We have been cooking our food ever since our ancestors discovered fire, and with the advancement of our civilization, we also found ways to cook our food besides roasting it in an open flame.
And because we are trying to combat global warming, we came up with how to make a solar cooker step by step as an alternative to the conventional oven. Do not worry, we will only be using cheap and household items, so everything will be right within your budget. So let’s get started.
Contents
What You Will Need
Here are a few things that we will use to make a solar oven.
Cardboard pizza box
In deciding to build a solar oven, we wanted to use the cheapest materials. That is why we choose the cardboard box of pizzas.
Ensure that the cardboard pizza box you are using is the hard box one, or your solar oven will be inefficient in trapping heat.
Do not use the pizza boxes with holes. These types of pizza boxes are designed to let steam out, and that is not what we want.
Aluminum foil, newspaper, black construction paper and plastic wrap
Now that we have a medium for our solar oven, all we need now is to transfer the sun’s heat to our solar oven and keep it there to cook our food. For that, we will use these four items.
The aluminum foil will be our reflector so that you can focus sunlight on the solar oven. The black construction paper, the newspaper and the plastic wrap will help trap heat in the solar oven to reach optimum temperature in cooking our food.
Box knife or scissors, clear tape, ruler or wooden stick, and a thermometer
These will be all the tools that we will use in our DIY project. You will use the box knife and scissors to cut a specific part in our solar oven. The clear tape will be our adhesive. The ruler or wooden stick will hold up the lid of our oven, and the thermometer will check if we have reached optimum temperatures.
As you can see, these are tools that can be easily found or bought if you do not have them.
How to Make a Solar Cooker Step by Step
Now that you have the necessary materials to make a solar-powered oven, we can finally proceed in assembling our solar oven DIY item.
Step 1: Cut a hole in the pizza boxes
As you may have noticed, we are trying to make a solar cooker with a box. First, you need to cut a flap on the pizza box’s lid to have a little window on our oven. All you have to do is cut three sides and leave an inch or so between your lid and the edge of the pizza box.
Then fold the created flap so it can stand up when you close the lid of your pizza box.
Step 2: Attach the aluminum foil and seal tight with the plastic wrap
Cover the internal part of the flap with aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will act as a mirror and reflect sunlight directly to the pizza box. Tightly wrap the foil around your flap and tape it.
After you are done with that, cover the hole you made in step 1 with clear plastic wrap. Put two layers of it over your opening and let it overlap for about an inch around each side and tape securely.
Step 3: Attach the black construction paper and insulate with newspaper
Get your black construction paper and attach it to the bottom of your pizza box. This is where your food will be placed and heated. Place as much as you need so you can cover the entire bottom.
Then roll up your newspaper and place it on the sides of the bottom of your pizza box. Tape it securely but make sure that you can still close the lid.
Step 4: Expose to sunlight
Now that everything has been set up, you are now ready to try out your homemade solar oven.
For solar oven instructions, first, adjust the flap so it can reflect the sun properly to your pizza box. Next, use your ruler or wooden stick to hold the flap up properly.
Also, put a thermometer in the oven if you want to check the temperature.
Put your food on a glass plate so your solar oven will not be dirty, and be sure to wear oven mitts or some thick cloth-like potholders when you take the food out of your oven.
Pro tip: The best hours for you to use your solar oven are from 11 am to 3 pm when temperatures can rise up to 200°F.
Conclusion
Enjoying what you have learned today? If so, then be sure to leave a comment and share it with your friends. We would love to hear from you so we can further improve our solar cookers diy process.
To combat the harmful effects of global warming, we have to make innovations to lower our carbon footprint in this world. That is why we came up with how to make a solar cooker step by step. With it, you will be lessening your consumption of fossil fuels every time you cook.
Hi, I am Eddie, Cleanenergysummit’s content editor. It’s so much joy to work alongside Justin, as the idea of providing knowledge about using clean energy excites us.
I’ve been working to address any concerns or questions you may have as you transition to using solar electricity to power your home. Tune in to hear our advice and suggestions on anything clean energy. Welcome!