Food Living Outside Play Technology Workshop

Solar box oven

by Gael - Tim on May 1, 2012

Table of Contents

Solar box oven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Solar box oven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2: Choosing the dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 3: Making the box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 4: Making the reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 5: Making the reflector cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 6: Adding the mirrored surface to the reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 7: Praparing the box for the reflector cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 8: Making the rotating food tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 9: Making the glass door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Step 10: Mods and tweaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Step 11: It's time for solar cooking now! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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Intro: Solar box oven
I fiddled around with parabolic dishes and fresnel lenses but in terms of cooking, I couldn't do much more than fry an egg or boil a couple cups of water. So I decided to
take a shot at a more efficient way of solar cooking reasonable amounts of food like cakes and poultry. To do so, I chose a box design with reflectors placed all around it
to gather more light and energy into the cooking area. It was a relatively easy build and it cost me no more than 30$ and I was thrilled by the results it gave me!

Step 1: Materials
A large mojority of the materials I used were gathered from friends who had them lying around or who wanted to dispose of them.
What I used:
Tools

A circular saw and its guiding rail

A glass cutter
A jigsaw (with metal cutting blade)
A compact drill
A grinder

Materials

8 mm thick plywood
18 mm thick plywood
glass pane from a picture frame
Glass or arcylic or stainless steel mirror
Silicone caulk
Metal bars
Screws
2*4 or other wood pieces
A length of seal (strip seal for doors)
High termerature black spray paint

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Step 2: Choosing the dimensions
I chose my dimensions taking into account the size of box I wanted to allow for enough cooking space. I used rimstar's super cool reflector size and angle calculator to
determine how my reflectors would be set up once I'd decided the size my box would be:
http://rimstar.org/renewnrg/how_design_solar_cooker_sun_reflector.htm
I believe my box is cubic and roughly 35 cm and my reflectors 65 cm long.

Step 3: Making the box

This step is simple, you make the box according to the dimensions you chose. I made mine out of 18 mm thick plywood and assembled it with screws and sealed the
seams with the silicone caulk to allow as little air leaks as possible. Now, in the pictures you see that the wood planks were painted with high termerature black spray
paint but you will later see that this was of no use after a modification was done inside of the box (see in the final steps)

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Step 4: Making the reflectors
I chose to make 8 reflectors and not 4 because when using only 4, part of your reflector is useless. They were all cut from the 8 mm thick plywood.
So 4 were rectangular: the width of the box and the lenght I had chosen (65 cm)
The 4 other were triangular: They are the same length than the rectangular but the width of the base had to be calculated
To calculate the width, the math come to the rescue:
We first calculate the dimensions of the dotted length (see diagram on 2nd picture!). Now that we have the angle (ß) at which our reflectors will be tilted (step 2) we can
determine this dotted length using the cosine function:
Cos(ß) = dotted length / reflector length
In my case:
Cos(68°) = dotted length / 66
dotted length = Cos(68°) * 66 = 24.7 cm
Now, using the Pythagorean theorem inside the orthogonal projections of the reflectors (diagram on 3rd picture), we can determine the width of the triangular reflector's
base:
(Base of triangle)² = 2*(dotted length)²
Base of triangle = 35 cm

(If this is not clear, go ahead and ask your question in the comment section)

Image Notes
1. If your solar oven will stay outside, make sure you varnish all these wooden
parts

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 Image Notes
1. For me it was 24.7 cm
2. This angle is:
90° 45° = 135° So you'll want to set your bevel at 67.5° on your circular saw

Image Notes
1. Notice the beveled cut all along the reflectors side

Step 5: Making the reflector cone

Now that you have your 8 reflectors cut out, you need to assemble them into a cone. To do so, I cut 16 pieces of 2*4's at a 67.5° angle long of approximately 20 cm each.
I screwed them onto the reflectors being careful to align the beveled surface of each piece. Once the 16 guide pieces of wood are srewed, you now have a way to easily
connect the reflectors to each other: you screw the guide pieces together from the side!

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 Image Notes
1. Ignore the mirror for the moment
2. Notice the wood guide srewed from the inside

Image Notes
1. Screwing the wood guides together from the side

Image Notes
1. The cone is forming itself

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Step 6: Adding the mirrored surface to the reflectors
I used glass mirror that I cut myself with a diamond glass cutter. To attach the cut mirrors to the wood reflectors, I used little screws to be able to replace the mirrors if
needed. Glass mirrors are heavy and a pain to work with so if ou can, go for stainless steel or acrylic ones!

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Step 7: Praparing the box for the reflector cone
Here, you need to bend metal bars at the correct angle to be able to attach the cone to the box. To attach the bars to the box, I screwed and siliconed them. The photos
are probably expilcit enough for you to understand.
The bars were bent using my manly muscles!

Image Notes
1. I used this line as a guage

Step 8: Making the rotating food tray

This plate is very important because it allows you to keep the food level when tilting the oven towards the sun. It was cut from some aluminum sheet metal with a jigsaw,
it was then painted black and screwed in place inside the box using washers to allow the tray to rotate.

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 Image Notes
1. Tray inside the box

Image Notes
1. This drawing was used to determine the dimensions of the tray. It's scaled down
so I measured on the drawing and sized it up to the real scale

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Step 9: Making the glass door
First, glue the seal strip all around the top of the box. Cut the glass from the picture frame to the correct size, the glass I used was quite thin (2.5mm) but it works fine for
me. I tried making some double glazing but it didn't turn out quite well... I'll try again some other time.
To secure the glass to the box I didn't use any hinges, I just used pins at all four corners.

Image Notes
1. Seal strip

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Step 10: Mods and tweaks
The inside of the box was initially black but I decide to test it mith stainless steel mirror instead of the black paint and for me, the mirrors gave way better results.
Using a progam called Crocodile Physics I saw why it was probably better with the mirrors inside: all the solar radiation is redirected towards the cooking pot (more
simply, the food), heating it faster.

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 Image Notes
1. No mirrors inside box
2. With mirrors inside box

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Step 11: It's time for solar cooking now!
With the mirrors inside, I manged to cook a brownie in 45 minutes in early april, in a normal oven it's 30 minutes so this oven a fast cooker!
The only problem I have with this guy is that water vapour condensates on the inside of the glass. If anyone of you know a way to avoid this condensation, let me know.
If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!

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Related Instructables

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"The Solar How to Make a A Solar Oven by
Baby" Solar Simple Solar Oven by by ben1122
Hot Pot is a RiverStyX
Oven, cooker. Cardboard Solar sglider12 great solar
by aleutianwind Oven by cooker, but was
solaroven designed for the
Tropics by
shastalore

Comments
2 comments Add Comment

souichi says: May 1, 2012. 12:31 PM REPLY

To remove the water vapor.. you may place a fan from the computer or such... since it is going to be sort of air tight it needs an exhaust..

Gael - Tim says: May 1, 2012. 1:28 PM REPLY

The oven has to be air tight in order to function correctly since it gradually gathers energy and heat inside the air tight box. Whenever the glass door isn't
shut well and that air leaks, the oven almost stops working because of the convection going on between the hot air inside the box and the cold outside
air. So the fan is probably not the best option, however thanks a lot for the comment :-)

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