Solar Cooking

There are few things we like more than free energy and consistency. Solar cooking has both of these traits during the dry season, when there is rarely a cloud in the sky. We use the sun's energy to heat our solar oven up to 138 degrees C (280F).

Our oven follows the design of the Maria Telkes Solar Cooker. The solar oven is a box with an angled top. There are mirrors attached to the top to direct the sun's energy into the oven. The oven is well insulated and is covered with black paper on the inside so that the heat is retained. Perfect for beans, rice, soups, breads and cakes.

We have plans to make sturdier, more inexpensive models with some design changes. Our next model will also take into account our location, as the angle of our current oven is more appropriate for higher latitudes.

We fed some cake to a couple of our friends who live in a nearby village and they were astounded at the prospect of cooking without fuel. Propane gas use is a major cost of cooking, so solar ovens could reduce cooking costs significantly. We plan to be able to offer inexpensive, easy to construct plans in Spanish to help our friends introduce solar cooking to their families and friends.

Future Plans

We plan to build an insulated cooker, or hay box, that will allow us to continue cooking food that has been heated up, and free up the solar oven for the next food.

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