So you’ve read about solar cooking, been online and seen the photos and articles, possibly been to a solar cooking fair, and maybe even eaten a solar-cooked meal. She now she wants to take it to the next logical solar level, she wants to become a solar chef and buy a solar oven (solar), but where to start and what criteria can influence his decision.
- build or buy
Fortunately, this decision is somewhat less traumatic when applied to a solar oven in front of a house. You can easily build your own solar oven by buying the raw materials at your nearest hardware store (aluminum foil, non-toxic black paint, a couple of cardboard boxes, or the equivalent of wood, glue, tape, velcro, and plastic or glass). . polishing on the edges and corners, and possibly some nails and screws).
Detailed and well-illustrated plans for solar ovens are available online. This will undoubtedly be your least expensive option. The downside is that this approach is prone to human error if you don’t follow the instructions correctly, and these ovens are typically not particularly strong or robust and won’t necessarily last very long.
- typical design
There are a handful of fundamental design types you need to choose from and these include a box oven, panel cooker, parabolic reflector cooker, solar kettle, and solar hybrid oven. There are a variety of other solar ovens including a pizza cooker, solar hot dog cooker, funnel cooker, and even a solar rack, but these essentially fall somewhere within these main categories.
- budget
Your level of affordability also plays a role in the choice. While all solar cooker manufacturers obviously have a built-in margin with the sale of their solar cookers, the rough rule of thumb when it comes to value when buying a solar cooker is that you get what you pay for, in other words, generally the more you pay. , the better the quality and more effective the solar cooker you will get.
Some of the manufacturers will also sell you a unit with a cookbook, solar cookers, a WAPI (to pasteurize water) and even a built-in thermometer. A select few will even provide a guarantee. Extremely effective models, which obviously come at a cost, are the commercially produced parabolic reflectors and the Ferrari of solar box ovens, the Global Sun Oven.
- shopping sites
The final question is where to buy a solar cooker? One option is to buy at a point of sale or even at a solar exhibition or fair. The other option is to buy a unit online and have it shipped or couriered to you, either from a reseller or even directly from the manufacturer.
The reseller will invariably be more expensive than the manufacturer as they need to add their margin, although they may have more than one selection of solar units and related solar cooking equipment.
Either way, it’s a personal decision. I personally have no problem paying about $200 for a unit knowing that if I take care of it carefully it will probably last me 10-20 years.