Solar Energy | Solar Cooking | Alternative Energy | Conspiracy | Blog

As part of the how to build a solar cooker series, here are some easy to follow instructions showing you how to build a pizza box solar cooker. These instructions were used for a children’s solar club in Birmingham, UK last year.

FREE download of instructions for building a pizza box solar cooker and Cone solar cooker when you subscribe. (Please drop me an email requesting building plans).

What You’ll Need

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A bamboo solar cooker which only costs $1 to make. Here is proof that solar cooking needn’t be an expensive affair. One of my readers Krishna - rkrao, kindly sent in the above picture showing the simplicity and beauty of a bamboo solar cooker. Here are Krishna’s notes for building such a simple and effective solar cooker.

Materials used: -

• Baskets made from bamboo
• Food serving plates
• Cooking vessel

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Building a parabolic solar oven really isn’t as difficult as it may seem, once the basics are first understood.

There are many popular solar cookers in use today, including the Sun Oven, Sports Solar Oven, and the Cookit, to name but a few. However they all adopt either the box or trough design. Very few designs are actually parabolic, those that are, are generally quite expensive like the SK-14, compared to the more popular designs. The box solar cooker for example, is simply a cardboard box with reflective panels and a pane of glass which traps hot air in a box.

So what is a parabolic solar oven?

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What is the perfect solar cooker? How should it function and perform? And most importantly should it be cost effective and comparable to the more conventional cooking methods thus offering an alternative to our current reliance of fuel sources?

Solar ovens aka solar cookers fall into 3 distinct categories; the box solar cooker design, trough design and the parabolic cooker design. Each design offers its own features, benefits and drawbacks: -

For more information on the different types of solar oven, please visit types of Solar Cooker

Taking these factors into account, one must balance up the pros and cons of what the needs are for the end user. The predominant market for solar cookers includes developing countries, Tibet (lack of fire wood), China and India.

The Western world is now starting to harness solar cooking with the advent of peak oil prices starting to affect us all.

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I recently read an interesting article on the pros and cons of using solar power. Why is it, that whenever the term ’solar power’ is used, companies such as the BBC discuss technologies which only use solar panels, photovoltaic cells, or solar thermal collectors.

Other applications of solar power include heliostats, solar chimneys, Stirling engines, and of course solar cooking.

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Here you will find information on solar cooking, including different types of solar cookers, as well as free plans to help you build your own solar cooker.

What is solar cooking?

Advantages of solar cooking.

Who uses solar cooking?

Did you know…

Different types of solar cooker.

Why cook with the sun?

*** FREE PLANS - Build a solar cooker. ***

Feel free to share your thoughts on any of the above topics.

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Solar cooking is a method of cooking food and boiling water using only the power of the sun and a solar oven or solar cooker. Solar cookers use no other fuel source except for the energy emitted from 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 boil water by concentrating the Sun’s energy onto a pot filled with food or water.

Solar cooking can be used to cook almost any kind of food, pasteurize water (water heated to 65C - safe to drink). The process of solar pasteurization kills 99% of the germs present in contaminated water.

The popularity of solar cooking is increasing in many market sectors, in particular the 3rd World where daily cooking for many requires fire, fuel gathering and frequent attention to food being cooked and the added cost of buying in conventional fuels such as coal, firewood or fossil fuels is forcing people to recognize the advantages and benefits of Solar Cooking.

Over 2 billion people, a third of the world’s population, rely on wood-fuelled fires to cook food.

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Solar cooking can save you time, work and fuel, it is also environmentally friendly. Other advantages include: -

• Smoke free cooking and stirring of food is not required.

• Each solar cooker in sunny, arid climates can save one ton of wood per year.

• Solar Cookers help two of the world’s most pressing problems - a growing shortage of cooking fuels and the scourge of water-borne diseases.

Half of the world’s population still cooks with wood fires.

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The majority of people using solar cookers (also known as solar ovens) live predominantly in 3rd World countries; especially India, China, Africa and Tibet. However, Western countries are beginning to harness and adopt this cheap and sustainable form of energy with America, and Europe paving the path forward.

• Many women, especially refugees, trek many miles to obtain cooking fuel, and the reliance on wood for fuel has led to deforestation in many areas. SCI and other organizations help impoverished communities gain access to solar ovens to cook food, pasteurize water and sterilize medical equipment.

• Tibet and China are the most prolific users of solar cookers due to their limited firewood supplies - there are few trees in Tibet. Approximately 100,000 solar cookers are sold in China every year.

If you’ve built a solar oven and you would like to share your experiences, we would love to hear from you.

Why not submit your photos (coming soon, in the mean time please email me your photos) and share your experiences with everyone else.

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• Each year almost 2 billion tonnes of wood is consumed worldwide for cooking.

• 50,000 people die every day from water-born diseases such as Cholera. The World Health Organisation 80% of all illnesses are spread through contaminated water.

• Solar cookers save the labour of collecting sticks and branches for firewood. There is also a danger to women collecting firewood due to injuries from snake bites, critters and the high risk of being personally attacked.

• Solar cookers save families money. Reduces the need to purchase firewood, charcoal, and kerosene. If a solar cooker is used regularly then it can help reduce cooking fuel costs by about 30-40%. This money can be used to fund education for children, as well as provide basic provisions and a better quality of life.

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