Possibly the craziest and best idea for a solar cooker yet. Why make it square and put round pots in it? Make it round! This is made from a wooden slat planter, pottery plant dish, wood glue, outdoor adhesive, canned expanding foam insulation, window. Insulation tape and spray paint from lowes. Mirrors and glass are from hobby lobby. Galvanized tub and wood stove thermometer from tractor supply. Cast iron enameled pot from my house and I have no idea where it came from originally. The whole thing cost about $100 to make, but could be done for way cheaper through scavenge and thrift store. This is my third attempt and I wanted it cooking asap! This could be done with a round wooden tub or two galvanized tubs with more insulation. Thrift store mirrors could be found or larger ones broken but gotta be super careful and wear gloves. These are a bit out of order but having difficulty getting photos to play nice today! I still have to seal all sharp mirror edges with silicone and put tile on gap between the containers to keep rain out, but the damn thing finally works! The old man will help me with an azimuth tilt table soon for efficiency, but un-sexy patio bricks work great for now. Use any slow cooking recipe in this and come home to dinner or don't heat up the house cooking!
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| Step 1. Wooden planter, glue seams, plug hole, flat black outside, inside chrome. |
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| Step 3. Glue mirrors on the inside, a small stick will angle top mirror light reflection back in for efficiency. |
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| Step 4. Place painted pottery plate in bottom but dont glue it, put adhesive on window weather strip and hold down with heavy glass lid for a few hours until set. Thermometer will show you it is warming up already! |
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| Step 2. Galvanized tub, paint outside flat black, leave inside alone. Put wooden planter inside after painting and fill space between the two with something for insulation, I used expanding spray foam, but it is messy as hell. |
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| Step 5. Place flat black painted pot with tight fitting lid, wide rather than tall, with food in cooker. Prop up toward sun slightly with a brick or stick. This works like a crock pot, slow and low temp. |
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| Sucess! Almost 200 degrees inside with condensation when it is 90 degrees from a bunch of crap is pretty good. Free solar crock pot without worry of cats knocking it over starting a fire in the house. If I can utilize it the 6 hottest months of the year in Texas, then this has been worth it! First meal is jalepeno rainbow lentils, which I had at the national rainbow gathering a long time ago and loved ever since. |
