Sun Min Yeo

Eva Williams
Iris Benitez
Daniela Vlasak
Due: 12/14/2015

Solar Cooker Oven Paper

Our purpose was to create a solar cooker in its most effective and dynamic on order for
people living near the mountains of Ecuador to cook their food as needed. In order to create the
Solar Cooker Oven, we used a medium box. We cutted the center part of a cartoon flap lid, and
covered it with a thick plastic sheet. We placed several layer of aluminium foil before hot gluing
organic wool onto the box and added more layers of aluminum foil on top of that. We taped
styrofoam onto the outer sides of the box, and once again we covered it all with layers of
aluminum foil. Lastly, we taped four pieces of cardboard, painted with black paint in one side
and aluminium foil in the other, to work as reflectors. After creating the solar cooker itself, we
collected pieces of data from different times of the day, regarding the temperature of the interior
of the solar cooker. As you have seen before in the graphs, the temperature at 11:00 AM was
35C. At 12:00 PM, it rose to 40. Later, at 12:30 PM it rose to 55 C, the highest temperature
our solar cooker reached during the exposure to direct sunlight. At 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM, the
temperatures stayed the same, at 40. Finally, at 3:00 PM the temperature dropped to 38. As
you have seen already, the highest point of the interior temperature of the cooker was at half
past noon, at 55. Although our solar cooker didnt fully cook any food, it still heated up at least
3C from the outside temperature, which was 35. In conclusion tweaks and changes would
have to be made in order to radically increase temperature levels and be able to cook food/boil
water in a sustainable way.
The struggle that is being faced is the massive loss of electricity in a rural community
near Cotopaxi, this happened due to the eruption of the once dormant Cotopaxi volcano.
Unfortunately the Ecuadorian government in last few years made most individuals change from
gas to electric stoves, and these people are now not able to cook their daily meals.
People who cook over fires with fuel or animal feces, solar cookers are are more efficient
and cheap solution to heat up their everyday food and purify water that otherwise would be
harmful to them. Due to the fact that they use no fuel or emit harmful gasses it is much more

convenient and safe for the users and the environment. Cooking by the means of the sun has
been used since primitive times, but the first known solar cooker box was first built in 1767 by
Horace de Saussure.
Our goal is to design the most efficient and proactive solar cooker, that can be easily
built with materials that are found at home, this is a requirement due to the circumstance the
people close to the volcano would find themselves in. While doing this we shall find a way to
overcome some of the factors that might influence the efficiency of the product, factors like
climate.
After researching and analysing different options we found best and most optimal
solution to this problem that we are facing would be to use solar cookers, more specifically
carton and aluminium based solar cookers due to the cheap materials and how accessible they
are to people of low income.
The process we followed in order to achieve our goal of making a solar cooker is the
following. First we identified the problem. Then, we started researching about the problem. After
we listed possible solutions to our problem, we selected the best solution for the group. Finally,
we made prototypes for the best solutions. The first thing we did was to look for a medium
carton box. After getting the box we painted the outside of it with black paint. Then, we made a
lid with a flap on each side. We cut out the center part of our lid in order to be able to glue a
thick plastic sheet to cover the hole. We placed several layers of aluminum foil on the inside of
our box. Then, we hot glued organic wool onto the box and placed more layers of aluminum foil
on top of that. We taped styrofoam onto the outer sides of the box and taped some more
aluminum foil on top of that. Later, we cut out four pieces of cardboard the size of the outer
sides of the box. After painting one side with black acrylic paint, we super glued aluminum foil
onto the other side. Finally, we taped the cardboard pieces to stay around our solar oven and
reflect the suns light into the box. Lastly we placed inside the cooker a few different types of
food like: brownie mix, eggs, and marshmallows. We left the items for some time inside the
cooker and recorded their state and the temperature inside the cooker every few hours.
On the table below you can see the temperature inside the cooker at different time of the
day, it is important to keep in mind that the temperature outside never rose above 35 degrees.

Time

Temperature (C)

11:00

35

12:00

40

12:30

55

13:00

40

14:00

40

15:00

38

As you can see there is a slight pattern between the hour of the day and the temperature
inside the cooker. The hottest the cooker got was at twelve, which makes sense as this is one of
the hottest hours of the day, mostly because of the positioning of the sun. Before that and
afterwards the temperature is a lot lower a whole ten degrees lower. Even though the
temperature that were reached inside the cooker where nowhere the temperature needed to
cook food like eggs, or brownie mix, we know this because of the slight change in state of the
items we placed inside the cooker throughout the day. Even though we technically did not cook
anything, heat was contained inside the cooker, as there always was at least a five degrees of
difference between the outside and the cooker.

Our main purpose which was to create a solar cooker in its most effective and dynamic
on order for people living near the mountains of Ecuador to cook their food as needed. The
problem was finding a way to make it work while also taking into consideration different factors
such as climate and cost. We made sure to use easy, common household materials to build our
solar cooker. The results in the end were somewhat successful seeing as the egg, brownies,
and marshmallows did not cook completely, but did change form a bit. Heat was able to remain
contained inside the cooker and as we can see in our data chart the highest temperature
recorded was that of 55 degrees C at 12:30 pm. This is due to the sun being at its highest point
at around that exact time. In conclusion tweaks and changes would have to be made in order to
radically increase temperature levels and be able to cook food/boil water in a sustainable way.