Three Types of Solar Ovens

Box Solar Cooker:

Box cookers are the most common type made for personal use. They are made in both circular and rectangular shapes. They consist of an enclosed inner box covered with clear glass or plastic, a reflector, and insulation. While they do not heat quickly, they do provide slow, even cooking and are extremely cheap to make. Box cookers are very easy and safe to use, and fairly easy to construct.

Panel Solar Cooker:

Panel cookers are flat reflective panels that focus the sunlight onto a cooking vessel without the inner box. Panel cookers are the easiest and least costly to make, requiring just four reflective panels and a cooking vessel, but they are unstable in high winds and do not retain as much heat when the sun is hidden behind clouds.

Parabolic Solar Cooker:

Reflective materials are used to concentrate light and heat from the sun into a small cooking area, making the Sun’s energy more concentrated and therefore more powerful, resulting in the fastest cooking times of all Cooker designs. Parabolic cookers require more precision to focus the sunlight on the cooking vessel and are the most complex design to build. If the sunlight is not focused exactly on the cooking vessel, the food will not cook efficiently.