Building Solar Cookers

We offer reflective materials and parts that allow you to build a solar cooker using material available at your local building supply store.

The simplest solar oven to build is a plywood solar oven using ¾" exterior plywood painted black. Our solar oven plans uses an angle of 22.5 degrees. This is a standard miter box angle.

Our folding reflectors are cut at 22.5 degrees. This allows the back of the oven and the back of the reflector that sits on top to be perpendicular to the ground. If a tilting oven design is used, both the back of the oven and reflector will lie flat on the ground when fully tilted.

The plywood box can have a rear opening, a top opening, or the whole oven can tilt back or be lifted off a flat surface where the pots rest. In developing countries, women cook without recipes and add ingredients to the pot and stir the pot that sits on a three stone fire. The top opening and tilting oven mimics this method, as the pot is not moved. The rear opening makes the oven much more like an oven in developed countries, where cooks mix the ingredients from recipes and place the pot in an oven to cook. If long plywood ovens are made for commercial use, a rear opening is the best design. For long plywood commercial solar ovens a front and rear reflector are used. Long plywood cookers are cut to the size of the available glazing and plywood.

Materials

1. ¾" Exterior plywood. 4" X 4" sheet
2. Flat black grill or oven paint
3. Four sided folding Reflector kit with a 16" X 24" bottom opening. This is 11.5 inches tall. Two 18" X 24" front and rear reflectors can also be used.
4. Seals: Weather stripping from hardware or building stores such asFrost king or other EPDM rubber or Silicon Rubber Weather Seal. "D profile" Seal. Old bicycle inner tube can be used for replacement or as a substitute.
5. 16" X 24" glazing: double strength temper glass or 4 or 6 mm greenhouse polycarbonate twin-walled glazing. The open ends of the polycarbonate are sealed with caulk. The Polycarbonate will withstand 280 degrees. Glass somewhat higher.
6. Silicon caulk.
7. One 24" continuous hinge.
8. 2 strips of 1.5" X 16" metal bent 90 degrees ½ inch from one edge to hold the glazing
9. 2 strips of 1.5" X 24" one bent at 70 degrees and one bent more than 110 degrees to hold the long edge of the glazing. Experiment with amount of bend.
10. Two 16" by 5 Inch metal strips. The top edge can be folded over with a Malco 3/8 folding tool or any brake to reduce the sharpness. The bottom edge will be bent one inch from edge at a 45 degree angle. These will be attached to the front and rear of the ovens to hold Velcro to attach the folding reflectors above the galzing.
11. Two or three latches.
12. Velcro, four 2"X 3" adhesive backed strips to hold the folding reflector.
13. Sheet metal Screws box of 50.
14. Optional side wings to support the folding reflector can be used. Bungee Cords or extension springs can be used to replace the Velcro attachments to hold the reflector in place. A two sided front and rear reflector can be constructed that slides on and off using legs that fit into u-shaped conduit holders attached to the sides of the oven. The front reflector is at a 45 degree angle to the ground and the rear one is perpendicular to the ground.

 

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