How to Make a Solar Cooker and Its Working?

In the year 1767, the basic concept of cooking of food in solar cookers started by a “Swiss scientist”. Nevertheless the solar cooker was designed in the year 1950. To know about what is a solar cooker and its working, let’s have a look into how to make a solar cooker, various advantages and disadvantages of a solar cooker. Solar energy is the most essential renewable energy which we can get from the sun. Solar energy is available with free of cost and it is used for many purposes like residential, commercial, etc.

One of the applications of solar energy is solar cooker that is used to heat and cook the food. This solar cooker directly uses the solar energy from the sun to cook the food just like the plants use sun’s energy to prepare their food. Solar cookers don’t use fuel and very cheap, so many developed countries make use of it. Solar cookers are mainly used in outdoor places and it reduces the pollution and deforestation.

How to Make a Solar Cooker

Solar cooker making can be done using a cardboard box with less cost in a few hours. This solar cooker works very well. Solar cookers are classified into three types such as solar panel cooker, solar parabolic cooker and solar box cooker. From these three kinds of cookers, parabolic cooker is most used advanced cooker and it is more efficient to use.

The Required Supplies

• Two cardboard boxes (one bigger and one smaller) and the dimensions of the smaller box must be 38cmX38cm whereas bigger box must be 1.5cm bigger than the smaller one. These two boxes can be adjusted by cutting & gluing it. But, the distance between these two boxes shouldn’t be equal.
• 4 to 8cms cardboard sheet one for the lid, that should be larger all the way than the outer box.
• A reflective external to trap such as a mirror, one aluminium foil roll, white gum, box knife and scissors.
• One can of flat black spray paint used as a nontoxic when it gets dry.
• Plastic bag to seal the closing or opening the cooker from all sides
• A newspaper for proper insulation inside the cardboard box

Steps To Make a Solar Cooker

Step-1

Fold the top pads closed on the larger box and place the inner box on top and drop a line everywhere it onto the top of the larger box. Remove the smaller box & cut end to end to make a hole in the top of the larger box. Maintain I inch space between these two boxes.

Step-2

Using a scissor or knife, cut the corners of the inner box(small box down to that height. Fold every side of the box down to form extended flaps. Folding is simple, if you first draw a fixed line from the one cut end to another.

Step-3

Some twists of creased newspaper into the external box so that when you fix the smaller box down inside the hole in the external box, the pads on the inner box touches the top of the external box. Paste these pads onto the top of the external box and cut the extra pad’s length to be even with the edge of the outer box.

Lastly, to make the drip pan, cut a part of cardboard similar to the bottom of the inner of the oven and apply foil to one side. Paint black spray paint at foiled side and let it dry. Place this in the oven so that it rests on the end of the small box, and place your containers on it when cooking. Now the base of the cooker is completed.

Step-4

Reflector pad of the cardboard box can be designed by drawing a line on the lid. Making a rectangular cut three sides around the box and fold the resulting pad up to make a reflector. To design a 30cm prop bend part of hanger wire as specified in the diagram, then it can be injected into the corrugations as shown.

Finally, turn the lid from upside to down & attach the bag in the place, that makes a double plastic layer These two layers tend to detach from each other to form an airspace as the oven cooks.

Solar Cooker Working

A solar cooker is a device that works with solar energy for heating and cooking food. The solar cooker works mainly on three principles such as retention, absorption and concentration. A solar cooker consists of a mirror, that helps in allowing the ultra violet rays of the sun and converts it into IR light rays. The IR rays have the power to make the protein & water molecules present in the food to shake forcefully to heat up the food. Actually, the sun’s energy doesn’t heat the food, but the rays which comes from the sun changes into heat energy to cook the food. A lid is used to protect the food kept inside a bowl so that the heat doesn’t escape. Thus, the solar cooker helps in cooking the food using UV rays from the sun.

Advantages of Solar Cooker

• Solar cookers are generally used in places where there is no electricity and people those who cannot  buy the electrical cookers to prepare their daily food. This type of solar cooker is used in many developed countries to conserve energy as well as to cook their food.
• Solar cookers help in protecting the forests and it doesn’t cause any pollution to the environment.
• These cookers doesn’t need any electricity for its working, decreases the global warming and cost less
• Solar cookers doesn’t produce smoke while cooking food

Disadvantages of Solar Cooker

• These types of cookers only used only in the day time and cannot be used in the cloudy time.
• They cannot maintain heat for a long period of time.
• If the device is not built properly, it may not work properly and burns.
• When the UV rays of the sunlight get reflected in your eyes, your eyesight can destroy.
• It takes more time to cook

This is all about what is a solar cooker, how to make a solar cooker, solar cooker working, advantages and disadvantages of a solar cooker. We hope that you have got a clear idea about this device and how the sun’s energy is utilized to cook the food. However, keep the above steps in mind and use it.Here is a question for you, what is the principle of solar cooker?

Photo Credits:

• Solar Cooker by swa-jkt
• Required Supplies by alternative-energy-geek
• Solar Cooker Working by enolar
• Advantages and Disadvantages by slidesharecdn