solar cookers

Selected designs

Panel-style cookers

	Advantages	Disadvantages
General characteristics	Easy and cheap to make Can be collapsed for storage or transport	Lower temperatures. Can't fry foods. Cooks only 1-2 pots of food.
Fun-Panel	Built in about an hour from one cardboard box Doesn't require a large flat sheet of cardboard like the CooKit does Easy to adjust for different sun angles Great cooking power Very good for winter cooking in temperate regions	Not waterproof Might be difficult to use in equatorial climates where sun rises to straight overhead.
Windshield Shade	Fastest cooker to make. Waterproof	Only feasible where windshield shades are sold
Cookit	Folds to the size of a large notebook for storage or transport	Not waterproof Cooks best when the sun is high in the sky.
Sunny Cooker	Uses less cardboard than other panel cookers	Not waterproof Might be difficult to use in equatorial climates where sun rises to straight overhead.

See all Panel cooker plans.

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Box-style cookers

	Advantages	Disadvantages
General characteristics	Can cook in multiple pots simultaneously Can be built from many different materials Can be built any size to cook large quantities of food Don't have to be turned to follow the sun while cooking	Construction time longer than panel. Can't fry foods.
The "Minimum"	Simple to build from two cardboard boxes	Not waterproof
Easy Lid	Same as "Minimum" Cooker but top of larger box becomes the lid	Not waterproof
Heaven's Flame	Extra power due to multiple reflectors Can heat multiple pots simultaneously	Must be turned a bit more often to follow the sun Bottom of oven not level as cooker tilts toward sun Not waterproof

See all Box cooker plans.

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Parabolic cookers

	Advantages	Disadvantages
General characteristics	Cook as fast as a conventional electric burner. Can fry foods.	More expensive than other models Tricky to make without imported materials. Requires periodic realignment to the sun. Can't bake bread Can damage eyes.
DATS	Can be made out of cardboard Doesn't require the pot to be in a heat resistant plastic bag	Must be realigned to the sun every 45 minutes

Windshield Shade Solar Funnel Cooker

While experimenting with various designs of cookers over the past year to introduce in the indigenous communities where I live and work in southern Mexico, I hit upon an utterly simple way to make an instant portable solar oven. Taking a reflective accordion-folded car windshield shade, you can turn it into a version of the solar funnel, by simply sewing on little Velcro tabs along the long notched side. Here’s how:

Materials needed: A reflective accordion-folding car sunshade A Cake rack (or wire frame or grill) 12 cm. (4 ½ in.) of Velcro Black pot Bucket or plastic wastebasket A plastic baking bag

1. Lay the sunshade out with the notched side toward you, as above.
2. Cut the Velcro into three pieces, each about 4 cm. or 1 ½ inches long.
3. Hand sew one half of each piece, evenly spaced, onto the edge to the left of the notch; sew the matching half of each piece onto the underneath size to the right of the notch, so that they fit together when the two sides are brought together to form a funnel. (see below) Note: I first tried sewing these on a sewing machine, but found it cut through the reflective material.
4. Press the Velcro pieces together, and set the funnel on top of a bucket or a round or rectangular plastic wastebasket.
5. Place a black pot on top of a square cake rack, placed inside a plastic baking bag. A standard size rack in the U.S. is 25 cm. (10 in.). This is placed inside the funnel, so that the rack rests on the top edges of the bucket or wastebasket. Since the sunshade material is soft and flexible, the rack is necessary to support the pot. It also allows the suns rays to shine down under the pot and reflect on all sides. If such a rack is not available, a wire frame could be made to work as well. Note: the flexible material will squash down around the sides of the rack.

The funnel can be tilted in the direction of the sun.

A stick placed across from one side of the funnel to the other helps to stabilize it in windy weather. (see below)

After cooking, simply fold up your “oven” and slip the elastic bands in place for easy travel or storage.

I have found this totally simple solar oven extremely practical, as it is so lightweight and easy to carry along anywhere. But in addition, it has reached a higher temperature in a shorter time than all the other models I have experimented with so far (I haven’t used a parabolic) - a little above 350 degrees F. I have cooked black beans in about the same amount of time as on a gas stove; I’ve used it to bake breads, granola, brownies, lasagna, all sorts of vegetables, and to purify water. The sunshade may not be available everywhere, but I suspect it can be found in most urban areas, since I found it here in southern Mexico. The Velcro was also available in fabric stores. Cost of the sunshade was about $3.00 USD; the Velcro about $.25