by Michael Riley

Created on: January 31, 2009

93 million miles from Earth sits an oven set at 9900 degrees Fahrenheit emitting rays that are strong enough to cook food anywhere on the planet.

Solar energy is readily abundant and for many people it could be the perfect solution for providing a healthy, cooked meal for their families. Solar cookers are relatively simple to construct and just as easy to use.

Solar cooking provides significant improvements in the quality of life for those people that struggle each day to provide for their families' health.

- There is no need to gather fuel for cooking fires, allowing more time for other activities and limiting exposure to dangers that may arise when leaving the village to forage for wood and dung.

- The moderate temperatures reached conserves nutrients in the food that is cooked.

- More food is available since it does not have to be traded for cooking fuel.

- There is no smoke to irritate eyes and lungs.

- More nutritious foods that take a long time to cook are not normally cooked due to fuel consumption; not an issue with a solar cooker

The instructions provided here are for a box-type solar cooker. It consists of two cardboard boxes assembled such that the smaller box sits inside the larger box.

Both boxes are lined with aluminum foil to reflect the sun's rays. The space between the two boxes is lined with insulating material to help retain the heat. Like the walls of a house.

The bottom of the inner box is painted black to absorb the rays and transmit the heat energy to the cooking pot within the box.

The top of the box is covered with a lid consisting of a clear oven bag to allow the rays to enter the box. A reflector is attached to the lid and propped up to help reflect more rays into the box.

Materials:

- One square cardboard box large enough to fit your biggest cooking pot (Inner box)

- One square cardboard box at least 1/2 inch bigger than the first (Outer box)

- One piece of cardboard that will cover the top of the bigger box (Lid)

- Roll of aluminum foil

- Clear oven cooking bag

- Glue

- Insulating material (crumpled newspaper, fiberglass batting, feathers, etc.)

- Flat black paint

- Duct tape

Instructions:

- Close the flaps on the larger cardboard box and place the smaller box on top of the closed flaps.

- Trace around the perimeter of the smaller box making an outline on the larger box flaps.

- Remove the smaller box and cut the box flaps on the larger box along the traced line. This is the hole that the smaller box will sit in.

- Line the interior of the large box, including

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