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desire to cook your food for free ? By ramp up a simple and affordable solar oven , you’re able to use the power of the sun to slow - cook beans and stews and more . This step - by - footstep template , illustrate by Rebekah Hren , will show you how to build up the oven plus some tips on how to use it . Happy solar preparation !
The following is an selection fromThe Carbon - Free dwelling : 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil - Fuel Habitby Stephen and Rebekah Hren . It has been conform for the Web .
DIY: Simple Box Cooker
Renter friendly .
Caution : Solar cookers , peculiarly parabolic varieties like the CooKit ( described next ) , have the potential to do retinal damage from the concentrated solar rays . Be measured to debar looking at the bright reflections from any of these solar cooker .
Construction Steps
Cut the windowpane first step in the outer boxwood . sprain the kayoed box upside down . On its bottom , center the internal box and draw a line around it . bring down out this piece to make a window opening the same size as the inner boxful . There should be a small rim on all four sides , 2–3 in broad . On the lid opus — the extra piece of cardboard — revolve around the outer box and trace around it ( these are the fold lines ) .
exsert these melodic line out to the edges of the lid piece of music . concentrate on the inner box between the fold lines on the lid ( that you just drew ) and trace around this box as well . turn off only three sides of the inner line , two myopic sides and one long one . pen up up the resulting flutter for the reflector , creating a window inning opening the same size as the inside boxful .
Adjust the height of box seat , if ask . Set a cooking quite a little next to both boxes . The internal corner take to be just a little tall than your pot . The outer box ask to be just a little grandiloquent than the inner box . If the boxes are too tall :
On the inner box make a Saint Mark about 1 in above the top of the good deal and draw a fold business at this height straight around the four loge walls . Score the fold phone line with a forthright edge such as a spoonful grip .
On the out corner make a mark about 2 column inch above the top of the pot and draw a fold line at this height direct around the four box walls . Score the fold pipeline with a candid border such as a spoonful handle .
thin the corners of both boxful down to the fold lines . Fold the sides outward along the seam .
Trim the inner corner tizzy . When the walls of the inner corner are folded down to the proper height ( or if you did n’t need any adjustments ) , snip the flap to make them as narrow as the belittled rim around the window opening move on the outer box(refer to the first step if necessary ) .
Join the boxes . bend the out box right side up , so the windowpane opening and rim are down . Spread glue on the inside of the rim . Turn the inner boxful upside down and lower it into the tabu box , onto the glue . Press the small flaps against the inside of the lip around the window porta to link up the two boxwood into one two-fold - walled box , now assailable at the bottom ( which should be facing up at this point ) .
isolate and seal of approval . Without disturb the drying glue , carefully position - glue aluminum foil on all four walls and the underside of the internal box , get over all surface between the two boxes . This layer of foil help insulate the cooker . softly fill the gap between the two boxes with bent newspaper , plant life fiber , or other insulation .
Add a few flight strip of cardboard and more rumple newspaper or other insularism on the undersurface of the privileged box ( which should be face up up at this point ) . closely and paste the flaps of the out box to varnish the bottom of the cooker .
Glue foil inside the box seat and chapeau . Turn the box right side up . Dilute glue 1:1 with pee and , using a paintbrush , spread out it lightly on the softened side of sheet of aluminum foil . Press the glued sheets of aluminum hydrofoil tightly and swimmingly like wallpaper to the interior and brim of the box . A few wrinkles wo n’t hurt . determine the box seat by to dry out . Repeating the procedure , glue foil to the undersurface of the chapeau flap ( the fold up - up core part only ) .
Cut , fold , and glue the corner of the Modern lid . With the chapeau upside down ( foil face up ) , make one cut at each of the four lid corner , just to the first fold line . ( The cuts should be parallel to the long side of the chapeau . ) Score all fold lines with a blunt sharpness and fold along the creases with a straightedge such as a board . Overlap and glue the corners , and stop up them with clothes peg or clinch until the glue is wry . To make quick clinch , trend composition board - breadth snatch in a humble good deal of cardboard piece .
slip in the window . Spread silicone polymer caulk along the underside edge of the windowpane scuttle rim ( outside the trim sharpness of the foil reflector spell ) , then iron out the glass in hard but carefully to make a dependable sealskin with the caulk . Let the loge and lid dry overnight .
Make an adjustable prop . Make small-scale holes in a nook of the lid reflecting telescope and the side of palpebra . Loop string through the holes . Make several notches in a joint and marry the stick at both ends to support up the reflector and allow angle adjustments .
OR
Bend a hardy conducting wire at both ends and glue corrugated cardboard strips to the chapeau and reflecting telescope as shown . The conducting wire can be insert into any of the corrugation for angle adjustment .
Add the black tray and “ Captain Cook ” the cooker . Put the sinister metal sheet inside the box . ( The pots will sit on this light - absorbing sheet . ) Put on the lid , with the lid reflecting telescope shore up subject , and aim the cooker toward the sun for several hours to take out the last second of moisture and any paint or glue fumes .
Cooking Directions
Put intellectual nourishment in dark pots . Use with dark , pissed - fitting lids .
take a cookery location . plant the cooker on a dry , level control surface in direct cheerfulness aside from possible fantasm . For best result , solar preparation requires continuous , direct temperateness throughout the cooking period .
Put the quite a little in the cooker and put back the eyelid . Put the pots in cooker . If you ’re fix multiple dishes , quicker - preparation particular should be placed toward the front of the cooker ( opposite the reflector ) and dull - cooking item toward the back , where access code to sunshine is best . Place the hat on cooker .
Orient the cooker . Orient the cooker agree to the detail below . Once oriented , the cooker does n’t require to be move again during three to four hours of cooking . For longer preparation , or for large quantities of food , reorienting the cooker every couple of hour speeds cooking a little . Food cooks quickest when the shadow created by the cooker is forthwith behind it .
To cook a noontime meal orient the cooker so that the front side ( opposite the reflector ) faces easterly , or approximately where the Sunday will be midmorning . In general , it is good to get the food in early and not worry about it until mealtime . For most looker you should get going cooking by 9 or 10 am .
To cook an eventide meal tailor the cooker so that the front side face westerly , or approximately where the sun will be midafternoon . For most dishes , it ’s good to start cooking by 1 or 2 pm .
For all - sidereal day preparation East the cooker toward where sun will be at high noon or early afternoon . The food will be quick and hold off for the evening repast .
Adjust the reflector . With the adjustable airscrew , lean the reflector so that maximum sunlight shines on the pots .
Leave the food for thought to fix for several 60 minutes or until done . There is no need to call down the food while it is cooking .
take away the pots . Using pot holders , slay the muckle from the cooker . ( CAUTION : Pots get very hot . ) If you wo n’t be deplete for a pair of hours , you may require to go out the pots in the cooker and shut the lid . The insulative dimension of the cooker will keep the food warm for a while .
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