How to do Your Own Solar Cooking Project
Harnessing the power of solar for cooking is a fun and ingenuous way to save electricity. As you know, cooking can consume a lot of electrical energy.
Type of Solar Cookers
The three most common types of solar cookers are heat-trap boxes, curved concentrators (parabolics) and panel cookers:
- Box cookers - Box cookers are very popular and have
the most widespread adoption. They cook at moderate to high temperatures. It
is essentially like an oven that is powered for solar power. It has an
open-topped box that's black on the inside and a piece of glass or transparent
plastic that sits on top. It also has reflectors sitting outside the box to
collect and direct sunlight onto the glass.
To cook, your put food inside a pot, enclose them in the box cooker and leave the box out in the sun. When sunlight enters the box through the glass top, the photo strike the bottom, heating it up. The heat gets trapped inside the box, making the oven become hotter and hotter.
Box cookers can reach up to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). - Curved concentrator cookers - Also known as "parabolics" cookers, they cook fast at high temperatures, up to 400 degress F. This design uses curved, reflective surfaces to concentrate all the sunlight energy into a small area. They are quite popular in China. They are especially useful for large-scale cooking.
- Panel cookers - Panel cookers incorporate elements of both box and curved concentrator cookers. They are simple and inexpensive to produce, light weight, and portable. They are very popular for camping.