The Solar Oven: Environmentally Friendly and Cheap

A solar oven or solar cooker, as they are often called, does as it's name suggests. It uses the suns energy to cook food as a traditional oven might use gas or electricity. In climates where the sun is strong enough these types of ovens are a viable alternative to the standard cookers. They not only save you money on energy bills but they are environmentally responsible.

Most solar ovens are hand-made or home-made constructions. They are incredibly simple to construct out of pieces of wood and some reflective surfaces but are ingenious in the way they can utilize the sun to reach temperatures of up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. More complex designs can actually regulate the temperature by altering the angle at which the oven faces the sunlight. A solar cooker will never be as responsive as a cooker using gas, for example, but you can still cook some fine meals with a bit of trial and error.

The basic theory behind the oven is to attract the suns energy using the reflective surfaces and then trap it in an insulated box (or any shape really but a box is more oven like and convenient for placing pots in). The box is insulated by having a box inside a box design. The layer between each box acts as insulation and keep the temperature in the inner box at a desired temperature.

Solar ovens are not likely to replace the standard oven any time soon in many countries where energy supplies are reliable but they can be useful in countries that do not have this luxury.

This might include areas where there is a scarcity of fire wood through drought, like many North and central African countries. In these countries, fires are normally used to cook food but a solar oven could be simple to construct and easy to use.

Other parts of the world where forests have been decimated by logging might also have plenty of uses for the solar oven.

Finally, the solar oven makes a great project for anyone interested in being more environmentally aware or living a self sufficient lifestyle. Schools will often construct solar ovens as a project to teach children about science and environmental issues. They are a wonderful way to demonstrate the power of renewable natural resources in a way that gets the student involved. Teachers of science subjects often struggle to keep the students interest because there are many abstract concepts to understand. Constructing a solar oven can help make science more inclusive and enjoyable.

Additionally, a solar oven is cheap when compared to other ovens. It usually costs hundreds less and will not require any additional maintenance or regular gas inputs. The more you use the oven the easier it would get to control and cook a variety of meals.

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