Windshield Shade Solar Oven

Kathy Dahl-Bredine, who lives in southern Mexico, has come up with a rather simple way to make a portable solar oven. Take a $3 reflective car windshield sunshade, sew some Velcro tabs along one edge, then fold the shade into a funnel shape. Viola!

Here’s the list of needed materials…

A reflective accordion-folding car sunshade – a cake rack (or wire frame or grill) – 12cm (4 ½ in) of Velcro – black pot – bucket or plastic wastebasket – a plastic baking bag.

Kathy writes…

I have found this totally simple solar oven extremely practical, as it is so lightweight and easy to carry along anywhere. But in addition, it has reached a higher temperature in a shorter time than all the other models I have experimented with so far (I haven’t used a parabolic) – a little above 350 degrees F. I have cooked black beans in about the same amount of time as on a gas stove; I’ve used it to bake breads, granola, brownies, lasagna, all sorts of vegetables, and to purify water

I love this kind of simple and cheap technology. You can catch the full details of Kathy’s project at the Solar Cooking Archive here.

[via the Vestal Design Blog]