Solar oven part 2

After a winter of cooking inside, I looked forward to cooking outside. I also wanted a bigger and better solar oven. I spent time researching online on other kinds of solar ovens. They ranged from commercial grade solar ovens to a an inflated car tire tube with a sheet of glass placed on top (I believe that was done in Kenya- how cool is that?) I also saw one that was built into the house, itself. I still want to do one of those, one day!

So I had ideas on how to improve my solar oven. Well, by improve I mean replace. I targeted a copypaper box as my next project. In the meantime, I was trying to cook in the sun in April and having some success. As ever, it is trial and error. Finally, I was able to secure a box (ie, the girlfriend brought one home from work as it was being tossed out). I spent time and put it together, according to the instructions given.

It came out beautifully. Immediately, I could get the temperature up to almost 200. I could cook more and it retained heat better than the pizza box. I, however, wanted to bake with it. And while I could and *did* make a small loaf of bread in it successfully, it took 8 hours in the blazing July sun in Arizona to do this. I really did not like that outcome at all. Something seemed amiss to me. So I decided to insulate it, to bump up the temperature. 

Below are images of the oven with the top off. The rock is there to, um, look pretty. Actually, I took these pictures on a windy day and I didn't want them to fly away.

I took some cardboard and covered them in aluminum foil and put them in, angled to try and focus more light onto the pot that would be inside. I then used newspaper as insulation to retain that heat. This enabled me to up the temperature to 225-230. I could (and did) now bake bread and cook meat.

(Notice the newspaper I used as insulation)

But, the sun grew lower in the sky as it always does and by the fall equinox, I could only generate up to 195 degrees. Within a few weeks, I couldn't cook much of anything. I put a brick under the backside of the oven to boost it up and I gained a little more time and use with it. 

But while these are great for late spring, summer and early fall, they don't cook well in the winter. I had to, as I had the year prior, put it away.