I recently made myself a solar oven. I don't know how to post pictures on the computer so I will describe it. The outside box is made out of plywood, 20"x20". Inside that is a layer of 1"thick fiberglass insulation. The inside box I constructed out of sheet metal which I painted black to help absorb the heat. The front is double strenght glass. The front glass face is set at a 60 degree angle to the box. The reflector panels I constructed out of fiberboard with aluminum foil glued to them. The top reflector panel is set at 120 degrees to the oven, the side reflectors are set at 150 degrees and the bottom reflector is even with the bottom of the oven. I have a sun tracking device which is just a nail on a cardboard disc. When I hold the tracking device on the glass I have to position my oven relative to the sun so that the nail casts no shadow. Then I know I am in focus. In the middle of the day, when my nail casts no shadow I can get my oven up to 350 degrees. I have baked bread in it. Tomorrow if the cloud cover moves away I will cook a pot of minestrone in it.
Solar ovens...easy peasy!!
- Thread starter justusnak
- Start date
