Around 2000 I gathered some scrap materials together
and made a solar oven. Later, I bought a low-tech solar panel-type cooker, the CooKit, from
Solar Cookers International (details on SCI below). I pretty much live on broccoli, whole wheat bread,
and beans, and I try to make as much solar-baked bread and solar-cooked beans as I can. I soak the
beans before cooking them, and freeze them for later use. I’ve also made some tasty fresh stewed
tomatoes in both the CooKit and the oven.
A loaf of bread. The oven shows that I’m not a craftsman, but it works. On a
cloudless day, winter or summer, it will reach up to 400 degrees, empty, and so long as the sun is not obscured too
often,
it will cook a pot of beans, even if it does take all day. I haven’t tried baking bread when it’s intermittently
cloudy, because
I don’t want to risk not getting the crust or the rise I want. The oven is designed so that when directly facing the
sun,
all of the sunlight striking the reflectors goes into the insulated interior. A glass collector plate at the opening of the
oven space traps the heat. The glass should be tempered to prevent cracking due to differential expansion between
the interior and exterior surfaces as the oven heats up. Temperature is adjusted by pointing the oven more or less directly
at the sun. As the sun moves across the sky, the oven must turned horizontally, and also tilted to maintain optimum reflector
orientation. A nail perpendicular to a block of wood resting on the collector plate serves as an orientation indicator. To
make horizontal movement easy, I made a lazy susan to set it on. A wedge, not visible, tilts the oven toward the sun.
One should always wear dark sunglasses when working around the oven. I use sunglasses with an extra polarized
clip-on as well. Welding glasses would probably be best.
The CooKit, from Solar Cookers International (Sacramento, California). The CooKit is foldable,
shaped cardboard with a bonded reflective surface. SCI’s raison d’etre is to provide these low-tech cookers, and other
more sophisticated cookers, to Third World villagers for cooking and purifying water without using increasingly scarce and costly
firewood. They are neat folks. Here I’m heating water for washing up the bowls and utensils used in making the bread.
I also use it to heat the water used to mix the dough and proof the yeast. A black pot absorbs the heat of the sun, and the
oven bag (supplied with the CooKit) traps highly heated air as insulation. The rack exposes the bottom of the pot to
reflected light. I use a variety of thrift-store purchased aluminum pots I spray with flat black barbecue paint. I cook oatmeal
and beans regularly in the CooKit. Squash cooks up beautifully. But, one needs patience. Depending on what’s
cooking, it can take all day. In the winter, when days are shorter, there might not be enough time and heat for some dishes.
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