/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>320467
I've made many, in many different styles. In the end, I prefer the "Heaven's Flame" style of reflectors for a box cooker.

Here's a reposted image of my main cooker. It can reach up to 380F right now, but it needs some reflector maintenance. Normally, when it is empty it can reach 430F or around there in about 15 minutes. When food is placed in it, the food absorbs the heat very quickly so ambient temps are usually 200F-250F.

This one was made with scrap building materials and insulation. Most of the cost is in the handles, wheels, and tempered inner glass. This has 2 panes of glass and several inches of insulation. It normally takes things an hour to cook/bake.

You can make these for pretty cheap and the glass should be the most expensive part. You always need the inner glass to be tempered if your temps are going to be over 220F. Otherwise, it'll crack.

>Does anyone actually live off of cooking from a solar oven?

I don't live off mine entirely. I do it in phases. A month in the summer may go by with all my meals coming from the cooker. I don't use it in the winter normally because I dislike being out in the cold, but it works well in -10F temps.

>How much did it cost you to put together?

Unknown really. Probably, $75.

>How hard are they to clean and maintain?

Pretty easy. However, mine uses aluminum foil on the reflector panels and it needs a new layer. Oxidation has turned the foil white in places now. I can simply epoxy/glue a new layer on it after scrapping/sanding off the old. It took about 2 years to get bad enough to need changed.

>>320549
Here's another reposted image of one I made. I don't have it anymore and I'm working on a more durable design. This is intended to be stowed behind my seat in my vehicle and used for camping or where ever.

>>320550
This was its first test cooking. I used it too death while out on job sites and camping. Looks like it was topping out as 225F. It uses a single pane of regular plate glass. If it were to get hotter, it would most likely crack. Had I used 2 pieces of glass then I would have needed a piece of thermal glass on the inner side because it would have been far hotter.

This one didn't cost me anything except for tape and foil. It also feels, " feel cheap, flimsy, and disposable". Which is why it was just a concept test.

That's really nice, does anyone have any designs or schematics for making various solar cookers and ovens?

man solar star is always the best

I'm always glad when he reposts pics

I always wonder if painting the outside of these black would help for a few more degrees as well? I've heard odd theories though that it encourages heat transfer out of the box, that doesn't make sense to me

>>320994
Try here,

http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Solar_cooker_plans

They have quite a bit of information and a few plans. I am not aware of a comprehensive collection of solar cooker plans.

>>321014
The color black allows better transfer or heat. It also is the best color for turning light into thermal energy. The heat sink on the back of a fridge or freezer is black for the former reason. The black allows it to get rid of the heat faster than other colors.

For a solar cooker, I think its outer color is mostly negligible. If you don't have insulation then it may play a role in transferring the heat out of the box faster than normal. If you have a great amount of insulation the amount of heat transfer shouldn't be a problem at all. Keep in mind that the sides of a solar cooker are never directly exposed to sunlight because they are shaded by the reflector panels. Thus, they only receive ambient light. The amount of ambient light and ambient environmental thermal radiation hitting the sides won't be enough to make much of a difference to the internal temperature of the cooker.

If you have very little insulation, I would paint the sides white to prevent transfer of heat to the outside of the cooker.

>pic is another repost

This is a simple experiment to create a solar funnel/panel type cooker using the least amount and lightest materials. It is a mylar emergency blanket. An egg was placed on a foil covered plate and a glass jar with black-painted aluminum foil inside was placed over the egg. It worked in "hard boiling" the egg, but it did take a rather long time (2.5-3 hours), mostly due to cloud cover.

The pros to this one is that the jar can have a lid instead of a plate and the entire unit can be concealed and carried in the jar. The cons are the need for stick and you can't move it easily.

>>321014
>I'm always glad when he reposts pics

I really need to finish some of my other cookers and take new photos.

>note that the glue wasn't used in this cooker's construction.