Building a Solar Cooker

Building a Solar Cooker is easily accomplished With the right resources... we would like to help you find the best ones for your ideal cooker.

There are many sites available on the internet that offer plans for building a solar cooker.

Some plans are quite simple and others are a bit more complex in design and more involved in their use. Check out our YouTube video below and see how to construct a solar cooker.

Parabolic plans, site links

Box cooker plans, site links

Panel Cooker plans, site links

Fresnel Lens

See what others have built and how they did it.

Do not let the simplicity and the rustic looking nature of a homemade solar oven fool you though, just because they are made from ordinary, common, everyday materials does not mean that they can not cook. Most well built homemade solar cookers can cook about anything you can imagine.

Several books have been written on solar cooking that include plans and information for building a solar cooker from these common everyday items.

Due to the scope and complexity of accumulating and illustrating the large numbers of styles and varieties available, we offer a good source for solar oven plans.

One of the easiest and least expensive ways to build a simple solar cooker can be found here on this page, showing how to make an effective solar "panel" cooker for less than $5.00 

Another very informative site for home made solar oven plans is found on The Solar Cooking Archive at Solarcooking.org which also sponsors a Wiki about solar cooking.

All of the plans on the above mentioned site are designed and built by individuals and organizations, some are proprietary and require permission to use, sell or distribute but the great majority can be constructed and used by anyone, this being the purpose behind the display and dissemination of home made solar ovens and solar cooker plans on this site.

All of the plans are very functional and can be used to attain great results for most any cooking need. These plans offer a great opportunity to also teach students, scouts and other groups the principles behind solar energy and its uses for practical application in the art of solar cooking.

Another Site with Solar Cooker Plans

Getting your Solar Cooker Panels right the first time...

Parabolic Solar Cooker:

Robinson Square Parabolic Solar Cooker

This is a great homemade solar parabolic cooker designed and made by James Robinson of Texas. This parabolic cooker rivals any of the top manufactured parabolics in efficiency and effectiveness. Click here For more detailed information on the Robinson Solar Parabolic Cooker

Another site for the handy person, especially those who like to build things with their hands and use blueprints and plans to create a solar cooker work of art.This is an excellent and attractive design for a parabolic  cooker.

http://www.earthboundtech.com

Here is great site: (SOLAR FIRE) about a loosely grouped organization of people who are helping to bring larger scale solar cookers to communities around the world, including in the USA. Here you can find information and see the results of many who are working to bring solar cooking to the masses. Solar Fire Project

This site shows how this group used a simple, yet effective solar parabolic design using a cardboard box and reflective material for making a parabolic cooker based on the Hallacy Design from Dan Hallacy's book, Cooking With the Sun.

SolReka, based in Great Britain, also has a very handy and precise template for building your own parabolic solar cooker.

The template allows for unlimited construction of your own parabolic cookers. You provide your own readily available materials such as cardboard, foam board, chloroplast, reflective material etc. 

Here is a pretty ingenious method for making your own solar parabolic trough cooker, not too difficult and the materials are easily found in any home improvement store. (Narrated by the designers little boy) 

Box Solar Oven

For those who are pretty handy with tools and plans and really like to make something that will last, you can get great information on home made solar cookers on a favorite site of mine. You will find quite detailed instruction on how to build a solar oven with materials that are readily available at the local home improvement store. This gentleman has been involved in solar cooking for quite some time, so he speaks from experience. 

http://www.williamgbecker.com/MakeSolarOven.html

Likewise for this gentleman, David Omick, who has designed and built a very nice and very effective solar box cooker...very well made. 

http://www.omick.net/solar_ovens/current_solar_oven.htm

And one more that was developed with many trials and effort; and has become a popular solar oven design used by enthusiasts everywhere The Heavens Flame 

And for those looking for a simple box cooker, especially for a solar oven project for kids to be used in a science fair, you can visit our web page to learn how to build a Pizza Box Solar Oven

Here is a site that will help you build a very effective and very versatile solar box cooker, in fact it is one of the best cookers you can make for a very reasonable cost in materials. This is the All Season Solar Cooker, from Jim LaJoie of San Diego.

Getting your Solar Cooker Panels right the first time...

This design is by Solar Cookers International and is called "The Minimum", a very simple and inexpensive solar box cooker.

Solar Panel Cooker:

The panel cooker is quite possibly the simplest to make, and the most economical of the three types of solar cookers, yet it can be just as effective at cooking as the other two previously mentioned cookers.

Because of the ease and simplicity involved in its construction, there are an abundance of solar cooker designs and solar cooker plans available for the panel cooker all over the internet.

Another of my favorite sites is the Sunny Cooker which has a number of well designed and well built solar panel cookers. Sunny Cooker 

This is a tried and true solar cooking design: the Parvati Cooker, designed, built and described by a solar cook from India, Ravindra Pardeshi and his wife, (who, by the way, writes very good English)

I like the design and the simple materials needed to build this cooker. Parvati Cooker

Here is a video form one of our customers that shows how he built this cooker...

Here is a nice and very effective solar panel cooker that comes in a ready made kit form that you just have to assemble and start using right away. You can purchase the ready made kit for a very nominal cost. 

Copehhagen Solar Cooker Light

The very popular and well known COOKIT, from Solar Cookers International has been modified and improved by Teong H. Tan, the creator of several effective and unique solar cooker designs in the solar cooking community. Teong Tan Modified COOKIT solar panel cooker

The Haines 2.0 Solar Cooker

Here is a variation on a couple of styles of solar cookers.

You have a mix of panel along with parabolic trough style cookers combined for a very effective solar cooking mechanism.

You can read more about the Haines 2.0 Solar Cooker on the solar cooking wiki

Fresnel Lens Cooker:

For those who would like to purchase a Fresnel Lens to make your own "concentrator cooker" you can contact dealer Paul Lennon for details, cost and shipping information on his product. Fresnel Lens order info.

Homemade Fresnel Lens Solar Cooker-Bruce Joseph, Tucson AZ

For those who are also interested in a high quality manufactured solar cooker, please visit our Solar Ovens Comparison page to find out what is offered on the solar cooking market. 

Panel Cookers in Mexico

Parabolic Cookers in Southeast Asia

Solar box cookers in Peruvian village

Return from Building a Solar Cooker back to Home page 

Go to: 
** Homemade Solar Ovens: Best Materials and Supplies 

Adhesive backed Silver Reflective Vinyl 

Solar Cooking Pots, Pans and accessories

Build a Simple Solar "Panel" Cooker for less than $5.00

Pizza Box Solar Oven...build your own

Solar cooker varieties and styles 

Solar cookers: Pros and Cons of Each Style 

Solar Cooking Recipes 

"Hot Pot" Solar Cooker Experiences 

Emergency Food Preparedness with a Solar Cooker 

Hay Box Cookers