The Almost Perfect Solar Cooker

The concept for the "Perfect Solar Oven".

As some of you know, solar cooking has been a project of mine since I was a young inventor. I started out by making the type of cookers that you can find plans for all over the internet now. You know the ones, insulated boxes with glass on top. I couldn't heat anything in them. I have a lot of disdain for those things, and it is with great effort that I don't use words that really express my feelings for them and those who claim to use them. It was because of the cookers and the people, that I almost stopped experimenting completely. I even tried the parabolic idea. What a joke.

A "Cooking Jar" heating 1/2 gallon of water.

I did stop for a long time, but then I was thinking about it and it hit me; the reason they don't work is because they can't work for anything more than experimental curiosities. They can heat the air inside, but they can't do much more than that. I have never even been able to heat water beyond warm. Until now, that is. I designed my own cookers and these things COOK! My original idea was that of the "perfect cooker" that I have the cg pic of here. I actually built a version of it, but it doesn't work very well. I also made my "Cooking Jar". These actually work like I expected the perfect cooker to work. I made what I call a hoodie for it and it works really good now.

So how well do the cooking jars work? Without the hoodie, I can heat water in a clear quart jar to about 150 degrees (all of my measurements are in Fahrenheit) in a couple hours. A quart in the black jars to about 176 degrees. With the hoodie I got a black quart jar of water to 184 degrees. I'm still testing with the half gallon black jar, but that has gotten to about 130 degrees. I was able to heat a pint of beans to about 150 degrees in a clear quart jar. I haven't tested with the hoodie yet.

"Cooking Jar" heating 1/2 gallon of water.

I'm still experimenting, but things are looking promising. I hope to try the beans again tomorrow. I have taken pictures of the perfect cooker and the hoodie, but I haven't gotten them out of the camera yet. I'll post them with an update as soon as I get to it. Hopefully in the next couple days.