So, as you all know, I have been working on a cheap solar oven. Why, many of you have asked. Well, why not? Why not find a way to keep that oven off when the weather is a hundred and ten outside? Why not find a way to use less electricity, thereby, less oil? Why not try to harness the power of the sun instead of fossil fuels? It's not like we are going to run out of sun in the next few years. It's not as fast as an oven. So that means I have to prepare stuff an hour to two hours earlier if I want to bake. What a horrible thing, I think I am going to cry.
Solar ovens are great. You can make stews, fried chicken, cakes, brownies, lasanga, and variety of of others things. Pretty much anything that can be cooked in a normal oven, or cooked in a croc-pot, can easily be cooked in a solar oven...without paying for the electricity.
You can see pictures of my first attempt here. It's one box inside of another (for insulation) with a top that has oven plastic and a reflector (you can use glass instead of plastic, but for now, plastic is fine.) I tried it today and it worked. The temperature got up to about 225 before I put a sandwich in it. The sandwich was, well, kind of a grilled cheese sandwich, but I don't know if it can be called grilled. After about 15 minutes, the cheese was melted and the bread was slightly toasted. What a wonderful taste it had. All because of the mighty sun.
One of the first problems I noticed with my oven is that I made it too deep. The shadow from the side of the box covered about half of the interior, which kept about half of the box cooler than the other half. To fix this, I took out the bottom (which was, luckily, removable) and raised it about another 6-8 inches. There is no way to completely get rid of the entire shadow, but I do have it narrowed to only a couple of inches or so. It's currently at 200 degrees and I am hopeing to get it to aboutt 250. I can cook anything in that, things just take a little longer than they would in the 350 degree oven. Oh well. :-)
I do recommend trying one out just for fun. It wasn't all that hard to make. Carboard, tinfoil, glue, oven plastic, and black spray paint.
"I find patriotism not only a refuge of scoundrels but of idiots and those who like to buy their thinking ready-made each morning in the vacuous newspapers. Every decade or so governments create wars and whip up a frenzy, so that we will not notice the shortcomings of our own side and will not question the assumptions of our society and demand more rational institutions and laws." -Marge Piercy, Gone to Soldiers
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