Anybody else cook with a solar cooker when camping?

[BenBrown]

I've done it a couple times on a day long outing and it was nice to have the hot food waiting for me.

[dreadcptflint]

Ben, I can say that I am a little tempted to give it a go but we have few too many critters that will find our food tasty. What does your solar oven look like?

I might just try it off my front porch at home since that gets sun when ever it is up.

[Arne]

I have seen it done, but usually, I like to find a shady spot, so use something more mechanical.

[BenBrown]

I wouldn't cook in a solar oven at night, nor ride a motorcycle in a Michigan winter, ... but anywhere, anytime the sun shines bright enough to produce a sharp shadow you can cook with a solar oven. There's bright sun in Alaska and there are solar cookers I know of there as well as in Kenya, saving women from walking miles to get firewood. But enough of that...

I use both a folding panel solar cooker and a box solar cooker. On my day trips I used the panel cooker because it folds flat. If I can figure out how to attach a photo I'll post the two. For me, the box cooker would be too large to put in a tiny trailer. The box cooker though would protect the food from most smaller critters.

There are a couple of "flash and burn" solar concentrators I'd like which could be small enough for a teardrop, but they require more caution I normally take.

I use a solar cooker cause its 1.free and 2. I don't like having to watch my food to keep it from burning and 3. food tastes more real (hard to describe) to me. They really aren't appropriate for everyone.

I just wondered if anyone here has used them when out with their tear drop.

[dh]

We used one way back in a power and energy class, it worked really well. We made it in the sheet metal shop. We also made a solar water heater out of a wood box, a window, some pop cans painted black, and a roll of copper tubing. I long for the days of making crap just to see if it would work.

[BenBrown]

http://tnttt.com/album_ ... c_id=65094

[BenBrown]

[Miriam C.]

Ben your pictures are not in your album. See help with pictures in the menu at the top of the page. If you need help just ask...

[S. Heisley]

Miriam:

I don't know how he did it; but, if I click on the blue address he shows above, I can see one picture of the solar box; but, if I click on his album, I see two 'x' boxes.

[BILLYL]

We did it in Boy Scout adult training. Made one with foil and a box with a cover. Worked good.

Too often when we camp we don't have direct sun light to take advantage of that source of power.

Bill

[BenBrown]

Ben your pictures are not in your album. See help with pictures in the menu at the top of the page. If you need help just ask...

Much appreciated Miriam... I don't know exactly what I did, but, suddenly I can see the photo of the panel cooker.

Today I cooked with the box cause it seemed simpler to do. I wanted to cook several things at once. With the panel cooker its one thing at a time... like the little pizza. (I took it out of its cooking bag so people would know what was cooking.)

The panel cooker folds flat to about 2 1/2 ft by 4 1/2 ft. I know people who have taken the design adding more folds so that it can fold down to a large note book size.

[mj1angier]

I got this cooker for my birthday last year. It is a Tulsi solar oven http://www.sunbdcorp.com/products.php. It works real well and has heat elements built in for cooking on cloudy days.

[BenBrown]

Yummy,

Can I come over for dinner?

[dakotamouse]

Yes, I do. I make a great lasagne in my cooker.

[BenBrown]

The nice thing about panel cookers is you could store 4 or 5 behind a seat or one or two under a mattress. I wonder what your opinion is on choice of cooking pot/pan. I've used clear and tinted corning ware, black painted jars and black enamel pots/pans. What's worked best for you and why do you think its so?

Second, I Like your trick for raising up your pan's rack. That is a far better idea than I'd come up with. Things absolutely cook better in both my cookers, flat and box, slightly raised up.

I've been cooking about every sunny day here and until yesterday we hadn't run out of cookies in over a month. I need to cook more than snack food. I'm thinking about experimenting with ginger ale (plus other seasonings) and chicken breasts in a cooking bag.