Homemade Solar Cell

In most 3rd world places, where electricity and other fuel sources are hard to come by, solar oven designs have been used. Not only are they effective in cooking food, but also for water purification in sunny countries like Sudan.

And like other solar technologies, there’s no reason first world countries should not promote solar cooking at home to help save energy. Although cooking may take four times longer than conventional ovens, no electricity or fuel is used – just the power of the sun.

Over time many solar oven designs have been mastered, but they generally fall into three main categories: parabolic solar cookers, panel cookers, and box cookers.

Parabolic Shape:

As the name suggests, a parabolic cooker is made from reflective material that is molded into bowl. This helps it concentrate the sunlight in one area and effectively cook your food. However, this design typically costs more and it’s rigid structure makes it less practical for traveling.

Panel Cooker:

A panel cooker is any cooker made with a series of flat, reflective panels arranged to direct sunlight to a focal point.

The panel shape is not as efficient as the parabolic shape, but it has the advantage of being foldaway, portable, and rather simple to make. These cookers can be found in a number of interesting deigns, but the simplest is by far the one made by folding one of those reflective windscreen blinds.

Box Cooker:

The final shape is the box cooker. The concept behind this solar oven design is very different to the parabolic and panel cookers. Here, the cooker works by absorbing sunlight through perspex, trapping that sunlight and heat in the cooker, and creating more heat as more light streams in.

What makes the box cooker appealing is that is really easy to make – the simplest design requires a cardboard box, a piece of clear glass or plastic, and tin foil – and it can cook a large portion of food at a time.

What I like most about solar oven designs is that they can be put together with simple materials found at home in the course of an afternoon. It’s a fun project to do with your kids, and the shapes you come up with are really limited to your imagination. And do not just think your solar cooker is only good for boiling water or steaming vegetables. People have successfully roasted meat in them and even baked bread. Another pro is that your solar cooker will be outside when used, so it will not cause your whole kitchen to heat up and put strain on your indoor cooling system – another way it helps you to conserve energy.

And if you think that over 75% of American households use their oven or stove on a daily basis – a tremendous amount of energy could be conserved if more of us used solar oven designs during summer.

There really is no excuse for not looking more into solar cooking. With a number of affordable solar cookers and free instructions available on the internet, you owe it to yourself, your kids and the environment to try one out for yourself.