This is a truncated slideshow taken from my personal history of exploring the world
of solar cooking. It is one of my favorite pass-times, although doing it requires the
felicitous appearance of the sun here in Minnesota, the land of "variety weather." :)
I have concluded that 95% of the manufactured cookers out there work, and work
pretty well. A handful work well all the time, and a couple I really am not convinced
grab enough sun or concentrate the light they grab enough to work.
Most of the photos I've taken myself but some are from web links that didn't
identify the photographer, where possible I've provided the link and hope it stays
current!
I built several solar cookers based on the Halacy's plywood & cardboard model in
"Cooking with the Sun." These are on a table with wheels to keep them "focused".
Focusing knob & screw, on same
angle as cooker's glass door
2nd plywood table top is hinged to be
able to tilt both cookers at once
I started collecting and using many commercially available solar cookers. Here is an SK-14,
built in Germany. It must be "refocused" it every ten or twenty minutes. But it can be used
year round since it concentrates sunlight so effectively, even the low sun of a Minnesota
winter. http://www.eg-solar.de/produkte/solartechnologie2007.pdf. Acquired 2006.
Plantains!!!
Here's a Parvati style cooker I made from flexible wall-covering with aluminized
mylar reflector. It is kind of a cross between a parabolic and a panel cooker. We
use two Pyrex or Anchor glass casserole dishes in clamshell fashion with silicone
to seal it for the greenhouse effect. Made from Pardeshi plans in 2006:
http://www.angelfire.com/80s/shobhapardeshi/ParvatiCooker.html
This cooker
easily reaches
250+ degrees
A dual-position panel cooker. I made one of these in 2006 and got results
much like the Parvati or (next slide) the Hot Pot.
http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/DSPC-Cooker.htm
I have made a version of this at about 1.3x scale (i.e., 1.3 times larger.
Works great. I made it out of some plastic panelling type material from
home depot, projecting the design drawings (available on-line) with my
computer to expand the size while keeping the angles.
The Solar Household Energy Inc. "Hot Pot" is an enameled steel bowl fitted into
a pyrex glass bowl with lid, surrounded by a fold-out, hinged set of reflectors.
Aquired in 2007 via http://www.she-inc.org/hotpot.php
I have two of them, they work best under full sun and no passing clouds. We
have made several tasty stews with the Hot Pot.
Variations on plans for the CooKit
The one that Solar Cookers International
makes can be bought through
solarcooking.org. I bought one in 2007.
13”
7 7/8”
35 3/4”
11 3/4”
10 5/8”
39”
47 5/8”
4 ¾”
Fresnel reflector cooker, it's like a parabolic with the bowl punched out and
set back. I made one of these from plans available on
http://www.sunspot.org.uk/ed/ in 2006.
The construction must be very
accurate, or the focal point won't be as
concentrated as it needs to be to heat
the pot. Also, it appears to be suited
best for near-equator latitudes,
although it could probably be modified
to accomodate low-sun angles for us
in 45 degrees on north...
It is langushing in the attic in my
garage, but plans to expand our "Solar
Kitchen Deck" in the back yard might
have enough room to park this one... :)
sunoven.com
for more info. It sells for an
average of $250
I bought this in 2005. A real
"work horse", gets up to 300
degrees consistently and stays
there even after adding food.
and a Solar Oven Society Sport
--link to solarovens.org
for more info. Price fluctuates
but was around $150 for the
cooker and pots and "WAPI"
when I got it in 2005. I keep
giving them away and buying
more.
Here's the model I found at
http://www.harvestcommunityinc.com/solar-oven.php
...which quotes $399 plus taxes and shipping.
Last known ordering info--no guarantee it's still
current
Harvest Community Inc
Box 40 Kronau, SK
Canada S0G 2T0
Phone(306) 781-2801
Fax(306) 781-2665
Email office@harvestcommunityinc.com
I scored one of these on Craigslist from a guy
who lived just north of the Peace Gardens for
US$150 in the winter of 2007. It works, but it is
a bear to slide the edges of the reflectors into
their slots and still have room for the glass oven
cover to hinge out for access to the pots.
Sun Stove design by Richard Wareham uses a standard size of aluminum
lithographic printing plate, crimped and snipped. Two plates next together
with any type of insulation between them (straw, rags, fiberglass), pop-riveted
onto boards
and
covered
with a sheet
of glass or
fiberglass.
I have a Sunstove like the middle
model above, bought in 2005.
The intent of the Sun Stove is to
be easily made from materials
easily found in 3rd world
countries.
http://www.sungravity.com/solar_c
ooking__overview.html
http://www.sungravity.com/solar_cooking__overview.html
This colar cooker was S25 orderable at solarovens.net. I haven't had a
chance to try mine out yet. It's like a corporate version of the Cookit.
Acquired in 2008.
Solarsizzler.com -- the Sizzler was $70 when I got it in 2007. I have a tripod
but been using the other cookers so much had a chance to mount this on a
tripod as the manufacturer suggests. It has a very small hotspot, one has to
be careful not to set decks/garages on fire when this is set out unattended!
I have a model similar to the Solar
Skillet above, or the "Nelpa"
cooker to the right. Mine is called
the "Primrose," a unique combo
box/panel cooker, made in
Germany (http://www.muellersolartechnik.com/). The Primrose
has room for one 2-quart pot, Pix
forthcoming...once I start cooking
with it. Acquired summer 2009.
Tulsi Hybrid Solar oven--acquired ca. 2007--cooks with full sun or on electricity with
embedded heating element when cloudy. I bought one before they added extra reflectors,
probably due to complaints that one reflector didn't get it much higher than 200 degrees as I
found in Minneapolis. Could be the electric heater backup stuff absorbs a lot of heat before
the whole thing hits cooking temp?
http://www.sunbdcorp.com/
Update: 4/17/2010, I put one cup of rice
in at noon, it was done by 1:50pm, temp
was around 250 preheated and stayed
there the whole time. I retract my
skepticism! But I'm still going to make
two more reflectors to bump up the heat...
The Solar Chef, invented by Sam Erwin of Oregon, was touted in the late 1990's as the "cure" for Y2K… When
Y2K disasters did not materialize, orders diminished and production stopped, but I was lucky enough to get this
one on eBay. It is a work of art as well as a superbly designed oven, very easy to use and hits nearly 400
degrees F with good sun and at least 250 with milky sky (hazy or thin clouds over sun).
It's no longer
manufactured, although
a women in Texas, who
obtained the rights to
make it, would like to
produce Erwin's "Star
Flower" version which
has fewer parts.
I scored one in 2008 on
Craigslist-Philadelphia,
drove out to get it...
SunSpot box cooker... Available at a bunch of web
sites, this pic is from
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/sun-spot-solaroven/p/KT-SOLOVEN/
Lower left from
http://sargentwelch.com/basic-sun-spot-solaroven/p/IG0039354/
I have only tried it once, but clouds rolled in before I
could give it a good chance. It is a cardboard box, with
an extra layer of cardboard on the inside, the model I
got has a thin plastic cover over the cooking area. The
box flaps fold out and have reflective aluminized
coating, and 4 triangle pieces fit in between to add more
light into the box.
A very simple cooker, probably best kept for a survival
tool rather than a day-to-day cooker for large meals.
Claims of hitting 500 degrees Fahrenheit or dubious--it's
cardboard & would burn at 451...But given the right
conditions, I could imagine up to 300 degrees.
Got mine for something like $30, it is going for between
$30 and $50 on-line...
Andersen Solar Cooker--an off-shoot
product of Andersen Manufacturing in
Idaho Falls, ID. About $500 for the
cooker, and another $100 or so for
accessories when I bought it winter 2010.
The focal point is thrown onto the side of
the cooking vessel, presenting a unique
problem of the potential scorching solids
on the side of a pot or soup solids floating
to the top and the focal point side. A
rotisserie motor configuration solves that.
Four quarts of water have been brought to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdqNz5sMA4w
a boil with this cooker in a half hour in
Minnesota at the end of Winter!
Clear Dome Solar's Octogon Parabolic
cooker isn't formed in the shape of a true
parabola but does basically uses several
reflectors to focus the sun onto a pot with a
composite board heat sink.
http://cleardomesolar.com/parabolic.html
I've not met with any success using this cooker
yet, but I will keep trying. I may not be
positioning the pot correctly. I suspect that it
can't outperform the SHE Hot Pot as it may
grab a smidge less sunlight than the Hot Pot.
Acquired Fall 2009.
M.I.A. -- Cookers no longer being
manufactured, but of interesting designs!
I DON'T HAVE THIS ONE--YET! :)
"SUNFLASH™ PASSIVE SOLAR COOKER
THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED
Delivers 225 watts (750 Btu/hr) of cooking energy.
Cooks faster and hotter, even on cold and partially
sunny days!
Stands 67" high and features a 39" paraboloid shaped
polished aluminum reflector to focus the sun's rays in
a circle rather than on a point. This provides a safe,
even heating of the stove.
Easily assembled by one person in about an hour
following the simple instructions. No adjustments
needed durng a two-hour cooking cycle.
Cook soups, bread, cakes, stews, pasta or just boil
water, using the 3-quart enameled steel pot that sits
inside a glass sphere made of two 4-quart
hemispherical bowls. This allows heat from the sun
and prevents cooling from ambient breezes.
[See Zomeworks.com for their other products still
being manufactured. Although sustainablevillage.org
listed this as a product available, when ordered I was
informed it was not]
Photo from http://www.highdesertnet.com/morninghill/solarcooking.pdf
http://www.oneearthdesigns.org/
SolSource cooker
I don't have this but it looks like a
good example of a collapsible
cooker.
My collection continues to grow as our family budget permits.
If any who see this slide show have connections for finding a Sun Flash,
I'd be eternally grateful if you'd drop me a line-Luther Krueger
Minneapolis
612-290-9450
kruegerian@gmail.com