Build your own solar cooker

Amid a record-breaking heat wave, I’m making tonight’s dinner in my solar cooker.

It saves energy (LADWP is sending out energy conservation warning emails).  And it avoids heating up my kitchen.

We made these easy solar cookers years back as an Environmental Change-Makers group project.  

The great thing about this model is it’s

• easy to make
• cheap to make
• folds flat for storage

It’s made from a mylar automobile windowshade and some scrap cardboard.

Free DIY instructions to make this model (pdf) Build Your Own Solar Cooker

All you need in equipment is a measuring tape, a mat knife, and a turkey oven bag (the high-heat kind people get at Thanksgiving to put a turkey in), and some sort of black pot.

Obligatory cute kid photo from years back (she’s taller than me now):