making a solar oven
 

I would love to use one of these.

Have you used a solar oven or considered to make one?

http://buttecountynet.com/2x6oven.htm

Re: making a solar oven
 

:D Yep...I built a nice one out of an old PrimeStar satellite dish a few years ago.Covered it will aluminum foil,built a nice base for it,found the focal point and let er' rip.

The focus point would cook beef stew at a boil anytime between 10 and 5 o'clock on a sunny day.

Solar Box cookers are slow...very slow compared to a focused beam design.

I was registering temperatures of 350 degrees with an oven thermometer.

The bigger the dish the more concentrated the beam becomes.

One dude built a dish type solar cooker out of a 10 foot CBand satellite dish and was cutting/burning down trees with it...yes,they get dangerous at that size.

No special pots required...just make sure it's heavy and metal.

The passive solar box cookers I built were no match for a focused beam type cooker...hands down.

I was working on a giant Fresnel lense cooker when I tried the satellite type...it never got finished.

Still might go back and refine it one of these days...

:D:D:D:D

Look around on the net...you'll find lot's of info on different types and designs.

Good luck...fascinating concept that works well when you build one right.

:rolleyes_m::rolleyes_m::rolleyes_m:

Re: making a solar oven
 

That's cool. How big was the satellite dish that you used?

I'm thinking to find a small discarded dish and a box for a grill and try those.

I don't need anything too big as long as it works. :wink:

Re: making a solar oven
 

:rolleyes_m: About 4 foot by 2 foot if I remember correctly.More oval than round.

A lot bigger than a standard DirecTV or Dish Network dish.

You can build a better one out of cheap plywood and use glass mirror tiles for a really efficient design...just takes some fancy woodworking and a hot glue gun.

:bear_w00t::bear_w00t::bear_w00t:

Focal length and efficiency can be custom tailored by using different dish depths and surface tilt angles.

I'll look for some links and post them if I find them...the Peace Corp built a ton of these things for third world countries where fuel was scarce...as in no trees :>)

Re: making a solar oven
 

yummie food

Re: making a solar oven
 

OK... you guys have me on a new obsession now (thanks, John!).

I have been working on designing a solar box oven that is capable of baking at 450 degrees F. This presents some interesting challenges, such as the ability of the building materials to withstand this temperature indefinately. Also, efficiency must be at a maximum to get anywhere near this temperature.

I've have looked at every design I could find online, and after laying awake last night for several hours I woke up this morning with a pretty good idea of how to achieve my goal (2 MAJOR improvements over any design I've seen). I'm going to have to enlist the help of a welder to build the frame, so it will take me some time to get it built. After I get it done I will display some pictures here on GIM... as long as I have my patent applications in (if necessary). I can't wait to get the prorotype built and see what kind of maximum temperature I can achieve! Ultimately I want to find a dependable way to regulate temperature at a constant. This must be done mechanically, though... I don't want anything electronic involved.

My goal is to be able to use solar oven technology to bake bread on a commercial scale (thanks Danubian!). I'll keep you posted.

Re: making a solar oven
 

bump...to introduce myself to some of the survival basics I'm going through the prep forum, all 50 pages. I'm skimming now for starred topics first, then more in depth later (probably searching all the posts of some regular survivalists).

Re: making a solar oven
 

Oh also for noobs. When looking at the survival prep forum, go to the heading and click on the "rating" text; it will outline for you all rated threads, beginning with the 5 stars. Enjoy.