All this heat and sun lately......

[hoosierarcher]

Made me think of solar cooking and solar ovens more particularly. Imagine my surprise when I went to the How-To section here did a search and found only 3 threads. More surprised to find they weren't posts about how to make them but more on stories about them. I did some looking on tube of you(my satirical name for it) and found quite a few(1000s) of vids. I have a lot of other irons in the fire but I wrote down some procedural information and materials lists and will have a solar oven made before Summer is over.
Anyone here use one on a regular basis?
I watched vids that showed a great many different types of food cooked. One actually showed bread being baked in Winter. Basically they seem to mostly work like crock pots. Which is one of my personal favorite ways to cook. Some used a large Fresnel lens to flash cook things. One used a combination Fresnel lens and oven reflector and it maintained 310 degrees F for several hours on a partly cloudy day.

[2dumb2kwit]

That's one of those things, thats on my list of things that I'd like to experiment with....but have never gotten around to.

I really like the idea. I also like the idea of some solar heat, helping to keep the house warm, in the winter.

[Pict]

FYI its 67 degrees here in central Brazil.

Solar cooking would make alot of sense here we get 200 + days of strong sunshine. My house has solar hot water, best move I ever made.

Mac

[Rick]

There's actually a number of threads on solar cooking with instructions on how to build the cookers.

[rwc1969]

I know a couple people that have used them here with limited success. I'd like to try it myself. Ihear they work real good if the sun cooperates though.

[Rick]

Here are some threads.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ht=solar+ovens

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ht=solar+ovens

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ht=solar+ovens

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ht=solar+ovens

[your_comforting_company]

I use solar power for drying clothes...

Here in the south, we call it a "clothesline". Works well and saves a TON of money on the light bill.
The sun is a powerful source of energy that we should tap into any time we can. I have a few mirrors from when the movie shop up town did a remodel (they are out of business now). I should get my shtuff together and build one of these ovens.

I wonder about adding a solar cell and small motor with light sensor, that could rotate the oven according to the position of the sun... Just ideas I've been bouncing around. If it could be done, it would free up a lot of time from watching the food cook.

[Rick]

It can definitely be done. Mirror farms follow the sun to concentrate its rays. The device is called a Heliostat. You can google "Heliostat design" and come up with a ton of hits.

[your_comforting_company]

Dangit Rick.. You've had a lot of good posts lately and I can't give you any more rep for now, but know that the sharing of your wisdom is very much appreciated. I will be researching heliostat and after I get the oven itself built, adding the helio will be a future project.
Thanks a bunch!!

[Rick]

No problem. There are some schematics on the web for wiring them up. You have to manage two plains, vertical and horizontal but the ones I've seen mount the mirrors on the horizontal gear so when you move it the whole assembly moves. Hope that makes sense. Just be cautious if you use a parabolic. You can cause some serious burns and even start fires. I highly recommend Hunter stay far away from this. Even the thread might be dangerous for him.

[Sarge47]

Ken posted these as well awhile back, they bear repeating:

http://www.i4at.org/surv/solarbox.htm

http://scoutingaround.com/boy-scouts...board-box-oven

http://www.usscouts.org/scoutcraft/oven.asp

http://ecommunity.uml.edu/scouting26...m/boxoven.html