PV Gap

Daniel Said:

How to make a homemade solar powered oven?

We Answered:

Don't use aluminum foil, that's too translucent. You can collect flat mirrors from a junkyard or use a ton of old polished CD's or both. Basically here's what you do:

You get an orange-brown gardening pot that's about 1 foot tall and place it upside down in the middle of your box. Next, you take a box cutter and strip down the 4 corners of your box so that you have roughly a cross shaped structure with your pot in the middle. Next you take all your flat mirrors and cd's and glue the reflective pieces onto the 4 wings of your cross so that every square inch of it is covered and mirrorized. Cut pieces if you have to. Just remember that you want no box to show on the upside of your wings. Basically, you have 4 solar energy panes that will be used to focus the light right above your pot onto one spot. Since your wings are flat, you aren't done yet. You can collimate the beam so it is MUCH more powerful. This is how THAT's done:

take one of your wings and draw a square on the inside with a sharpie marker so that it is centered. Don't make the square too small but about like 1.6foot by 1.6 foot. Next draw lines from the corners of this square to the corners of your wing. These lines are where you'll be cutting using a heated knife and a box cutter on the opposite side. So do that and you get 4 foldable trapezoid sections you can curl inwards. Next drill holes with a drill in the edges of these trapezoids where you'll insert any kind of string or wire to hold the trapezoids folded inwards in place so you have a curved reflective dish.

Repeat this entire process for the other 3 wings. Next, you get 4 plastic gardening pots to prop your wings up into focus and place them under the wings so that the solar heat ray is focused into one spot directly above the orange pot.

There! Now you've made the most awesome mad scientist invention from The Mad Scientist himself. Have fun cooking thanksgiving turkey on it and don't use it to fry your friends! =D

-Chris

Lauren Said:

do you think that a solar powered oven is a good project for 7th grade?

We Answered:

Sure - why not? Pretty simple project, though. Maybe you can make it with some sort of temperature control to make it more interesting.

Claire Said:

Any ideas for a Solar Powered Oven?

We Answered:

I found some really cool sites that show you how to make them.
I was thinking it would be cool to make an aluminum foil oven.

Mattie Said:

How to build a solar powered oven?

We Answered:

Sounds like you are after a solar cooker, not a solar oven. A quick and easy solar cooker can be made from an old satellite dish (which are already parabolic curves -- and you don't need a big one), use some Elmer's Craft Bond spray adhesive and glue aluminum foil to the dish. Remove the receiver and cables. Then fashion a pot holder and a dish rack. I recommend a tea kettle that has a handle that can be used to hang the whole kettle, then you can hang it from an "A" frame structure over the dish. The dish rack need be little more than 3 or 4 pieces of lumber that allow you to tip the dish toward the sun and move the tea kettle into place above. If your kettle isn't black on the bottom, blacken it over a camp fire.

Where to find a satellite dish? Try thrift stores or garage sales. Today's satellite dishes are pretty much throw-away, so most folks are glad to have them removed.

Miguel Said:

Has anyone ever used a solar powered oven?

We Answered:

I was in southern Spain. I built one out of cardboard boxes, tinfoil for the reflectors and a glass lid. One box is a little smaller in size than the other, which fits into the larger. between the boxes, folded card was used to insulate the heat. All of it, except the reflectors, which I covered in foil, was painted black, so that more heat was absorbed.

I used it to cook soups, stews, jacket potatoes (they didn't always fully cook, but most of the time they did), veges and such. I never used it to cook meats ~ just in case...

The cost of building it, was about half an hour and a sheet of glass. In a warm climate, they can save a lot of money in food heating bills. They are also useful, if only for a little while, to part cook food, so reduce main cooking time...