Solar ovens in general

Ah solar. I love it. If it didn't cost 2 arms, a leg and a 20 year leash, I'd have solar panels on my roof right now. A solar hot water heater would be on that list (and yes, I am aware that they are not as cost effective as an energy efficient hot water heater, but my goals are to run as much from the sun as I can).

A passive solar house is something I dream of, think of, and want. As I have to convince others who share my home with me on this, it isn't going to happen overnight. But I'll get there. :-)

There are several types of solar cookers:

The ones I've shown in previous posts are 'box cookers'. Meaning they take in the sun and retain the heat, and this, in turn, cooks the food.

Panel cookers reflect the sun from several panels to concentrate the light and heat in a direction to cook the food. The CooKit is one such example. And the only reason I did not get one of these is because they require a plastic bag to be used, and my goals were to make something that didn't require me to have to buy more of something. I do believe they also offer a template of these, should you want to make your own, but the money they make is donated - and they aren't expensive.

This is an image of the CooKit (http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/CooKit) Panel cooker.

Solar Kettles- I don't know anything of these. I've not seen them.

Parabolic cookers - I've been intrigued by these. The box cookers are great, but you can't stir fry veggies (and I love stir frying veggies), you can't make scrambled eggs, you can't grill up food in them. They aren't made for it. Parabolic cookers can. So if you have both, you eliminate the need for your oven and stove combo. And why would I want that? Here in Phoenix, the summer daytime temps go above 110 and the nighttime temps can hang around in the 90s. Thus, it is hot hot hot. Normally the desert cools off at night, but the city is so large that we have a 'heat island' effect, and so the concrete retains the heat and cooks our brains.

Any person on a budget views summertime electric bills here with fear. It is damn hot and it is damn expensive to cool your house (unless you have a passive solar home, in which you may still require some cooling options because of the heat island). Cooking anything in your house simply heats it up. That's great when it is cold outside, but sucks beyond belief when you are trying to lower the temperature inside of it. And running the oven and stove forces the AC (or Swamp Cooler) to run harder and longer.

Some people grill outside all summer. Some people cook and bake in the early hours of the day. Me? I'd like to use the sun to do my cooking for me. So .. parabolic cookers. Interesting idea.

The one posted above tries to do, in my opinion, what a box cooker does.

According to the wikia page, there are also hybrid solar cookers that can either use the sun or electricity. I call this cheating. But I readily admit that nothing sucks worse than having clouds roll in and your meal is left unfinished. And that is a downside to solar cooking.