What is a solar oven? A solar oven or solar cooker is a device which uses sunlight as its energy source.

They use no fuel and they cost nothing to run, the use of solar oven are being promoted worldwide to help slow deforestation and desertification, caused by using wood as fuel for cooking. Types of solar oven Box cookers The solar box cooker typically reaches a temperature of 150 C. Insulator for the solar box

cooker has to be able to withstand temperatures up to 1500C without melting.

This is not as hot as a standard oven, but still hot enough to cook food over a somewhat longer period of time. Because the food does not reach too high a temperature, it can be safely left in the cooker all day without burning. It is best to start cooking before noon, though.The cooker can be used to warm food and drinks and can also be used to pasteurize water or milk. Panel cookers Panel solar cookers are very inexpensive solar cookers that use shiny panels to direct sunlight to a cooking pot that is enclosed in a clear plastic bag. it is often produced locally by pasting a reflective material, such as aluminum foil, onto a cut and folded backing, usually corrugated cardboard. It is lightweight and folds for storage. It is considered a low-to-moderate temperature solar cooker, easily reaching temperatures high enough to pasteurize water or cook grains such as rice. Solar kettles Solar kettles are solar thermal devices that can heat water to boiling point through the reliance on solar energy alone. Some of them use evacuated solar glass tube technology to capture, accumulate and store solar energy needed to power the kettle. Besides heating liquids, since the stagnating temperature of solar vacuum glass tubes is a high 220 C, solar kettles can also deliver dry heat and function as ovens. solar kettles only need diffused sunlight to work and needs no sun tracking at all. Cookers with parabolic reflectors Parabolic cookers reach high temperatures and cook quickly, but require frequent adjustment and supervision for safe operation. They are especially useful for large-scale institutional cooking. Parabolic reflectors that have their centres of mass coincident with their focal points are useful. They can be easily turned, to follow the sun's motions in the sky, rotating about an axis that passes through the focus. The cooking pot therefore stays stationary. Cookers with spherical reflectors Unlike nearly all concentrating technologies that use tracking reflector systems, the solar bowl uses a stationary spherical reflector. This reflector focuses light along a line perpendicular to the

sphere's surface and a computer control system moves the receiver to intersect this line. Steam is produced in the solar bowl's receiver at temperatures reaching 150 C and then used for process s heat in the kitchen where 2,000 meals are prepared daily. Hybrid cookers A hybrid solar oven is a solar box cooker equipped with a conventional electrical heating element for cloudy days or nighttime cooking. Hybrid solar ovens are therefore more independent. However, they lack the cost advantages of some other types of solar cookers, and so they have not caught on as much in third world countries where electricity or fuel sources simply do not exist. The basic principles of all solar cookers are: 1. Concentrating sunlight A solar oven cooks by turning light rays from the sun into heat. The sun is the fuel source. Usually a mirror or some type of reflective metal is used. 2. Converting light to heat Coloring the inside of the solar oven black ,as well as certain materials for pots and reflectors will improve the effectiveness of turning light into heat. This will improve the effectiveness of the cooker and speeds up the function of the oven. 3. Trapping heat Using a clear solid, plastic bag or a glass cover, will allow light to enter, but once the light is absorbed and converted to heat, a plastic bag or glass cover will trap the heat inside the pot is placed inside a glass or plastic cover that allows a little bit of space to retain the heat. 4. Plastic Sheet

Plastic sheets are used to assure that liquids do not seep through into the oven. Also to prevent staining of the underlying sheet in the oven. Advantages Solar ovens can be used to prepare anything that can be made in a conventional oven or stove from baked bread to steamed vegetables to roasted meat. Solar cookers use no fuel, which means that their users do not need to fetch or pay for firewood, gas, electricity, or other fuels. Unlike all fuel-based cooking arrangements, solar cookers are not fire hazards.

Disadvantages Solar cookers take longer time to cook food compared to an oven. Solar cookers are less usable in cloudy or rainy weather, so some fuel-based backup heat source must still be available to cook food at these times. Some solar cooker designs are affected by strong winds, which can slow the cooking process, cool the food, and disturb the reflector.