Does a solar oven really work? I can answer that question with one word: absolutely.
Sometimes I find myself doing little projects just to see how they will turn out. Sometimes, I do it out of necessity. My thought process has always been, do what ya gotta do till you can do better. So, when the oven part of my stove just up and quit, I had to do what I could to be able to bake things.
I used my cast iron Dutch ovens and cooked things outside, sure, but one day I got to thinking about a solar oven. Back in the day, we used aluminum foil when we were laying out to reflect the sun, so why not use it to make said solar oven? Ok, well, what kind of contraption was I going to use for the body of this solar oven?
That’s right. A box. A simple cardboard box. Solar ovens can be made out of simple things you have laying around the house. And when you don’t have the money to go out and buy a new drop-in stove, or if you do, you can’t find one to buy, this simple little cardboard box solar oven works quite well.
I cut the sides of the box down at an angle and cut straight across the front. I didn’t use any certain angle; I just wanted the front lower than the back to let more sun in. I kept the pieces I cut off, wrapped them in aluminum foil, and used them in the final product.
I found a smaller box, cut it apart, wrapped the pieces in aluminum foil, and used these smaller pieces for the corners of my solar oven.
I put aluminum foil on the inside of the box. Next, I attached all the parts I had cut off of the original box and the smaller box I used for the corners with clothes pins. That way, I could adjust the sides as needed as the sun moved across the sky.
To use this simple solar oven to bake a meal, I used a black roaster pan with a lid and a large clear plastic bag to put the roaster pan in to keep the heat inside a more confined area. I set the roaster pan on a trivet to allow for air circulation and tied up the bag with a bread tie.
As far as how long you need to cook a meal in a solar oven, all I can say is, it may vary. It took the meatloaf I made about five hours. It was nerve-wracking in a way because I never untied the bag to check it until I thought it should be done. I didn’t want to let any heat out of the bag because it could potentially take it that much longer to cook. Five hours for my meatloaf was perfect.
There are some great solar ovens out there that you can buy, but this one crafted out of a cardboard box, aluminum foil and clothes pins worked for me.
What about you? Have you ever made a solar oven?