How to Make and Use a Solar Oven

In my second installment of sustainable living inspired how-to videos I show how I use my solar oven. (First video was on Composting.)

How to Make & Use a Solar Oven YouTube Video

background

I first learned of solar ovens back in 2013 when I was living in Flagstaff, Arizona, for grad school. One of my professors had one and after seeing hers it seemed like I saw them everywhere. Another professor demonstrated the use of one in a freshman seminar course, which I helped out with as a graduate assistant. Also, when touring sustainable homes in Southern Arizona on a field trip leading another freshman course I saw more solar ovens. My employer at the time had one and his wife wrote a book about using solar ovens, The Sunny Side of Cooking. While in Flagstaff I attended an afternoon demonstration put on by some group associated with the city sustainability department (?) where I learned how to make a solar oven.

Helps to have the oven on wheels to rotate

I had always planned to eventually make and use one whenever I had my off-grid home and farm, but rather than waiting for that day to come I figured I could go ahead and try my hand and experiment. So I gathered some materials together and made a simple solar oven, that I affectionately refer to as my janky little solar oven. And then I left it in the garage to gather dust for a couple of years since I was out and about working, traveling, and such. Then finally when I was back home I was determined to test it out properly so I bought an oven thermometer. Then it was winter. Come summer I was determined to use it, and I’ve started with heating water in a mason jar, baking a sugar cookie in a small cast iron skillet, and warming beans in a glass dish. I haven’t gotten too elaborate with baking/cooking foods, and I’ve found that the temperature inside the oven hasn’t gone over 250 degrees.

The key to using a solar oven is future planning. It takes time to get hot and as it holds a lower temperature than a conventional oven you have to leave items in for longer. In that way I liken it to a crock-pot, because you can simmer items at a lower temperature that you keep on for hours. So in that case you have to figure out what you want to eat ahead of time and put it in the solar oven with enough time to get hot by the time you want to eat it.

reducing electricity

The whole point for me to use a solar oven is to reduce my use/dependence on electricity in the form of a traditional oven, microwave, stove top, toaster oven, etc. If your conventional oven is powered by gas then you’d be reducing gas. Now, if you’re curious like me to know where this invisible power comes from you can follow the source backwards. For example, where I am currently at my parents their power is supplied by Huntsville Utilities which purchases electricity from Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). And according to TVA’s website they have a somewhat diverse power portfolio generating power from hydroelectric dams, nuclear, gas, etc. I am pleased to see that they are decommissioning coal plants and increasing wind and solar, but of course they still need to do more and faster. I don’t think I need to tell you, but I will, that the climate crisis is caused by emissions of greenhouse gases due to human activities. And an example of a greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide emissions which come from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. AND it’s clear that power providers like TVA could increase and utilize renewable energy such as solar, wind, and biogas rather than using nonrenewable sources like coal and gas.

materials for solar oven

There are a couple of different ways you can make your own and there are several YouTube videos of people with much more skill than I but it’s not rocket science. And if you’ve got the money there’s some pretty fancy ones out there you can purchase.

For my janky little solar oven I used:

-2 cardboard boxes. 1 smaller box to fit inside the larger box. I originally covered the outer box flaps with aluminum tape but it made a mess to keep upright so I cut the flaps off.

-Insulation material between 2 boxes. I used some old carpet laying around.

-Glass top. I had a piece laying around.

-Car sunshade. I found at a thrift store.

-Scrap metal. I had a piece laying around. Same goes with the sunshade, I was just experimenting to see if the reflectors helped direct sun inside.

-Aluminum foil. I have only glued foil to two of the sides as of now.

-Black spray paint. Originally spray painted the whole inside of the box but then later covered two of the sides with foil. Also used to spray paint mason jar.

-Oven thermometer. Bought at a local hardware store.

Want more Sustainable Living tips? I’ve got a whole page of them here.

And as always I feel it necessary to add the note that individual practices to reduce our impact on the planet are great and all but let us not forget who is really to blame for the climate crisis and who holds the most responsibility and the means to combat climate change—> Fossil fuel industry and big corporations. The following is taken from a piece I wrote in response to Naomi Klein’s book On Fire: A Burning Case for a Green New Deal. The quote starts with why I believe it’s difficult for a mass cultural shift in thinking and action when it comes to climate change.

It’s dealing with these feelings of overwhelming inability to help that I believe causes inaction by the masses, causes folks to push it away; we are essentially mastering cognitive dissonance in order to get on with our lives. However, I’ve recently been enlightened to the idea that this individualistic approach to combating the climate crisis misses the mark. We feel we must take it all upon our shoulders, which is exactly what the fossil fuel (etc) companies want us to think, to distract us from who’s really at fault. The only way change will come is to shift the pressure from our shoulders to those causing the destruction and those in power. And we do that together in collective action.