The Wonder box is simply another efficient method to cook.

For instance what if it rains for three days straight.

Your option would be to use another fuel source which may need to be tended or whatever.

The wonder box allows very efficient use of fuel and time resources to prepare a meal.

If there everyone in a given area is having to use firewood for their cooking preperations, how long would the firewood reasonably be available.

This is another just in case scenario and it is cheap and easy to produce yourself.

[prairiemom]

Today I cooked a casserole in the solar oven. It didn't matter so much that the temps fluctuated. We're still having pretty cool days, so I'm hoping it'll get a lot more powerful as the weather warms.

Today I got the Wonderbox all sewn and the "lid" is stuffed with sawdust, but I ran out of sawdust. So I hope to get enough tomorrow to finish the project. Yeah, it doesn't cook the food, just lets you cook with very little power. Nice during the summer when you don't want to heat up the house. Nice during a prolonged power outage when fuel might be scarce.

[dlcorrell]

We have not had many sunny days, but when we do I bake bread in my sun oven. It is not dry like when its baked in the house oven. My sun oven is great! Now I need to try other things in it.