Last edited: 12 April 2022
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Designers and manufacturers have taken varied approaches in creating thermal solar cookers. The most common have been solar box cookers and solar panel cookers. They work well for slow cooking, are fairly easy for people to build themselves, and are generally less expensive to buy than other styles. Variations of these designs have been used to introduce solar cooking in deforested developing countries since the 1950s. High-quality manufactured models of all styles are available for purchase from vendors in a number of countries.
Parabolic solar cookers also have a long history of use, primarily in Europe and Asia. They cook at higher temperatures and usually require more complicated fabrication. The higher possible cooking temperatures require more frequent repositioning of the reflector when cooking. A variety of designs are available from manufacturers. They can also be used in series to create steam for institutional kitchens, feeding thousands of people per day.
Evacuated tube solar cookers are compact and can cook quite efficiently due to the insulating properties of the evacuated tube cooking chamber. Several models are offered commercially, and insulated glass tubes are available for building your own cooker.
Solar panel cookers
- Inexpensive to build or buy, and typically can be collapsed for storage or transport
- Slow cooking retains flavors and nutrients, and requires little, if any, reorientation to the sun
- Usually achieves temperatures of 110 - 150 °C (230 - 302 °F)
- Weatherproof materials should be considered for construction
- Main article: Solar panel cooker designs
Solar box cookers
- Some are large enough to cook with multiple pots, great for baking and slow cooking
- Can be constructed with simple materials, with several high quality commercial designs also available
- Tipping the cooker towards the sun can eliminate partial shading of the cook pot
- Cooking temperature range is 135 - 200 °C (275 - 392 °F)
- Main article: Solar box cooker designs
Parabolic solar cookers
- Cooking times are similar to a traditional stovetop
- High temperatures will allow for food to be fried and grilled, typically 120 - 230 °C (248 - 446 °F)
- Requires periodic reorientation, often every fifteen minutes, which may be done with a mechanical solar tracking apparatus
- Generally more expensive than panel and box cookers, they also require more storage space
- Main article: Parabolic solar cooker designs
Evacuated tube solar cookers
- Usually compact, and can cook quite efficiently with relatively small reflectors
- Contemporary designs have aesthetic appeal
- The cooking chamber requires careful handling
- Glass technology somewhat limits the size of opening of the cooking chamber
- Main article: Evacuated tube solar cooker designs
Solar trough cookers
- The curved trough reflector is efficient at gathering and focusing sunlight along a straight focal line
- Works well with evacuated tube cooking chambers
- Main article: Solar trough cooker designs
Solar array cookers
- Mirrored reflectors are flat panels, not requiring the complex curved shape of parabolic cookers, they can still reach temperatures typical of parabolic cookers
- The metal frameworks to hold the mirrors can be assembled by craftspeople with basic welding skills
- Due to the relatively large size and geometry of some designs, they need to be reoriented by hand or by a mechanical tracking system
- Can require more ground space than other solar cookers
- Main article: Solar array cooker designs
Fresnel solar cookers
- High temperatures can be reached to boil and fry when cooking
- Easy to build on-site with manufactured flat lenses
- Highly concentrated solar radiation needs to be closely monitored to avoid accidental fires
- Using in windy conditions can be a problem
- May require more storage space than other solar cookers
- Main article: Fresnel solar cooker designs
Other types
- Photovoltaic cooker designs
- Institutional solar cooker designs
- Solar wall oven designs
- Hybrid solar cooker designs
- In-the-ground solar cooker designs
See also
- Introduction to solar cooking
- How solar cookers work
- Solar cooker construction plans
- Commercial models that you can buy
External links
All construction plans
- 1000W Portable Lightweight Parabolic Mirror
- 100 Suns
- AIT Educooker
- Aluminum Roasting Pan Solar Cooker
- Anahat Solar Cooker
- AquaPak
- Bamboo Solar Cooker
- CD Cooker
- Cauldron Solar Cooker
- Clean Green
- Cocina Solar Simple
- Colavito Solar Cooker
- Collapsible Parabolic Cooker
- Collapsible Solar Box Cooker
- Concrete Solar Concentrator
- Cone Cooker
- CooKit
- Copenhagen Solar Cooker
- Cornell Foldable Oven
- Crossed Mirrors Cooker
- Cupcake Solar Cooker
- DIY Solar Cooker Parabolic Dish
- Debster
- Deep Double Funnel Cooker
- Dierkx
- Double-Angled-Twelve-Sided cooker
- Dual-Setting Panel Cooker
- E&S Solar Oven
- EB800D
- EB Suncooker
- EZ-3 Solar Cooker
- Earthen Solar Cooker
- Easy Lid Cooker
- Easy Solar Cooker
- Educooker 003
- EuroSolarCooker
- EuroSolarCooker Margot
- Category:Evacuated tube solar cooker plans
- Flat Reflector Open Solar Cooker
- Foldable Fusion Cooker
- Category:Fresnel solar cooker plans
- Fun-Panel
- Girassol
- Haines 1
- Halacy Parabolic Cooker
- Heaven's Flame
- Heliac
- Hot-Box Solar Oven
- Hot plate solar cooker
- Hypar Solar Cooker
- Category:In-the-ground solar cooker plans
- Category:Institutional solar cooker plans
- Kimono Solar Cooker
- Kirk-ook
- Lazola 3
- Low-cost Wooden Solar Box Cooker
- Minimum Solar Box Cooker
- NJUBA Solar Stove
- Newton Solar Oven
- Newton Solar Oven 2.0
- One Sheet Solar Cooker
- PanCooker
- Category:Parabolic solar cooker plans
- Parvati Solar Cooker
- Pentagon Star
- Category:Photovoltaic cooker plans
- Primrose
- Recycled Cardboard Parabolic Cooker
- Reflective Open Box
- Robinson Cooker
- User:Rudrasolarind
- SK1.4
- SOPAC Hand-Made Cooker
- Satellite Dish Cooker (English)
- Satellite Dish Cooker (German)
- Side-Slit Panel Cooker
- Soda bottle pasteurizer
- SolReka Parabolic Solar Oven
- Sol Cooker
- Solar-Trough-Baking-Oven
- Solar - Concentrator
- Solar 1000
- Solar Coffee Roaster
- Solar Funnel Cooker
- Solar Trekkers Cooker
- Solar Wok
- Category:Solar array cooker plans
- Category:Solar box cooker plans
- Category:Solar panel cooker plans
- Category:Solar trough cooker plans
- Category:Solar wall oven plans
- Somdrij Solar Cooker
- Stockton Solar Oven
- Sun-Funnel
- SunStove
- Sun Peace
- Sunny Cooker (Tan)
- Suntastic Panel Cooker
- Super Solar Tracker for Solar Ovens
- Suspended Box Solar Oven
- T-188 Parabolic Trough Baking Device
- Tetra Brik Solar Box Cooker
- Tire Cooker
- Twelve-Sided Parvati
- UltraLightCooker
- UltraLightCooker Cone
- UltraLightCooker Cone Plus
- UltraLightCooker Scout
- UltraLightCooker Traveller
- Wedge Solar Cooker
- Windshield Shade Solar Cooker
- Winebox Solar Rice Cooker
- Xuni
All designs
- See below:
All items (454)
- Pana Cooker
- PanCooker
- Panel-Box Cooker
- Papasan Chair Solar Cooker
- Papillon
- Parabolic Earthen Solar Cooker
- Parabolic solar concentrator for industrial heating
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- Parabolic Solar Cooker LD-150
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- Parabolic Star Grill
- Parabolical Ground Cooker
- Paracocina
- Parvati Solar Cooker
- Pasly Solar Cooker
- Patio Sola Kooka
- Patio Solar Oven
- Pentagon Star
- PerSiST
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- Pil Kaar
- PlenoSol 1
- PlenoSol II
- Pocket Solar Cooker
- Poly-Furnace
- Pop-up Solar Cooker Book
- Portable Solar Barbeque
- Power Box Solar Oven
- Premium11
- Premium14
- Prim-Devos-Rubio
- Primrose
- PRINCE-40
- Promethee
- Proyecto Disco Solar
- PSO-10
- PSO-40
- Saracon
- Satellite dish
- Satellite Dish Cooker (English)
- Satellite Dish Cooker (German)
- Scheffler Community Kitchen
- Scheffler2qm
- Seven Panel Cooker
- Side-Slit Panel Cooker
- Simple Solar Water Pasteurizer
- SK1.4
- SK12
- SK14
- SLiCK SM70
- Soda bottle pasteurizer
- Sol Cooker
- Sol-Café
- Sola Kooka
- SOLA Solar Cooker 1
- SoLAAR Flower
- SolaCooka
- Solar - Concentrator
- Solar 1000
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- Solar Balloon Cooker
- Solar Barbeque (box cooker)
- Solar Barbeque (Solar Brother)
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- Solar Chef
- Solar Coffee Roaster
- Solar Cone Grill
- Solar Cook Box
- Solar Flare Box Cooker
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- Solar Fryer
- Solar Funnel Cooker
- Solar hybrid cooking (Schlussler)
- Solar Ibex
- Solar India Cooker
- Solar Injera Cooker
- Solar Kettle-Thermos Flask
- Solar Mirror Array BBQ
- Solar Nest
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- Solar Oven K5
- Solar Oven K6
- Solar Oven Prim-Devos-Rubio 2
- Solar Oven PSO-20
- Solar Oven PSO-30
- Solar Panel Bernard
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- Solar Picnic
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- Solar PV Cooker
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- Solar reflector design
- Solar Rice Cooker
- Solar Steamer
- Solar Tent
- Solar Trekkers Cooker
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- Solar Umbrella Cooker
- Solar Vacuum Tube Oven
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- Solar Water Boiler
- Solar Water Lens
- Solar Wok
- Solar Z
- Solar-roasted peanut butter plant
- Solar-Trough-Baking-Oven
- SolarBug
- SolarCooker Eco3
- SolaReflex Pyramid
- Solari
- Solario Cooker
- Solario Safe
- Solarmate
- SolarPicnic
- SolarShuttle
- Solarsoft Mark 1
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- SoLina one
- SolReka Parabolic Solar Oven
- SolSource Sport
- Somdrij Solar Cooker
- SOPAC Hand-Made Cooker
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- Southwest Stainless Large Solar Cooker
- Sport
- Star Flower
- Steel Bowl Cooker
- Stockton Solar Oven
- Subi
- Sun Blaze BBQ
- Sun Bowl
- Sun Cart
- Sun Cook
- Sun Dome Solar Oven and Cooker
- Sun Juicer
- Sun Peace
- Sun Scoop
- Sun Scoop Lite
- Sun-Funnel
- Sun2Cook
- Sunbrella
- Suncatcher
- Sundish
- SunFire 14
- SUNFLAIR
- Sunflower Concentrator
- Sunflower Solar Cooker
- SunFocus Solar Oven
- SunGenius
- SUNGOOD
- SuniCook
- Sunny Cooker (Tan)
- SunPan
- SUNplicity Solar Cooker
- SunPortal
- SunRay 30
- SunRocket
- Sunspot
- SunStove
- Suntaste