I love your video. Such a cristal clear explanation. Besides, English is a foreign language to me and yet, I understood everything you said. 😄 Thanks again.
Hi Vitality, the bottom part is from a junked 'halogen cooker' (Google that to see an example). They were popular about twenty years ago, so there are now many at the end of their useful lives, and you could probably get one that is being thrown away if you look around. There are two sizes, 12 litre, like this one, and a smaller 7 litre model. The glass top was bought new - it's a standard borosilicate glass lid that some people use on frying pans or large pans. This combination makes a nice big heat trap, as described.
Such a helpful video. You really helped me grasp the concept very well, whereas I'd been baffled about it before. You're a very good teacher. Thank you!
Yes... I have been working towards being offgrid. There are so many solar items available eg lighting, power stations, showers, cookers etc. Also friction torches, lanterns, radios etc. In Australia we have tools and appliances that come with a 18 volt rechargeable battery. One brand has 100 items that can be charged and used using the same type battery. I have 18 volt lanterns, torches, saw, lawnmower, edge cutter, radio and a fan but here is the exciting part. I now bank free electricity using my solar panel / powerbank during the day to charge all my batteries that come with the tools. I have my lighting sorted, also fan, radio, mowing, showering and cooking. There are many other items I keep adding to save energy bills like a kelly kettle which I have just purchased. Look online particularly camping and survival gear sites for items and inspiration. Cheers.
Very appropriate to mention the sunglasses issue. I prefer the parabolic method because it boils water quicker. Once you have boiling water, you can do many things with it.
Very clear and informative, would have been nice to hear a bit about how the parabolic mirror focuses on a single point, so there's less energy loss I assume than with the other mirrors that are less specifically targeted.
Thanks, John! Yes, as you say, parabolic reflectors are designed to reflect all of the sunlight that strikes them onto a single focal point. There is an important difference between shallow parabolic reflectors, and deep parabolic reflectors, and that will be tackled in a future video. Essentially, deep parabolic reflectors are kinder to your cookware, and need to be re-aligned less frequently - two advantages (usually) of the deeper parabola.
thank you for this series of videos. most solar ovens are demonstrated in america. the fact you can use one in feburary here in the uk has given me some hope! what with todays rising energy costs i am looking to alternative ways to cook, that are cost effective. iam going to have a go at making my own, do you think mirror on a roll would have similar reflective ability to your proffessional ones? thanks
Thanks, Emma, glad you found them useful. Most of the (expensive) commercially made solar cookers on the market use anodised aluminium reflectors - definitely the best, but eye-wateringly expensive. Mirror on a roll is almost as good, and a fraction of the price. If you are going the DIY route, by far the simplest-but-still-effective cooker to build is the Copenhagen, invented by Sharon Clausson. There are a couple of good RUclips vids that show you how to make one.
@Dave Oxford thank you for the swift reply. the Copenhagen is going to be my first attempt. I am also going to have a go at the slanted box type. given our place in the world, would painting the inside of the box black help with raising the cooking temperature, or should I just leave the base black and do the rest reflective? I know the pots have to be black and insulated. sorry for the numerous questions. this is my new hyperfocus. (cooking for next to nothing)
Hi Emma. Regarding the box cooker you aim to build, you should make the sides (of the inside of the box) reflective, but the bottom (of the inside of the box) black, or place a thin black metal tray there on the bottom, like an oven tray. You are trying to get the maximum amount of sunlight to hit your black pot, and the rays that miss the pot will get absorbed by the bottom tray. Not sure what you mean when you say that the 'pots have to be black and insulated'. Black, yes, better if matt black than shiny black. If by insulated you mean that you need a glass heat trap, then yes, but if you are using a box oven cooker, it is the sides of the box that need to be insulated. In the Copenhagen, you need a clear (maybe plastic, but preferably pyrex type glass) heat trap surrounding but not touching the black pot. I know that you have recently joined Solar Cooking UK (because I am an admin) and your questions could be better answered there, because we can show pictures to illustrate what we mean. Good luck with your builds.
Ah, thank you very much. I've been interested in solar cookers for about 3 years. Immediately when I saw your big glass bowl with the black pot inside it, I decided not to give my still working halogen cooker away (having offered to give it to someone 2 days ago, I'm glad he declined). Even though I am moving interstate next year, I think it's well worth keeping my halogen cooker for this solar cooker project. I stopped using aluminium pots a few years ago. Would a black stainless steel or cast iron pot be efficient replacement for aluminium? I know it may take longer to heat up but would probably retain that heat better.
Hi SK, because simple solar cookers are not very powerful, the rule for cookware is light and dark - that is, lightweight, and dark coloured (colored). Most people in the US like to use dark enamelled pots - I think it's called graniteware. These are lightweight, so they heat up quickly. Stainless steel is OK, but it helps if the outer surface is matte black, or at least dark coloured. Cast iron doesn't do very well because, as you say, it takes a long time to heat up. If you are moving anywhere in the south-west of the US, it would probably be OK, as that area gets a lot of sunlight, so the weight is less important. If you want to read more about solar cooking, you could try Googling Solar Cookers International Fandom Wiki - all the information you can eat. You could try putting cookware into their search bar to see a longer discussion about pots. Also, if you do Facebook, you could join one of the Facebook Groups that specialise in solar cooking. The biggest of these is 'The Solar Cookers World Network'. Good luck with your solar cooking project.
This was extremely helpful! I've built and successfully used a couple simple solar cookers (and I think the food turns out more delicious) and am always interested in improving the design, making it more efficient, and using things that I already have. Your explanation made all the concepts clear for me and now I understand why some of my trials did not work and how to make them work. I had surmised that large black pots with reflective car windshield screens should do the trick, but thanks to your video, I know now how to make that system work. Also, am I right in thinking that the thinner the black target pot, the better? I'd tried cast iron pots and the heat didn't get to the inside, but the cheap black enamelware camping pots worked much better. Also, smaller cooking vessels (target pots) did better than large pots. 👍 You're awesome in my book! 👌
Thanks Enjoy! Yes, you are right about the thin (I think they are called 'Speckleware') enamelled pots. They work best in low-powered panel cookers because they do not have much thermal mass, so you don't waste much energy heating them up. Cast iron pots take a lot of heating, and you have to do that before the food heats up, so they only work well in more powerful solar cookers, like parabolics. Be careful about smaller pots, though. If you are using a reflector with flat sections, like the one at the beginning of the video, unless the flat sections are the same size as the pot, some of the reflected light will miss the pot. The panel cooker I come to in the video straight after constructing the example cooker has a curved reflector at the back, and this helps because almost all of the light is reflected onto the pot, however small. If you are interested in pursuing your interest in solar cooking, there are a number of Facebook Groups dedicated to it. You could consider joining one or more of them.
Once the food is done, it's really hot. The pot and the glass container is hot, too. How do you get the pot out of the glass container, when it fits so tightly? What do you grab, while using pot holders, in this situation? I really like the outer glass container idea, but, I don't want to be burned - or drop the food pan.
Hi StarWish, Yes, you need oven gloves. In the set up you see in the video, I find that if I remove the pot lid, I can hold the top edge of both sides of the pot between thumb and fingers, wearing silicone oven gloves like these: www.yaoteo.com/products/acronde-2-pairs-mini-oven-gloves-silicone-heat-resistant-cooking-pinch-mitts-potholder-for-kitchen-cooking-baking-red-and-blue-1 I got mine on ebay UK, not this brand.
Brilliant Presentation...I learnt a lot from you!👍ThankS deeply foR explaininG your ideas so well!👍I haVe started doing Solar Oven experiments on my Balcony as I am tryinG to create a cheap "Red NeCk" way foR people to cook around the World as so many people don't haVe access to our modern cookinG appliances!😢PluS SolaR Energy iS Free foR Humanity!👍Shine On and haVe a BleSSed Day DaVe!✌😍🙏😇🌹🌞🌹☕🍵☕🍹🍻
Thank you, Sandra. Glad you liked it. There are quite a lot of simple solar cooker designs around - check out the Copenhagen, for example. Solar Cookers International run a Wiki that contains just about everything there is to know about solar cookers. You can find it here: solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/Solar_Cooking_Wiki_(Home)
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight I appreciate you takinG time to get bacK to me DaVe!👍With so many people experiencing Power Ourages...haVinG a waRm cuppa seems so niCe to enjoy through a rough patCh!✌😍🌹🌞🌹☕🍵☕
How do you keep nearby objects from catching on fire? Seems like if you are concentrating the sunlight with reflective surfaces. A discarded glass bottle regulary causes wildfires here in Texas.
Hi Mable, most types of solar cooker are constructed so that the reflected sunlight cannot stray outside the limits of the cooker. So, you are safe with box, tube, and simple panel cookers. It is possible that a panel cooker could be left in such a position that one of the panels reflects sunlight away from the cooker, but this would add only one additional sun to the point it was shining on, which would not be enough to cause a fire. The exceptions to this rule are shallow parabolic reflectors - shaped like the TV satellite dish aerials you see on the side of buildings. These have a focus that lies outside the dish, and that means that it is possible to start a fire if you carelessly leave one of these lying around. For this reason (and for others) it is preferable to have a DEEP parabolic reflector (like, say, the SUNplicity) which cannot cause a fire. There are plenty of RUclips videos showing people adding reflective tape to discarded satellite dishes and using them to set fire to wood/paper - this type is definitely dangerous in the way you suggest.
Hi Baran, glad you are using solar cookers. I'm a bit surprised to hear 105 C. Do you mean you got the air in an empty pot up to 105 C? The usual test is to see whether you can boil a litre of water. If you can boil a litre of water in one of these 'cube corner' setups at 48N in October, I'd be impressed. Please let me know.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight hello Dave, I was cooking oatmeal with coconut milk yesterday. Black pot with black lid, sitting on 3 small pebbles, covered with a glass salad bowl upside down. The pot is the shallower but larger diameter variety, almost like a deep pan, to increase the heating area. The backside mirrors were at a 90 degree angle. I had an oven thermometer sitting on top of the lid under the glass bowl. It showed 105 C around 13:00. Since this is a slow cooker, I had it out for 2 hours or so in total and the oatmeal cooked soft. I did rice in it prior to the oatmeal and the rice got overdone, it became mushy soft. I forgot to rinse it with warm water before cooking and left it out longer than I should have. I used hot tap water for starters both times, less time wasted for the initial heat up of the pot. So this simple three panel cooker is very efficient. Open box solar cooker is the other name for it. Easiest one I made so far. It's sunny today too, I'm doing cornmeal today in the same setup 🙂 11:47 local time and the thermometer is showing 110 C. Sunny day.
@Baran Jan - thanks for the description. There are a few solar cooking Facebook Group pages you could join, if you do Facebook. The one we run for the UK is called 'solar cooking UK'. It would be great to have some pictures of your setup. Always looking for recipes and experiences.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight - unfortunately I don't have a FB account but next time I use this cooker I'll make a video and load it up to youtube.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight ruclips.net/video/U9WUnqN41no/видео.html I made and uploaded the video today, the cooker performed as expected but I messed up the recipe badly, LOL. Not the cooker's fault though.
Thanks, Matt. The food container would need to be sealed as well if you pulled a vacuum inside the glass, or it would lower the boiling point and any volatile components of the food would end up condensed on the inside of the glass - yuck. However, this has been tried with some limited success (not by me). But the existing evacuated cooking tubes (the one with the bread inside in the vid) already make full use of the insulating qualities of a vacuum. And there is now proto-type double skinned hemispherical vacuum shaped glassware that works really well. Much more convenient shape than the current tubes. Not on the market, yet, but just a matter of time.
Hi Bethel. It's great that you tried DIY solar cooking. I hope you are not so disappointed that you gave up. I'm not sure how much sun you get in the area where you live, but it is possible to solar cook most places on the globe in your summer. This coming year, I will be producing a video all about making a DIY cooker from cheap materials that will work (i.e. boil a litre of water, or cook a kilo of food) in a couple of hours in the summer in the UK. If you are closer to the equator than 50 degrees, this will work for you in your summer.
I'm wanting to "boil" sticks and leaves to feed to detritivore pets that eat them, so food-safety with time and temperature isn't important. It just needs to re-hydrate and then get hot enough to kill living mold/bugs/mites. Most bugs will die in really hot tap water, so a "solar cooker" will easily reach that temp. I would much rather use the heat from the sun, than to waste electricity on such a simple task, especially since my goal is to make raising the pet rolly pollies as "natural" and "cost-free" as possible.
Had to look up 'detritivore'. The simple three mirror device you see at the beginning of the video will top out at around 85C, with that heat trap setup, Fusion. If you want the temperature to get up to boiling, the simplest design that will reliably do that would be the 'Copenhagen', designed by Sharon Clausson - plenty of DIY vids on YT that show you how to make one. When not in use, it's flat, so could be hung on a shed or garage wall. You would still need the heat trap arrangement you see in the video. I thought I knew about all the possible solar cooker applications, but heating up food for detritivores is another to add to my list.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight hahahahaha. I heard leaving comments helps videos reach more audiences, so it's my way to trying to contribute something back to show my appreciation.
Hi Alan, the large glass bowl is from a junked 'halogen cooker' (Google that to see an example). They were quite popular about twenty years ago, so there are now many at the end of their useful lives, and you could probably get one that is being thrown away if you look around. I'm not sure where you live, but if you are in the UK, you might try looking on FB Marketplace, or Ebay, or if you are in the US, Craig's list. If you can't find one, the bowls are usually still available, new, on Amazon, where they are sold as replacements. There are two sizes, 12 litre, like this one, and a smaller 7 litre model. The glass top was bought new - it's a standard borosilicate glass lid that some people use on frying pans or large pans. This combination makes a nice big heat trap, as described in the video.
Hi NN, it's best (i.e. it heats up most quickly) if the outside of the pot is black. The inside is more complicated. If you have a glass lid for the pot, then, if the inside of the pot is black, it can help it to heat quicker because some sunlight enters the pot through the glass lid and heats the inside surface of the pot. But if the pot is full, then this doesn't happen. So, the best type of pot to use is one that has a matt black outer surface and a glass lid. The inside surface is usually less important.
Hi David. The heat trap dish you see me tap in the video is a 12 litre bowl from a halogen cooker. If you Google halogen cooker you will see the type of cooker I mean. It has an electric heating element in the lid. Many of these are now coming to the ends of their useful lives, and are just junked. You can buy a new replacement bowl for them (search on Amazon) for £18-£25 delivered. But if you search on Marketplace, or Trash Nothing or Freecycle or Gumtree you will often find them for free, or for very little money, though then you will have to go and pick them up. The lids - of borosilicate / pyrex glass are available new from Amazon for around £15. You can see another video of mine about heat traps if you search on YT. Good luck in your search.
@@davideddy2672 The 17 litre version you see advertised is achieved by adding a stainless steel extension ring to the 12 litre glass version already discussed, so that is not an option for a 17 litre heat trap (as light won't get through the steel). But there IS a smaller, 7 litre version of the halogen cooker. They are not so common, but they do come up now and then.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight - I happened to watch a RUclips of you making bread in the midst of a Cornish winter last night, impressive stuff! I’m based in North Cornwall 😊 Ironically, I also appreciate the scythe as the weapon of choice 😁 👍
I'm out to prove that solar cooking is possible this far above the equator, David. I find that most people in the UK have not even heard of solar cookers. Even if they have, they usually believe that they will only work in 'hot countries'. Of course, you will need a high tech evacuated tube to stand a chance in the winter, but in the summer, you can cook with a panel cooker. Lots more videos coming up next year when we get a bit more sun If you are interested in solar cooking and you do Facebook, you could consider joining the Solar Cooking UK FB Group - all the information you can eat.
Hi Malik, They all work, some fast, some slow. I depends on what you want to cook. Here is a good video that will introduce you to each type of solar cooker. ruclips.net/video/UsFrXjMA01M/видео.html&ab_channel=RogerHaines If you have more questions, please ask.
Hi Anger, Sorry, it's a one-off, made by my partner from material brought back from Nigeria by a friend. At our first public festival solar cooking demonstration, the co-founder of SLiCK suggested we should stand out to attract more interest. He was wearing a bright orange shirt - and so began the competition to wear the loudest shirt. It's now become a sort of trade mark because I have worn it for every solar cooking video I've made. Definitely can't part with it now. I'm quite ancient, so ... maybe a legacy?
नमस्ते, वंदना। मेरी वीडियो देखने के लिए धन्यवाद। आप यहां जाकर हिंदी उप-शीर्षक प्राप्त कर सकते हैं: सेटिंग्स / उपशीर्षक / ऑटो-अनुवाद / हिंदी namaste, vandana. meree veediyo dekhane ke lie dhanyavaad. aap yahaan jaakar hindee up-sheershak praapt kar sakate hain: setings / upasheershak / oto-anuvaad / hindee
Great explanation without banging on unnecessarily.
Glad it was helpful, SootyS
I love your video. Such a cristal clear explanation. Besides, English is a foreign language to me and yet, I understood everything you said. 😄 Thanks again.
Thanks, Cafe Sizun. Glad it was useful.
Where did you get that large glass container with lid???
Hi Vitality, the bottom part is from a junked 'halogen cooker' (Google that to see an example). They were popular about twenty years ago, so there are now many at the end of their useful lives, and you could probably get one that is being thrown away if you look around. There are two sizes, 12 litre, like this one, and a smaller 7 litre model. The glass top was bought new - it's a standard borosilicate glass lid that some people use on frying pans or large pans. This combination makes a nice big heat trap, as described.
Such a helpful video. You really helped me grasp the concept very well, whereas I'd been baffled about it before. You're a very good teacher. Thank you!
Thanks, LL. Glad it was useful.
We must be independent from gas and electricity!! This its the good future for us!!! Thanks for your educational videos!! 👍👍🎊🎊🎊🎊🙂🙂
Thanks, Catalin! I agree.
Yes... I have been working towards being offgrid. There are so many solar items available eg lighting, power stations, showers, cookers etc. Also friction torches, lanterns, radios etc. In Australia we have tools and appliances that come with a 18 volt rechargeable battery. One brand has 100 items that can be charged and used using the same type battery. I have 18 volt lanterns, torches, saw, lawnmower, edge cutter, radio and a fan but here is the exciting part. I now bank free electricity using my solar panel / powerbank during the day to charge all my batteries that come with the tools. I have my lighting sorted, also fan, radio, mowing, showering and cooking. There are many other items I keep adding to save energy bills like a kelly kettle which I have just purchased. Look online particularly camping and survival gear sites for items and inspiration. Cheers.
@@janetbransdon3742it would be nice to see on the video all your solars equipment
simply brilliant! i'm pretty impressed by this tech because it doesn't use any electricity or gas!
Glad you like it, Pascal.
Very appropriate to mention the sunglasses issue. I prefer the parabolic method because it boils water quicker.
Once you have boiling water, you can do many things with it.
Great video. Thanks for keeping it simple. I use a 25" parabolic mirror for my solar cooking. I made a table to use Cast iron pans & griddle.
Glad you like it, Steve. Is your reflector from GreenPowerScience?
@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight Yes it is. GPS got me interested first. I have some videos posted on my page. Have a great day.
Very clear and informative, would have been nice to hear a bit about how the parabolic mirror focuses on a single point, so there's less energy loss I assume than with the other mirrors that are less specifically targeted.
Thanks, John! Yes, as you say, parabolic reflectors are designed to reflect all of the sunlight that strikes them onto a single focal point. There is an important difference between shallow parabolic reflectors, and deep parabolic reflectors, and that will be tackled in a future video. Essentially, deep parabolic reflectors are kinder to your cookware, and need to be re-aligned less frequently - two advantages (usually) of the deeper parabola.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight first time hearing deep vs shallow and I've watched like 20-30 solar cooker vids.
thank you for this series of videos. most solar ovens are demonstrated in america. the fact you can use one in feburary here in the uk has given me some hope! what with todays rising energy costs i am looking to alternative ways to cook, that are cost effective. iam going to have a go at making my own, do you think mirror on a roll would have similar reflective ability to your proffessional ones? thanks
Thanks, Emma, glad you found them useful. Most of the (expensive) commercially made solar cookers on the market use anodised aluminium reflectors - definitely the best, but eye-wateringly expensive. Mirror on a roll is almost as good, and a fraction of the price. If you are going the DIY route, by far the simplest-but-still-effective cooker to build is the Copenhagen, invented by Sharon Clausson. There are a couple of good RUclips vids that show you how to make one.
@Dave Oxford thank you for the swift reply. the Copenhagen is going to be my first attempt. I am also going to have a go at the slanted box type. given our place in the world, would painting the inside of the box black help with raising the cooking temperature, or should I just leave the base black and do the rest reflective? I know the pots have to be black and insulated. sorry for the numerous questions. this is my new hyperfocus. (cooking for next to nothing)
Hi Emma. Regarding the box cooker you aim to build, you should make the sides (of the inside of the box) reflective, but the bottom (of the inside of the box) black, or place a thin black metal tray there on the bottom, like an oven tray. You are trying to get the maximum amount of sunlight to hit your black pot, and the rays that miss the pot will get absorbed by the bottom tray. Not sure what you mean when you say that the 'pots have to be black and insulated'. Black, yes, better if matt black than shiny black. If by insulated you mean that you need a glass heat trap, then yes, but if you are using a box oven cooker, it is the sides of the box that need to be insulated. In the Copenhagen, you need a clear (maybe plastic, but preferably pyrex type glass) heat trap surrounding but not touching the black pot. I know that you have recently joined Solar Cooking UK (because I am an admin) and your questions could be better answered there, because we can show pictures to illustrate what we mean. Good luck with your builds.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlighthelpful answers! I had the same questions.
Ah, thank you very much. I've been interested in solar cookers for about 3 years. Immediately when I saw your big glass bowl with the black pot inside it, I decided not to give my still working halogen cooker away (having offered to give it to someone 2 days ago, I'm glad he declined). Even though I am moving interstate next year, I think it's well worth keeping my halogen cooker for this solar cooker project. I stopped using aluminium pots a few years ago. Would a black stainless steel or cast iron pot be efficient replacement for aluminium? I know it may take longer to heat up but would probably retain that heat better.
Hi SK, because simple solar cookers are not very powerful, the rule for cookware is light and dark - that is, lightweight, and dark coloured (colored). Most people in the US like to use dark enamelled pots - I think it's called graniteware. These are lightweight, so they heat up quickly. Stainless steel is OK, but it helps if the outer surface is matte black, or at least dark coloured. Cast iron doesn't do very well because, as you say, it takes a long time to heat up. If you are moving anywhere in the south-west of the US, it would probably be OK, as that area gets a lot of sunlight, so the weight is less important. If you want to read more about solar cooking, you could try Googling Solar Cookers International Fandom Wiki - all the information you can eat. You could try putting cookware into their search bar to see a longer discussion about pots. Also, if you do Facebook, you could join one of the Facebook Groups that specialise in solar cooking. The biggest of these is 'The Solar Cookers World Network'. Good luck with your solar cooking project.
Very informative video. I appreciate your walk through of the solar cooker components.
Thanks, SubGar, glad you liked it.
More people should get into solar cooking
This was extremely helpful! I've built and successfully used a couple simple solar cookers (and I think the food turns out more delicious) and am always interested in improving the design, making it more efficient, and using things that I already have. Your explanation made all the concepts clear for me and now I understand why some of my trials did not work and how to make them work. I had surmised that large black pots with reflective car windshield screens should do the trick, but thanks to your video, I know now how to make that system work. Also, am I right in thinking that the thinner the black target pot, the better? I'd tried cast iron pots and the heat didn't get to the inside, but the cheap black enamelware camping pots worked much better. Also, smaller cooking vessels (target pots) did better than large pots. 👍 You're awesome in my book! 👌
Thanks Enjoy! Yes, you are right about the thin (I think they are called 'Speckleware') enamelled pots. They work best in low-powered panel cookers because they do not have much thermal mass, so you don't waste much energy heating them up. Cast iron pots take a lot of heating, and you have to do that before the food heats up, so they only work well in more powerful solar cookers, like parabolics. Be careful about smaller pots, though. If you are using a reflector with flat sections, like the one at the beginning of the video, unless the flat sections are the same size as the pot, some of the reflected light will miss the pot. The panel cooker I come to in the video straight after constructing the example cooker has a curved reflector at the back, and this helps because almost all of the light is reflected onto the pot, however small. If you are interested in pursuing your interest in solar cooking, there are a number of Facebook Groups dedicated to it. You could consider joining one or more of them.
Thank you for this outstanding teaching.
Thanks Matt! Glad you like it.
Once the food is done, it's really hot. The pot and the glass container is hot, too. How do you get the pot out of the glass container, when it fits so tightly? What do you grab, while using pot holders, in this situation?
I really like the outer glass container idea, but, I don't want to be burned - or drop the food pan.
Hi StarWish, Yes, you need oven gloves. In the set up you see in the video, I find that if I remove the pot lid, I can hold the top edge of both sides of the pot between thumb and fingers, wearing silicone oven gloves like these: www.yaoteo.com/products/acronde-2-pairs-mini-oven-gloves-silicone-heat-resistant-cooking-pinch-mitts-potholder-for-kitchen-cooking-baking-red-and-blue-1 I got mine on ebay UK, not this brand.
If only they had mirrors way back then! Love your video
Thanks!!
Great work 🎉🎉
Thanks, truth_
Brilliant Presentation...I learnt a lot from you!👍ThankS deeply foR explaininG your ideas so well!👍I haVe started doing Solar Oven experiments on my Balcony as I am tryinG to create a cheap "Red NeCk" way foR people to cook around the World as so many people don't haVe access to our modern cookinG appliances!😢PluS SolaR Energy iS Free foR Humanity!👍Shine On and haVe a BleSSed Day DaVe!✌😍🙏😇🌹🌞🌹☕🍵☕🍹🍻
Thank you, Sandra. Glad you liked it. There are quite a lot of simple solar cooker designs around - check out the Copenhagen, for example. Solar Cookers International run a Wiki that contains just about everything there is to know about solar cookers. You can find it here: solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/Solar_Cooking_Wiki_(Home)
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight I appreciate you takinG time to get bacK to me DaVe!👍With so many people experiencing Power Ourages...haVinG a waRm cuppa seems so niCe to enjoy through a rough patCh!✌😍🌹🌞🌹☕🍵☕
Thank you so much. This was very helpful.
Thanks, Susan. Glad you like it.
Good presentation
Thanks, Arun. Glad you liked it.
Maravillosamente explicado! Felicitaciones. Me suscribo. Muchas gracias!
Grazie, lieto che ti piaccia
such a great collection!
Thanks, Linh. Chosen here to represent the four most common types of solar cooker.
How do you keep nearby objects from catching on fire? Seems like if you are concentrating the sunlight with reflective surfaces. A discarded glass bottle regulary causes wildfires here in Texas.
Hi Mable, most types of solar cooker are constructed so that the reflected sunlight cannot stray outside the limits of the cooker. So, you are safe with box, tube, and simple panel cookers. It is possible that a panel cooker could be left in such a position that one of the panels reflects sunlight away from the cooker, but this would add only one additional sun to the point it was shining on, which would not be enough to cause a fire. The exceptions to this rule are shallow parabolic reflectors - shaped like the TV satellite dish aerials you see on the side of buildings. These have a focus that lies outside the dish, and that means that it is possible to start a fire if you carelessly leave one of these lying around. For this reason (and for others) it is preferable to have a DEEP parabolic reflector (like, say, the SUNplicity) which cannot cause a fire. There are plenty of RUclips videos showing people adding reflective tape to discarded satellite dishes and using them to set fire to wood/paper - this type is definitely dangerous in the way you suggest.
The first and simplest one is actually very efficient. I got it up to 105 Celsius today, Oct 8th, Lat 48N. Sunny day.
Hi Baran, glad you are using solar cookers. I'm a bit surprised to hear 105 C. Do you mean you got the air in an empty pot up to 105 C? The usual test is to see whether you can boil a litre of water. If you can boil a litre of water in one of these 'cube corner' setups at 48N in October, I'd be impressed. Please let me know.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight hello Dave, I was cooking oatmeal with coconut milk yesterday. Black pot with black lid, sitting on 3 small pebbles, covered with a glass salad bowl upside down. The pot is the shallower but larger diameter variety, almost like a deep pan, to increase the heating area. The backside mirrors were at a 90 degree angle. I had an oven thermometer sitting on top of the lid under the glass bowl. It showed 105 C around 13:00. Since this is a slow cooker, I had it out for 2 hours or so in total and the oatmeal cooked soft. I did rice in it prior to the oatmeal and the rice got overdone, it became mushy soft. I forgot to rinse it with warm water before cooking and left it out longer than I should have. I used hot tap water for starters both times, less time wasted for the initial heat up of the pot. So this simple three panel cooker is very efficient. Open box solar cooker is the other name for it. Easiest one I made so far. It's sunny today too, I'm doing cornmeal today in the same setup 🙂 11:47 local time and the thermometer is showing 110 C. Sunny day.
@Baran Jan - thanks for the description. There are a few solar cooking Facebook Group pages you could join, if you do Facebook. The one we run for the UK is called 'solar cooking UK'. It would be great to have some pictures of your setup. Always looking for recipes and experiences.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight - unfortunately I don't have a FB account but next time I use this cooker I'll make a video and load it up to youtube.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight ruclips.net/video/U9WUnqN41no/видео.html
I made and uploaded the video today, the cooker performed as expected but I messed up the recipe badly, LOL. Not the cooker's fault though.
Awesome 👍👍👍
Well done from the u s a arizona
Thanks, Mike
very interesting especially for beginner
Thanks, Marcel
Try a follow up video and cook something. Measure the temp and time to cook it. Thanks
I guess you didn't watch until the end, Tanner.
Bravo......clever.......love the glass......if u had a seal on glass container and pulled vacum.......cheers
Thanks, Matt. The food container would need to be sealed as well if you pulled a vacuum inside the glass, or it would lower the boiling point and any volatile components of the food would end up condensed on the inside of the glass - yuck. However, this has been tried with some limited success (not by me). But the existing evacuated cooking tubes (the one with the bread inside in the vid) already make full use of the insulating qualities of a vacuum. And there is now proto-type double skinned hemispherical vacuum shaped glassware that works really well. Much more convenient shape than the current tubes. Not on the market, yet, but just a matter of time.
My attempts at solar cooking have only heated things up they taste great but a bit disappointed my cookers are dyi
Hi Bethel. It's great that you tried DIY solar cooking. I hope you are not so disappointed that you gave up. I'm not sure how much sun you get in the area where you live, but it is possible to solar cook most places on the globe in your summer. This coming year, I will be producing a video all about making a DIY cooker from cheap materials that will work (i.e. boil a litre of water, or cook a kilo of food) in a couple of hours in the summer in the UK. If you are closer to the equator than 50 degrees, this will work for you in your summer.
Well done
thank you, Stib
Awesome!
Thanks!
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight I've already told 2 people about how amazing your video is.
Thanks again!
I'm wanting to "boil" sticks and leaves to feed to detritivore pets that eat them, so food-safety with time and temperature isn't important.
It just needs to re-hydrate and then get hot enough to kill living mold/bugs/mites.
Most bugs will die in really hot tap water, so a "solar cooker" will easily reach that temp.
I would much rather use the heat from the sun, than to waste electricity on such a simple task, especially since my goal is to make raising the pet rolly pollies as "natural" and "cost-free" as possible.
Had to look up 'detritivore'. The simple three mirror device you see at the beginning of the video will top out at around 85C, with that heat trap setup, Fusion. If you want the temperature to get up to boiling, the simplest design that will reliably do that would be the 'Copenhagen', designed by Sharon Clausson - plenty of DIY vids on YT that show you how to make one. When not in use, it's flat, so could be hung on a shed or garage wall. You would still need the heat trap arrangement you see in the video. I thought I knew about all the possible solar cooker applications, but heating up food for detritivores is another to add to my list.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight Oh cool, I see you did other videos, I subscribed and going to watch them also.
Thanks, Fusion. More to come this summer when I get my finger out.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight hahahahaha.
I heard leaving comments helps videos reach more audiences, so it's my way to trying to contribute something back to show my appreciation.
Thanks.
I like it your mind proud of you
Thank you, Narayan.
Where to buy those big glass containers that can fit the pot?
Hi Alan, the large glass bowl is from a junked 'halogen cooker' (Google that to see an example). They were quite popular about twenty years ago, so there are now many at the end of their useful lives, and you could probably get one that is being thrown away if you look around. I'm not sure where you live, but if you are in the UK, you might try looking on FB Marketplace, or Ebay, or if you are in the US, Craig's list. If you can't find one, the bowls are usually still available, new, on Amazon, where they are sold as replacements. There are two sizes, 12 litre, like this one, and a smaller 7 litre model. The glass top was bought new - it's a standard borosilicate glass lid that some people use on frying pans or large pans. This combination makes a nice big heat trap, as described in the video.
Thank you 👍
You are welcome
Can the black target (pot) be black on the inside but not on the outside?
Hi NN, it's best (i.e. it heats up most quickly) if the outside of the pot is black. The inside is more complicated. If you have a glass lid for the pot, then, if the inside of the pot is black, it can help it to heat quicker because some sunlight enters the pot through the glass lid and heats the inside surface of the pot. But if the pot is full, then this doesn't happen. So, the best type of pot to use is one that has a matt black outer surface and a glass lid. The inside surface is usually less important.
Where are the heat traps available please?
Hi David. The heat trap dish you see me tap in the video is a 12 litre bowl from a halogen cooker. If you Google halogen cooker you will see the type of cooker I mean. It has an electric heating element in the lid. Many of these are now coming to the ends of their useful lives, and are just junked. You can buy a new replacement bowl for them (search on Amazon) for £18-£25 delivered. But if you search on Marketplace, or Trash Nothing or Freecycle or Gumtree you will often find them for free, or for very little money, though then you will have to go and pick them up. The lids - of borosilicate / pyrex glass are available new from Amazon for around £15. You can see another video of mine about heat traps if you search on YT. Good luck in your search.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight My very grateful thanks - I see there is a 17 litre option also …
@@davideddy2672 The 17 litre version you see advertised is achieved by adding a stainless steel extension ring to the 12 litre glass version already discussed, so that is not an option for a 17 litre heat trap (as light won't get through the steel). But there IS a smaller, 7 litre version of the halogen cooker. They are not so common, but they do come up now and then.
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight - I happened to watch a RUclips of you making bread in the midst of a Cornish winter last night, impressive stuff! I’m based in North Cornwall 😊 Ironically, I also appreciate the scythe as the weapon of choice 😁 👍
I'm out to prove that solar cooking is possible this far above the equator, David. I find that most people in the UK have not even heard of solar cookers. Even if they have, they usually believe that they will only work in 'hot countries'. Of course, you will need a high tech evacuated tube to stand a chance in the winter, but in the summer, you can cook with a panel cooker. Lots more videos coming up next year when we get a bit more sun If you are interested in solar cooking and you do Facebook, you could consider joining the Solar Cooking UK FB Group - all the information you can eat.
Sir witch one good. ?
Hi Malik, They all work, some fast, some slow.
I depends on what you want to cook.
Here is a good video that will introduce you to each type of solar cooker. ruclips.net/video/UsFrXjMA01M/видео.html&ab_channel=RogerHaines If you have more questions, please ask.
🤝🙏
Thanks, Lion.
love that shirt ... is it for sale ?
Hi Anger, Sorry, it's a one-off, made by my partner from material brought back from Nigeria by a friend. At our first public festival solar cooking demonstration, the co-founder of SLiCK suggested we should stand out to attract more interest. He was wearing a bright orange shirt - and so began the competition to wear the loudest shirt. It's now become a sort of trade mark because I have worn it for every solar cooking video I've made. Definitely can't part with it now. I'm quite ancient, so ... maybe a legacy?
Geniale semplicemente
Grazie, MrCrasch.
Hello
Hello
Dub in hindi
नमस्ते, वंदना। मेरी वीडियो देखने के लिए धन्यवाद। आप यहां जाकर हिंदी उप-शीर्षक प्राप्त कर सकते हैं: सेटिंग्स / उपशीर्षक / ऑटो-अनुवाद / हिंदी
namaste, vandana. meree veediyo dekhane ke lie dhanyavaad. aap yahaan jaakar hindee up-sheershak praapt kar sakate hain: setings / upasheershak / oto-anuvaad / hindee
@@DaveOxfordCookingWithStarlight nice one :)
Good👏
Thanks, agarjaverbar
👍👍👍