Solar Cooking is
an amazing ,almost magical thing thing and we truly feel for
numerous good & smart reasons that Everyone
should be doing this. .....
We love Solar Cooking because it actually
works and also because this is another
example of a wonderful low-tech Solar device that works by
using simple science. Basically what's going on
here is you're using solar energy in a
focused form to heat and cook foods.
With a Box type Solar oven , like the
picture on the right , it's those 4 aluminum
'Fins' that collect & focus the suns rays
into the ovens interior allowing it to heat
up to the temps you need for baking &
boiling...since good box cookers are always
insulated that helps to hold the heat .With
a Parabolic style of cooker you're using the
same well-founded science principle and are
once again using solar energy in a focused
form....
But rather than
collect and focus the suns rays inward ,
Parabolic cookers collect the rays and focus
the solar energy outward . This concentrated
energy is then aimed at the bottom of your
cooking pot ...which allows you to boil
,bake ,braise and do something box cookers
are not so good at ...fry foods .
Since you can reach & Hold temperatures high
enough ,people even use their Parabolic
Cookers for water-bath canning.
There
are numerous variations of these
cooker designs ... a notable one is
the
Flat Panel
style of Cooker . These
work in similar manner to the
Parabolic cooker , they focus the
energy outward ... but don't reach
the high temps you get from a true
Parabolic cooker . ( picture on
right)
Any of these Solar Cooker designs
work very well , but like everything
else in the world ,nothing is
perfect... so there are pros & cons
to each model.
All solar cookers need the sun to
work , so you have to keep an eye on
them and reorient them on occasion .
If you have the time and are good at
tinkering you can buy the bits &
pieces and build a solar tracking
setup which will do the work of
keeping your cooker in the right
position...
Don't take that
"right position" statement as , you must have
your Solar Cooker positioned perfectly for
it to work... this is not at all the same
thing as Satellite TV or Internet where you
have to be right on the money or forget
about receiving a signal.
Solar Cooking is much simpler , and you
don't need special aiming devices , all you
do is orient the front of the cooker toward
the sun and look at the shadow behind the
cooker....if your using a box cooker with
reflector fins , move the cooker about so that the
shadow made by the fins are equal on both
sides ...if you're using a flat-panel cooker
you do the same thing. With a parabolic
cooker you look at the shadow made by the
legs and base and orient your cooker ....so
it's very easy to do this....
Do you have to fiddle about and reorient the
cooker constantly ?
No you don't. Many solar Cookers position
their Solar Ovens to catch the rays at a
later time and go do something else with the
knowledge that when the sun reaches the
point they aimed their cookers toward , the
food will start cooking.
Even though you'll eventually reach
temperatures that will kill off nasty
bacteria that loves to grow at low temps ...
We don't recommend doing this because we
feel solar cooking is no different than any
other form of cooking where getting the
right temp isn't just about food safety it's
also about getting the right outcome .so
because of that we don't mind hanging out by
our cookers and reorienting them every ten
minutes or so.
You can go either way , if you're just
whipping up something to eat and don't care
much about perfect temps and perfect
outcomes ,then by all means do it your way.
If you're like us and Love cooking then you
already know Cooking a good meal takes a bit
of work and wont mind reorienting your
cooker as much as necessary.
(Since these things are not at all awkward
or heavy all you have to do is nudge them an
inch or so every 10 minutes and you'll
maintain your temps ...so this isn't back
breaking labor.)
SOLAR COOKING TIP.... you're gotten your
meal cooked and need to keep it warm without
over-cooking it ...to do that ,turn your
Cooker a bit to either side , so that the
sun isn't directing hitting it ...this will
drop the temp fast in the cooker , but still
keep things nice and warm.
Having to reorient the solar cooker every 10
minutes or so is considered a detriment by
the LAZY people of the world who don't
understand why anyone wouldn't want to use
their microwave ovens for cooking ...but for
anyone else with the brains enough in their
heads to realize they are cooking with an
abundant & 100% free energy source this wont
be a big deal for them.
OK , so which cooker style is the best ?
That's any easy question to answer . If
you're tight on living & storage space and
want a solar cooker that will do
everything....then you'll want a
Parabolic Cooker.
But if you have the room and want to treat
Solar Cooking as a REAL substitute to
cooking on electric and gas stoves ,and not
some novelty....then you'll want to have a
solar Box type of oven & a parabolic cooker.
With a setup like this you can cook just
about anything you can in a house , all the
while using the same techniques you do in
your houses.
Another important tool all solar chefs
should have is some form of thermal cooker
or hotbox setup around to keep foods warm
after you cooked them in your solar ovens.
We use our
Nissan Thermal Cooker
for this and for saving on fuel & cooking
time in our apartment . Thermal Cookers and
Haybox (hotbox) setups are great for saving
on cooking time whether you solar cook or
not ... they work by the principle of
retained heat for finishing up the cooking.
You cant go wrong with Solar Cooking , it
will save on fuel and most cookers are small
enough to store away in your Tiny House or
RV.
You'll have something that's a viable
substitute for cooking and isn't a toy or
novelty....these things really work and
they're just as safe to use as a houses
stove is.
You wouldn't put your hand on a hot burner
on your stove , same applies to solar
cooking .
You do want to wear sunglasses when you're
solar cooking to protect your eyesight from
the glare ... ...so this stuff is mostly
just simple intuitive stuff. There's nothing
weird ,strange or dangerous about this.
You can build lots of box cookers very
easily (even out of cardboard boxes ,Links
for doing this below ) ...or you
can buy one.
You can also build true parabolic cookers if
you're very good at tinkering , but if
you're not good at getting things pretty
much perfect then you should sit back and
think about how serious you want to be about
this ...if you're like us and want something
designed to work 100% correctly from the get
go then you should Buy one....if you don't
care about that and enjoy going back to the
drawing board for another try ,then you
should build one if you're so inclined or
have few funds for buying one.
Here at the Mobile Homestead we've fully
self-converted numerous vans and did some
big bus conversions so were very comfortable
with making many things ourselves and using
all sorts of tools, but we also have learned
that there are things in the world people
have manufactured that are made in a much
more efficient manner than we could whip up
ourselves ...and because of that believe
sometimes its much more cost effective in
the long run to buy a well-made thing versus
making it.
Since we wanted Solar Cookers that were
ready to go ....and didn't need a bunch of
tweaking and reworking ,we decided to bite
the bullet and buy ours .
We use and sell the Global Sun Oven ...which
we feel is the best of the commercial Solar
Box Oven type Cookers available. They've been building these things
forever and are built like a tank and are easy to
use... Here's our
Global
Sun Oven page ...check it out
...We also have and use a El Solito
Parabolic Solar Cooker which allows us to
fry foods ...here's
our page
with pictures &
info on it....
Whether
you build or buy a Solar Cooker isn't really
important ...what is important is you're
doing something economically smart , with
the added benefit of helping out your planet
.This is a really Good thing
Here are a few pics of Happy Solar Chefs
doing their thing....
