There are many different types of Solar cookers, however they all follow three basic designs: -
Box Solar Cooker:
Box cookers are the most common type made for personal use. There are over several hundred thousand in India alone.
Despite the name “box” cooker, they are made in both circular and rectangular shapes. They consist of an enclosed inner box covered with clear glass or plastic, a reflector, and insulation. There is a wide variety of patterns and plans for the box cooker. While they do not heat quickly, they do provide slow, even cooking and are extremely cheap to make. Box cookers are very easy and safe to use, and fairly easy to construct. Box cooker Building Plans
Panel Solar Cooker:
Panel cookers are flat reflective panels which focus the sunlight onto a 
cooking vessel without the inner box common in box cookers. Panel cookers are the easiest and least costly to make, requiring just four reflective panels and a cooking vessel, but they are unstable in high winds and do not retain as much heat when the sun is hidden behind clouds. The diagram shows a panel cooker with a dark cooking vessel and thermometer all wrapped in a plastic oven bag.
Parabolic Solar Cooker:
Reflective materials are used to concentrate light and heat from the sun into a small cooking area, making the Sun’s energy more concentrated and therefore more powerful, resulting in the fastest cooking times of all Cooker designs.
Parabolic cookers require more precision to focus the sunlight on the cooking vessel and are therefore the most complex design to build. If the sunlight is not focused exactly on the cooking vessel, the food will not cook efficiently.
SolReka Solar Cooker: Coming very soon. Email me for more information.
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16 Responses to “Types of Solar Cooker”
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March 24th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
[...] the sun. Solar cookers concentrate the sun’s energy using various techniques such as the box, parabolic or trough design. All these designs in essence do the same job in that they heat food or [...]
April 20th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
[...] For more information on the different types of solar oven, please visit types of Solar Cooker [...]
June 17th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Thanks for reading my blog and guiding me to yours!
When you have this solar cooker up, I definitely want to have a look.
I have a neighbor who has a solar cooker and it’s amazing what she does with it. Being in a sunny country with most people being off-grid, there might be a market for them.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Hi Tropicat
I have added your website to my contacts.
I will let you know when I have my portable parabolic solar cooker up and running.
Many thanks for dropping by, I look forward to chatting more very soon.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
good stuff.. save the our planet!
\,,/{( > . <)}\,,/
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Rock on indeed Rune
November 18th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
That is an interesting way to cook food by solar heating. I wonder if the taste of the food would be effected at all?
November 20th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Thanks for Great info. I have a box solar cooker. I do solar cooking once a week. It’s a benefit of being in a sunny area of country. I made many recipes with my cooker. And boy, I tell you the food taste delicious. It brings the natural flavor of food. Really, once you try it, I bet you will be addicted to the taste of delicious food. Just like me. I got a recipe from http://www.solargadgetsinfo.com/solar-cooker-recipes.html here.
September 5th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Hi tropicat,
Thanks for Great info about solar cooker. why y are interested about solar cooker?
September 13th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
I think every home should have a solar cooker. The more people who become independent from the conglomerate energy companies, the better off we will all be.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:22 am
[...] cookers concentrate the sun’s energy using various techniques such as the box, parabolic or trough design. All these designs in essence do the same job in that they heat food or [...]
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:32 am
Exactly. Solar cookers are cool, or should that be hot lol. You know what I mean.
Thanks for dropping by.
April 28th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Wow. These Solar Cookers look amazing. One of them I saw in one very old film. It was the Parabolic Solar Cooker and it was made with the help of an umbrella and a broken mirror:)
May 4th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
it is very good to have solar cookers of these many designs
September 1st, 2010 at 4:38 pm
We are going to have to look at new ways of using energy if we want our kids future to be green. I once worked at a Technology innovation centre that had a boeing factory next to it, they made the engines for the jumbo jets. I was stunned to find out that the whole factory was run on reusable energy. It got it’s electric from a wind turbine, it’s water from the sky and would reuse sink water for the toilets. They even made enough electric to sell back to the grid WOW!! I think these Solar cookers will be needed in the not so distant future.
Thanks for the interesting article.
Carolyn Harris@Delonghi Toaster oven´s last blog ..delonghi deep fryer
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Sorry to be a bit obvious, but leaving water in a black container in the sun for the day will result in very hot water ready for the evening and give the solar cooker a head start to get to boiling water.